Leading the way in sustainable office design

One Exchange Square

Hong Kong, China

Our client, a leading financial asset management firm, had a vision for its new Hong Kong office to be an exemplar of a sustainable, comfortable and employee wellbeing-focused workplace.

We were engaged to work alongside fit-out architect Gensler and project manager Turner and Townsend to deliver a range of design insights and solutions around building services engineering (MEP) and sustainability.

We worked closely with fit-out architect Gensler to create an office space that would be an exemplar of sustainable and employee wellbeing-focused design for Hong Kong.

The client’s 13,500ft² new office is on the 36th floor of the 1980s-built One Exchange Square building, in the heart of Hong Kong’s financial district.

We achieved BEAM Plus Platinum certification – a Hong Kong-based certification system, administered by the BEAM Society on the island.

Reliable, 24-hour cooling had to be delivered to the server room in the most carbon and cost-efficient possible way.

Challenge

The client’s 13,500ft² new office is on the 36^th floor of the One Exchange Square building, in the heart of Hong Kong’s financial district, beside the Hong Kong Stock Exchange. But the building itself dates to the 1980s, and the client would require a significant fit-out to bring the space up to the required standards.

As well as creating a modern, comfortable and efficient workspace, the client’s target was for the new space to achieve BEAM Plus Platinum certification – a Hong Kong-based certification system, administered by the BEAM Society on the island, which encompasses both sustainability and occupant wellbeing considerations.

The project was delivered through a period of tight Covid-19 pandemic restrictions on Hong Kong island, meaning all collaboration had to be carried out via online video calls, while our teams also had to give careful consideration to the impact on global supply chains as a result of the pandemic – ensuring all elements of the systems and services infrastructure chosen for the design were not being unduly impacted, in order to ensure the project would be delivered on time without significant programme delays. 

Solution

Our MEP experts worked closely with the Gensler design team to ensure all aspects of sustainability and occupant wellbeing were factored into every element of the services strategy for the new office. We worked closely with sub-consultants AEC for acoustics and Lights Realization for lighting.

The age of One Exchange Square itself – dating back more than half a century – meant some of the building design and services information was missing from its own archive and had to be carefully sought out from public records to help inform the integration of the new interior design scheme.

The client’s vision was for a clean and neat aesthetic and it was essential that any services were fully integrated within ceiling voids and would not impact upon the clean lines of the new fit out. This was particularly challenging as the building does not have services voids below the floors. Our experts also liaised regularly with the wider design team to ensure the client’s Hong Kong office would aesthetically be in line with its other offices around the world.

Careful consideration around every element had to be made in order to ensure the project would meet the stringent BEAM Plus Platinum rating that was being targeted – this ranged from ensuring aspects such as the cooling plant performed at the highest efficiencies, through to ensuring that systems, plant and infrastructure was all being sourced as locally as possible, and wasn’t bringing with it a large carbon footprint in terms of its manufacturing journey.

One of the key focuses was on ensuring the highest efficiencies and reliability for the cooling of the server room in order to build the greatest possible resiliency into the client’s ICT systems. Reliable, 24-hour cooling had to be delivered to this space in the most carbon and cost-efficient way possible. We also worked with Gensler to integrate some smart elements into the office design, including smart electric blinds. Connected to light sensors, these blinds automatically close to react to the movement of the sun. As the sunlight hits the office windows, the blinds are automatically lowered to counteract the impact of the solar gain on internal temperatures and therefore can help to lower the operational carbon and cost of mechanical cooling, as well as ensuring the thermal comfort of occupants.

Value

Our building services and sustainability teams achieved the highest grade of BEAM Plus certification for the project, with a platinum rating – making the scheme an exemplar office space for the Hong Kong market both in terms of green building sustainability, but also in terms of occupant comfort and employee wellbeing.