Advanced Technologies Center, Dąbrowskiego Street in Poznań- NOBEL TOWER

The cuboid contains of two levels of underground garage with a ramp that will also allow future communication to a second twin tower, which will be built in the next stage of investment. The ground floor has a reception area and a retail space. The first floor gives space to a restaurant and conference rooms, which are available for all users. The rest of 12 floors are designed for office and laboratory purposes. The building houses science and technology park that will support innovative companies, also by means of the so-called business incubator. On 1300-square-meter area there are modern offices and laboratory facilities for rent with meeting rooms planned for them. An educational space for children, with professional equipment used by scientists is intended to find its place within the building’s walls. Due to the specific requirements concerning  space for research, high durability ceiling slabs and an external technological shaft were planned.

The basic grid (510 x 135 cm) and lack of supportive elements inside the building allow full flexibility in creating functional space. Heating and cooling of the building will be provided by hidden in concrete slabs TABS system (Thermally Active Building Systems) which uses the mass of concrete as a heat and cold accumulator. In addition, decentralized ventilation system was designed to be placed within suspended floor system that appear only in a zone parallel to windows. The unique form of the ceiling slab, which is circumferentially lowered, created space for cooling and heating devices with direct air intake from outside as well as for electric installation. This allows the technical floor areas to be reduced to bare minimum and to remove empty spaces, that have an adverse effect due to the loss of cubic capacity of the building.

The system is presumed to transfer used air directly to communication areas, and then, by means of the vertical duct, into the central air handling unit with heat recovery. This minimizes required ventilation ducts within the structure of the building.

Designed office modules were equipped with minimal window area. Integrated with air conditioners, with dimensions of 218 x 120 cm, windows are divided into a fixed and a hinged part. They can be opened if required in order to provide user’s comfort. So as to avoid heat losses and solar insolation, external roller shutters were applied. They can be individually or centrally controlled.

The building in its northern part has an external open technical shaft with a staircase, an elevator or technical lift and an installation platform at each floor. It serves mainly for specialized laboratory installations, but can also be used during removals or renovations that otherwise would require the use of internal lifts.

BMS (Building Management System), integrated with all the electrical and mechanical systems in the building, is responsible for heating and cooling management. It controls centrally single hygienic air exchange, external window blinds, and monitors window opening, control of other installations, with particular emphasis on fire detection and access control.

All lighting fixtures in the building use led technology and the toilets are flushed with grey water. What’s more Nobel Tower is a friendly workplace that offer wide range of complementary functions, which enhances quality of the place, such as conference rooms, a canteen,  retail space on the ground floor.

Form. The idea for the façade was derived from the building’s connection to medical and laboratory business. The main motif was inspired by the image of muscle tissue. The graphic idea of the façade, based on the integration of the windows on  the two successive levels, shifted to each other by a module, allowed to arrange windows into a rhomboidal structure. Originally, “supplement” of window fields was designed as a glass-like architectural cladding in a system by STO. However, during the tender design, it was substituted with a special high-gloss lacquered colourless plaster, that gives similar impression. Both the fields and window blinds are in dark graphite colour. External grid is covered with a polyester coating with an imprinted formwork referring to white concrete.

Energetic and technological structure of the building. During the design phase special emphasis was added to minimizing the heat demand of the building and creating all the joints between the partitions as air tight as possible. The value of heat transfer coefficient U is: for exterior walls 0.19 W / m2K (required 0.3 W / m2K), for window frames 1,2 W / m2K (required 1.8 W / m2K) and for the flat roof of 0.16 W / m2K (required 0.25 W / m2K).

Complete tightness of connections between partitions and windows with frames was assumed in the beginning. Additionally, creating a special room for façade ventilation installation in the building’s construction system waas the author’s idea. This space, as already mentioned, was covered with technical floor, and represents about 14% of the office floor area. This solution allowed to improve the efficiency of heating and cooling slabs.

TABS – basic heating and cooling system. TABS was used as a basic heating and cooling system. It took the form of piping placed directly in the middle of the concrete slab in its statically neutral zone of the structure. Pipes were delivered by Rehau company. Thanks to the pipes, that are integrated in the slabs, heat or cold could be transferred onto the construction of the skyscraper, which will cause its heat activation. Accumulation of heat or cold in the slabs will, in return, make the temperature in the rooms, despite the impact of external factors (sunshine, lighting, people, computers), to be more stable. The task of heating and cooling ceilings (ie. the active ceiling) is to keep the base temperature in the room. This solution allows to reduce the operation time of additional air conditioning systems in in-between periods of the year and will in the future allow moving partition walls between the rooms, which is of great importance for changing functional needs of the investor. Particular values of heating/cooling efficiency for the thermally active slab are: floor – 35 W / m2 (heating),15 W / m2 (cooling); ceiling 56 W / m2 (heating) and 38 W / m2 (cooling).

Supplementary heating and cooling system. As a complementary decentralized system of heating, cooling and ventilation emcovent UZS system was used, provided by EMCO company (placed under the window opening) and emcotherm KQKL system (placed within the walls). UZS devices can work with the outside, mixed or only circulated air, i ncomparison to KQKL devices that can use only circulated air. Façade ventilation system takes the air in from the outside and delivers it to the office spaces. Then the air passes through the contact holes into the generally accessible areas, where it is discharged through the exhaust grills into the space of ventilation shafts. The usage of façade ventilation allowed to limit the number of ducts in the building, which had a significant impact on the easiness of cleaning of ventilation components, while their modular design allows fast disassembly, filter replacement and efficient service work.

For specialized and laboratory rooms, for which façade ventilation system would not be able to meet the specific requirements of hygiene and efficiency, a traditional duct system is added. Individual air-handling units, which serve these spaces, are located in the outside technological staircase intended for transportation of laboratory supplies. The units cooperate with exhaust ducts of dygestoria and other laboratory functions. Exhaust ducts form devices were placed in the internal shafts of the building and lead out onto the roof. As additional equipment for cold and heat demand supplementation, ceiling fan coils were used.

Heating, cooling and ventilation control system and CO2 detectors. Building automatics system was equipped with sensors that monitor both air temperature and heating/cooling slab temperature. Depending on the internal and external temperature, the system determines proper temperature of the floor. Any shortages of heating or cooling in individual rooms will be complemented by façade ventilation devices. These devices are equipped with a recycled air fan with an electromagnetic bearing which can be controlled with a 0-10V signal.  Depending on the required and existing room temperature and the temperature of the slab, they send a signal to UZS and KQKL devices  which will turn the fan on with appropriate speed.

Building automation system also analyzes the surface temperature of the ceiling, allowing more efficient control of indoor temperature and protection against overheating or excessive cooling. It also controls the external window shutters. The use of external shutters instead of internal blinds improves the air-tightness and thermal properties of exterior walls.

Ventilation in offices is carried out both with reference to the time of the last air exchange and to oxygen demand. All the offices are equipped with carbon dioxide sensors. During working hours ventilation turns on in rooms where its concentration rises above the permitted value. In a situation where in a given place the sensor does not detect an increase in a specified time, the ventilation will be launched even though. Also, after working hours, ventilation  will be initiated periodically in order to eliminate the accumulation of odours in the room.