ETL BPO Park at Perungudi, Chennai

Gold Rated Green Building - SEZ

Project at a glance:
Project:	Chennai ONE-ETL BPO Park
Location:	Chennai - Perungudi
Built-up Area:	1.3 million sq-ft.
Client:	ETL Infrastructure
Design Team:	Oscar & Ponni Architects

Concept:

Designed by Chennai-based Oscar & Ponni Architects, Chennai ONE is amongst the largest Gold Rated Green buildings in the world today, offering a floor plate efficiency of 84% thanks to the intelligent floor plate design which also offers a flexible module layout for customers.

With the client brief of designing a grand and cutting edge technology park which is both a user- and environment- friendly, Oscar & Ponni Architects conceived the building in relation to its site and environment where the exterior makes a contemporary and imposing statement with the use of large glazing, aluminum composite panel finish and granite façade, while the interiors offer flexible design that can easily be converted into smaller layouts as per client's requirements along with use of sustainable material choices and intelligent building management to enhance energy and water efficiency.

The ETL BPO Park is located in a Master Plan of site area of 25 acres. This building is linked to a main approach road, with a grand entrance to this prestigious IT development. As you enter the main gate, you have a visitor's area for security screening and barriers to screen incoming vehicles.

Function and Design Vocabulary

The building was initially planned to construct two stilt floors + 7 upper floors for a total built up area of 1.3 million sq-ft.

This ETL BPO Park has an imposing façade of almost 600 feet long. There are two stilts designed for parking the lower level of approximately 12,545 sq.mtrs, and the upper stilt floor of approximately 11,903 sq.mtrs. The first floor area is of 10,963 sq.mtrs. The typical floor area from second floor till the seventh floor is 11,761 sq.mtrs.

All these floors have excellent passenger core elevators with air handling units and electrical rooms with sufficient duct spaces for intelligent systems and fire systems. Dedicated service floors have been organized with increased number of toilets for the ladies and the gents as per the new code regulations for the IT.

Also, the entire floor plate has been designed for flexibility in such a way that it can cater to smaller IT modules of 1,250 sq.mtr with their dedicated toilets, AHU, electrical rooms and necessary shafts for plumbing, fire fighting and IBS systems.

Sustainability

The Building is oriented with its longer axis facing the N-S directions to admit glare free lighting and the E- W axis of the building is protected from the harsh sun by placing the services core. This also minimizes the loss of Air- Conditioning load used in the office modules by keeping the environment cool.

The North facing site enables the architects to place the maximum glazing along the north direction to optimize natural light. The glazing itself is low e-glass from Saint Gobain which does not let heat penetrate thereby minimizing the load on air-conditioning.

Use of native landscaping designs that require minimal water and have reduced irrigation requirements and implementation of green house keeping techniques that help reduce the impact of non-eco-friendly chemicals and solutions is adopted. Monitoring and control of CO2 levels within the occupied spaces contributing to enhanced indoor environment and utilization of high quantity of regionally manufactured materials (over 88%) thereby reducing the impact of environmental pollution through transportation.

Exemplary performance on construction waste management diverting close to 96% of the construction waste generated at site to other purposes and preventing disposal of waste in the form of landfills. Use of environment-friendly refrigerant is adopted which reduces ozone depletion and global warming impact on the built environment.

Materials and Detailing

To create an energy efficient building envelope, HV AC systems, electrical equipment and limited glass -usage were analyzed using simulation techniques. Also energy saving methods like over deck roof insulation, solid block walls, double glazing to reduce heat ingress, high co-efficient of performance (COP) air-conditioning chillers, variable speed pumping systems, heat recovery units to reduce AC loads, low lighting power densities, use of energy efficient lighting system were adopted.

Main Focus of IBMS is on Energy Conservation and Indoor Air Quality Control and Human Safety measures apart from integration of Water management System, Fire Protection Sprinkler Monitoring, Lift Status Monitoring; DG & HT panel monitoring, Integration of Third part equipment -Chillers, Central UPS, VFD, DG & Electrical Panels.