Construction World December 2021

BUILDING CONTRACTORS

PROJECT INFORMATION

• Company entering: GVK-Siya Zama Building Contractors

THE RIDGE – V&A WATERFRONT T he Ridge is situated opposite Merchant House, the University of Cape Town’s Graduate School of Business, and the well-known One & Only Hotel, in Cape Town’s V&A precinct. It consists of four stories, all finished to high end specifications, as well as a 3-level basement parking facil ity, which in total , covers some 8 500 m 2 . Cape Town’s newest 6-star Green Star Design awarded commercial building, the Ridge in the V&A Waterfront, has opened and the Cape Town office of its tenant, Deloitte South Africa, is trading from inside its unique spaces. The Ridge deploys some of the most advanced sustainable building technology available globally, as well as original blue-sky thinking. It was born from the V&A Waterfront’s vision to set new standards for the future of commercial office buildings. The Ridge features a number of ‘firsts’ for the green building /sustainabil ity industry in South Africa. These included energy-efficient and passive cl imate control measures, the use of renewables, sustainable water handl ing and usage, the lowering of the carbon footprint of the building and a focus on the use of natural l ighting. Green star compl iance across a large spectrum of design and as-built information enabled the cl ient to increase the tender spec from level 4 to level 6 resulting in a 6 star GBCSA grading achieved. GVK-Siya Zama was responsible for these as-build credits to contribute to the final score and grading. An estimated 12 000 ‘eco-bricks’, which consisted of plastic waste-filled PET bottles, were compacted to the Engineer's specification and used as void forming materials for non-load bearing concrete elements. Further environmentally friendly elements included rainwater harvesting and greywater treatment facil ities located in the basement of the building. Harvested water is treated to near potable standards and used to irrigate the gardens and to flush the toilets. PV panels optimally placed on the roof of the building harvests solar photovoltaic power. The overall building plans made provision for a 750 kVA power requirement

• Project start date: 16 April 2019 • Project end date: 3 November 2020 • Client: V&A Waterfront Holdings • Main Contractor: GVK-Siya Zama Building Contractors • Architect: StudioMas • Principal Agent: Mace Management Services • Quantity Surveyors: Smith & Co Quantity Surveyors • Consulting Engineer: Arup

and the PV power to be grid-tied, but with no feed back into the grid. The building is expected to generate around 25% of its own energy requirements. Heating and cool ing of the building are provided through a combination of mechanical air conditioning equipment, passive cool ing technologies and natural ventilation. This plant is distributed on the roof slab as well as in plant rooms on the four floors of the building. The building is designed to minimise its energy consumption through integrated design principles, layering of the mechanical systems within the façade and the structural solutions of the building. The façades were designed to enable a naturally ventilated building for most months of the year util ising manual and automated openings in the perimeter façade and through the opening of high level vents in the street atrium space. These complex systems are monitored and managed by an integrated BMS system. The building also contains a Thermal Activated Building System (TABS) installation. The concrete slabs of the office floors (1 st , 2 nd , 3 rd and roof slabs) have a network of embedded pipes cast into the slabs. This system del ivers a cool ing capacity and temperature differential between the indoor conditions and the TABS. This is an alternative method to del iver the cool ing to the spaces as a radiator and more efficient to move cool ing water than cool ing air in the spaces. All rainwater from balconies and roofs are directed to a rainwater tank in the basement. Overflow from this tank is diverted at ground level to discharge directly into the municipal stormwater network at the nearest manhole outside the site boundary, below Dock Road. 

38 20 th Best Project Awards 2021