© Zaha Hadid Architects / MIR
Designs have been released for Bee’ah’s new headquarters in Sharjah. The Middle Eastern environmental and waste management company commissioned Zaha Hadid Architects (ZHA), following an invited competition, to design a facility that reflects their goal to operate entirely from renewable energy sources and move towards zero waste, as well as increase their educational outreach.
ZHA’s design builds from its desert context, acting as two energy efficient “dunes” that intersect to form a central “oasis.”
Designed in response to its natural environment to provide comfort for visitors and staff alongside minimizing energy and resource consumption, the formal composition of the new Bee’ah Headquarters building has been informed by its desert context as a series of intersecting dunes orientated to optimize the prevailing Shamal winds, and designed to provide its interiors with high quality daylight and views whilst limiting the quantity of glazing exposed to the harsh sun.
The 7,000-square-meter Bee’ah Headquarters is located on a 90,000-square-meter site adjacent to the Bee’ah Waste Management Centre. The large site enabled the development of the design as an array of dunes within its desert landscape leading to the two central dunes of the Headquarters building.
The two primary dunes of the Bee’ah Headquarters house the public and management section (entrance lobby, auditorium, visitors’ education centre and gallery, and management offices) and the administrative section (departmental offices and staff café). The two dunes intersect and connect via a central courtyard that forms an ‘oasis’ inside the building – enhancing the natural ventilation and maximizing indirect sunlight to the public and administrative spaces within.
The building systems of the new Headquarters have been developed in conjunction with Atelier Ten to minimize both the energy required for cooling and the need for potable water consumption. In milder months, the façade is operable to allow natural ventilation – minimizing the need to provide cooling to the building. When conditioning is required, it will be optimized for energy conservation via the use of ventilation energy recovery – allowing fresh air into the spaces with reduced energy impact, and the waste heat that would normally be rejected from the chillers into the atmosphere is to be harvested to provide free pre-heating of the domestic hot water supplies.
The exterior finishes of the building have been selected to reflect the sun’s rays and help to further reduce energy consumption by providing a local heat profile that is akin to the natural desert environment (rather than the high heat profiles associated with conventional roofing systems).
These active and passive energy approaches are calculated to reduce energy consumption by 30%. All power required for the building will be generated via low and zero carbon sources, principally from the adjacent Bee’ah Waste Management Centre’s conversion of municipal waste (that would otherwise decay in landfill) into energy, together with large arrays of photovoltaic cells incorporated within the site’s landscaping.
The building’s structure has been developed in conjunction with Buro Happold to minimize material consumption through architectural and structural integration. Individual elements of the building’s structure and skin [...]
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