Sustainability Aspects of the Monier Tower Project Structure

SUSTAINABILITY ASPECTS
SUSTAINABILITY ASPECTS OF THE MONIER TOWER PROJECT STRUCTURE AND
THE MITIGATING MEASURES TAKEN IN SPECIFICATION OF THE STRUCTURE
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SUSTAINABILITY ASPECTS
INTRODUCTION
Sustainability refers to the assessment of the potential impacts, be it positive or negative, that a
project or any activity may have on either economic, environmental or social issues.
Sustainability always lies in the heart of building and construction design and that is what our
project aims at. A suitable approach of building structure provides a long- lasting environmental
or social or economic advantages to any construction project. With that same idea, we achieved a
highly valuable structure thus reducing the Impacts of our building structure on its environmental
surrounding.
In the construction structure of the tower to achieve sustainability and success of our project, we
made sure that we adopted appropriate economic, environmental, social and technical practices
and had to formulate policies and embrace practices that would lead to management of these
same issues responsibly. We also made sure that we were meeting the basic needs of all people
and that we would extend opportunities for development both socially and economically.
In this statement we elaborate on the initiatives we have taken in the specification of the tower
structure in accordance to the sustainability aspects in building and construction. In our structure,
the sustainability aspects that we focused on were;
 Energy Consumption and efficiency
 Material efficiency
 Fire
 Resilience
 Landscape design
1. Energy Consumption and Efficiency
Energy is referred to as the context of generation of mainly heat, power equipment; that
is the total energy that is consumed by the end users. (final energy consumption)
We are a firm believer in the responsible consumption of energy through optimal
efficiency in our structure.
As it can be seen in our project, energy in the tower is mainly generated from solar
panels which is a more efficient lighting.
The idea was to simply cover the roof with a solar panel array so as to reduce the power
needed from the national grid and offset annual operational carbon emissions.
With this done we not only allow the residents and users of the retail space to have a
reduction on their operational costs and capital, but also, we help them lower their fuel
consumption hence reducing the emission of greenhouse gases and finally we help
reduce the climate change.
We also did a carbon budgeting with energy efficiency as our main focus. Embodied
carbon is really addressed by several green building certification schemes. Calculation

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of a carbon budget over time and the method used for budget allocation helps one gain
the experience with the purpose of emissions reduction.
Adopting this would definitely deliver a very ground breaking initiative for reduction of
global emissions.
2. Landscape Design
Our landscape design includes a basement car park which can be accessed via a ramp, a
space for retailing on the ground level, two lifts, two escalators and one stair core which
are located in suitable positions within the available building space.
There is also a staircase and two lifts which are used to access the basement via the
residential area. There are also penthouses which have a communal lift and a staircase
between floors within the penthouses.
It also aims at providing a space for gardening which will help in improving
environmental quality and so on.
This also makes the place very unique. A well designed and well-maintained landscape
also is an attraction to people and always has a positive impact on the property value and
the general wellbeing of a person.
3. Material Efficiency
Resource efficiency which refers to achieving more with less was our main goal here.
This is one of the sustainability aspects demonstrated in the structure of the basement
car park. The basement car park is designed to accommodate 30 cars and 60 bicycles.
The amount of space used to meet the design requirement is very little. The design
ensured that enough space had been designed for ease in parking and the mobility of the
users. Since it is an open space, the structure of the car park did not require a huge
amount of materials and labour hence saving on the cost and materials used leading to
an efficient use of the resources we had. This was all achieved through efficient
planning which lead to the minimization of waste of spaces, minimizing of the
construction expenses, minimizing even the building’s maintenance expenses hence
leading to the protection and improvement of natural values. In addition, the project
aims at providing a long-term management structure for their residents in their design of
the car park since it provides an ample parking space which leads to client satisfaction
(maximization of human comfort) hence aiming at economic sustainability.

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4. Fire
In the incident of a fire, pollution may occur leading to a negative effect on the environment.
To minimize pollution emissions and incidents and breaches of any environmental requirements,
and also to improve the safety and well-being of residents and users of the retails space we
observed some measures.
A fire exit door is provided for the safety of users in the car park. There is also a fire fighting lift
in the residential levels which can be used to access the basement.
5. Resilience
Resilience is defined as the capacity or ability to recover quickly from difficulties. As stated
earlier in our project our building is to be constructed in a waterside redevelopment area.
In our structure, to improve the resilience of our tower, we used both vertical and horizontal tiles
which are a very durable material.
The vertical tiles helped in strengthening our building because when used each column or wall
would be able to support the column or wall from any one storey (above or below). They also
enabled load sharing between floors above.
We also used horizontal tiles throughout all floors and on the roof level and were designed such
that they were continuous around the perimeter of the building. We ensured that the tiles were
adequately anchored and that inclined columns were countered with additional reinforcements at
the base.

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6. Flexibility and adaptability
A flexible building is referred to as one that has been designed to enable easy rearrangement of its
internal layout to be able to suit changes in the needs of its user.
An adaptable building is one which would support multiple functions without altering its general
structure or one which is able to change with little penalty, time, cost or performance.
A building design that adopts a technology that enables flexibility and adaptability leads to a wide range
of benefits. This is because both are key considerations in the requirements for the future upgrade and
maintenance of any building throughout its existence and enabling any internal changes in the event of
changing its internal environments such as in our case the retail area or even for offices.
The need for change to a building often increases with increase in consumer expectations.
As stated in our project, the tower is to be built in the waterside redevelopment area of a regional city
centre hence in case of any expansion changes that wouldn’t be a problem.
Also, sustainability is also shown in the design of the basement car park in our project, it is an open
space thus changes or rearrangement can be made any time in the future.

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