Beijing, China

Sieeb Sino Italian

Ecological and Energy efficient Building

The Project

SIEEB building is the result of cooperation between the Ministry for Environment and Territory of the Republic of Italy and the Ministry of Science and Technology of the People’s Republic of China. It is a platform to develop bilateral long-term cooperation between the two countries in the fields of energy and the environment and is a showcase for the potential for reducing C02 emissions in the building sector in China.

This building has been realized on the Tsinghua University Campus in Beijing and has been designed by the architect Mario Cucinella and the Politecnico di Milano.

The SIEEB faculty building is located on the Tsinghua University Campus. It houses a Sino-ltalian education, training and research centre for environmental protection and energy conservation, offices and a 200 seat auditorium. It has a floor area of 20.000 m2 and is 40 meters high.

This project is the result of an integrated design process with collaboration between architects, consultants and researchers, a key issue in the design of green buildings.

Architectural Concept

The design philosophy combines sustainable design principles and state of the art technologies to create a building that responds to its climatic and architectural context. The design uses both active and passive strategies through the design of its shape and of its envelope SIEEB to control the external environment in order to optimise the internal environmental comfort conditions.

The building design has been assessed through a series of testing and computer simulations of its performance in relation to its possible shape, orientation, envelope, technological systems and so on, finding a balance between energy efficiency targets, minimum C02 emissions, a functional layout and the image of a contemporary building.

The design found a way to integrate tested and proven components with innovative systems.

Envelope components, control systems and technologies employed in the SIEEB represent the state of the art of the innovative Italian production in the building sector.

The building is closed and well insulated on the northern side that faces the cold winter winds and it is more transparent and open towards the south. On the east and west sides, light and direct sun are controlled by a double skin façade that filters solar gain and optimises the penetration of daylight into the office spaces.

Attractive green spaces, gardens and terraces are distinctive elements of the project. Cantilevered structural elements extend to the south, giving shade to the terraces

Architectural form

The SIEEB building takes shape from an analysis of the site and of the climatic conditions of the city of Beijing.

Located in a dense urban context, surrounded by 10 storey high buildings, the SIEEB maximises the southern orientation of the site. The shape of the building evolves from a series of tests and simulations on solar radiation, overshadowing (studies developed by the researchers from the Polytechnic of Milan) and it is strongly influenced by its expected energy performances. The main starting points for the design team were a symmetrical U-shaped courtyard building stepping downwards towards the south.

The building is inserted in a square lot that measures around 60 m x 60 m. In section the floors step back at higher levels to maximise sun penetration into the internal spaces and to give light and air to the internal garden.

Vertical distribution is granted by two main staircases and lift blocks located in the west and east wings; the two blocks also contribute to the structural rigidity of the whole building.

The building is symmetrical, reducing exposed areas to the north side. Due to its form, the building is conceived to be self-protected and shaded.

Building layout

In terms of functions, the SIEEB is divided into two different parts. The lower part from level -1 to level +1 represents the public area (main hall, exhibition spaces and an auditorium), and it is physically connected with the street and the pedestrian walkways. In order to give an easy accessibility to the building, the ground floor is designed to be permeable along the north-south axis. In the north side, a two-storey high opening façade gives access through the building and lets the internal garden be visible from the street and from the facing buildings.

The lower floors are complex in shape: ramps, passages, irregular terraces and planted gardens, give the public spaces different environments and perspectives. The upper floors, (from +2 to the top floor), mainly occupied by offices and laboratories, have more regular floor plans that change at each level to give space to open south

facing terraces.

Envelope

The external envelope of the building plays a key role in the environmental strategy in that different solutions respond to different orientations.

The building is conceived as a protective shell towards the north, instead opening south towards to the sun.

The northern facade, which has the main entrance from the campus, is designed to be almost entirely opaque and highly insulated to protect the building from the strong cold winter winds. The blue colour of the facade creates a strong architectural image for the building.

Different systems of ventilated facades are used in the internal skin, facing the garden, and in the east and west outer envelope. South facades, shaded by the cantilevering floors and structures are treated to be more transparent.

The east and west facades of the building are clad with a double skin composed of a simple curtain wall, based on a pattern of transparent/ opaque modules and an external silk-screen facade. Simple horizontal silk-screen lines if different densities give the building an elegant vibration and contribute at the same time to the environmental control of the internal spaces.

Due to the critical exposure to sunlight of the east and west facades, special components such as internal and external light-shelves and internal roller blinds have been introduced to control glare and maximize daylight distribution.

The inner envelope, facing the internal courtyard, has a double skin composed of a simple curtain wall system, based on the same modularity as the outer facades, and an external glass louvers layer.

The louvers are composed of reflective glass panes, tilted at different angles in order to control direct solar radiation and light penetration into the office spaces. Photovoltaic panels that produce energy are integrated into the design as shading elements for the terraces.

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Sieeb  Sino  Italian

Sieeb Sino Italian