| The new, 52-storey tall class A Capital Tower located in the heart of Singapore’s business district (Figure 1) occupies a land area of 7132 m2 (77,025 square feet) and has a total built up gross floor area of approximately 95,000m2 (more than 1 million square feet). The building is highly intelligent and user friendly. Among its many features designed to support the business processes of the tenants are:
- Raised flooring for wiring management
- Integrated mechanical, electrical and communication services
- Flexible services infrastructure
- Space for satellite dishes
- After-office-hour services provisions
- Comprehensive and integrated security systems
- An intelligent fire alarm system
- Integrated building automation system
- Telecommunication fiber optic backbone for transmission of data, communication and information, etc.
Figure 1: The new Capital Tower-
the Southern focus point of Singapore's
Financial and Business District.
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Capital Tower also provides a wide range of facilities that cater to tenants needs, such as a fitness centre, club lounge, heated swimming pool, medical clinic, theatrical quality auditorium with conference facilities, and a cafeteria at the 9th storey. At the top of the building is the “China Club,” which caters for the dining and wining of club members. It has a 3-storey-high ceiling and frameless glass all around, providing members and their guests a breath-taking view of Singapore’s business district, harbour, and distant islands. To enhance the efficient operation of the building, a super-efficient double-deck lift system transports office workers to mid- and high-zone offices.
The Capital Tower was awarded Best Buildable Design 2001 for the commercial projects. It won several other awards as well, such as Construction Excellence Award and Design Excellence Awards in 2002 and Energy Efficient Building Award in 2003.
PB was responsible for the overall electrical and mechanical services of the Capital Towerand provided consultancy for the integrated intelligent building management system (IBMS), integrated security control and surveillance system, and the architectural lighting design.1 We coordinated with various consultants to achieve a highly intelligent building of the 21st century in Singapore and the Asia Pacific Region.
Originality, Innovation and Quality of Engineering
Our overall design goals were to create a high performance working environment that:
- Incorporated the latest and best mechanical and electrical (M&E) technology and information technology (IT) capabilities
- Was cost-effective in terms of labor, operations, and energy.
Latest Technology. The entire M&E services and IT design supports a high-performance working environment. Integrating all the M&E services under one platform helps to manage the services more efficiently and to respond more quickly to users’ demands. Our design also incorporated chiller optimization and variable-volume air handling units. Workers at Capital Tower can be in a totally comfortable and secured environment twenty-four hours a day.
The high-speed communication network provided throughout the building allows the occupants to interact and communicate with the building management as a “net-community.” Many shared facilities, such as meeting rooms, carpark lots, auditoriums, can be booked by members of this community through their workstations within the compound of the building, whether wired or wireless. This network can also be used to book medical appointments, etc.
Cost Effectiveness. The integrated IBMS and integrated security management system (ISMS) allows one PC access; therefore, there is a substantial saving in the labor needed to monitor the various systems. In addition, the system allows remote dial-ins and retrieval of information relating to the status and alarms of the sub systems—a feature that enables immediate analysis and understanding of the problem and cuts short any delays in response time.
The integration also allows cross coverage of the duties of the building maintenance personnel and the security people. In this way, fewer people are required to work late hours in the building, and overtime costs are reduced.
Energy saving measures that we incorporated in the M&E engineering design included the use of the following:
- TL5 lamps, which are only 2 x 28 watts for the office areas compared to the normal 2 x 36 watts.
- Motion detectors at the toilets to cut in another lighting circuit.
- Gravity feed to supply condensate water collected from the air handling units at high and mid levels for use as make up water for the podium cooling towers. (This measure also resulted in a substantial saving in potable water.)
- A computer program to change the water feature pattern during off-peak hours to save energy and reduce water loss. The computer program allows variation in the display patterns. In the daytime the pattern may have to be a bit subdued. When there are strong winds, the anemometer sends a signal to switch to lower jets to avoid splashing water on pedestrians and save water. At night, when the conditions permit, a full water feature performance can be programmed or switched on.
State-of-the-Art Systems
The IBMS. Traditionally, office buildings are provided with building management systems (BMS) that control and monitor the status of all major M&E equipment. The IBMS developed for this project demonstrates the latest technology and trends in BMSs and allows the creation of all sorts of interlocking features that would otherwise not be possible in the traditional system. These include:
• Intruder’s Alarm. If the infra-red sensor (PIR) detects the movement of an intruder in a common area when the building has been “armed,” (after-hours security is on) the security system sends a detection alarm to the IBMS and at the sa me time the closed circuit television (CCTV) camera zooms onto the activated area. The IBMS instructs the lighting to turn on in that particular zone and activates the public address (PA) system. The security personnel at the remote area are alerted immediately so they can observe the movement of the intruder on the CCTV monitors and at the same time “press to talk” with the intruders via the activated PA speakers. (This feature incorporates the integrated security management system, which is described below.)
• VIP Carpark Lot Booking System. Authorized tenants can book a carpark lot for a VIP visitor through their workstations by keying in the visitor’s vehicle registration number and name. When the visitor arrives at the entry boom, the “vehicle identification system (VIS)” reads the vehicle number plate, lifts up the boom and flashes a personalized welcome message, such as, “Welcome, Mr. Lee, please proceed to Level 4.” When the car reaches the correct level, the car park guidance system directs the driver to the reserved lot with the car’s registration number displayed above it. When the VIP visitor leaves, he or she simply drives to the exit boom, where the VIS identifies the vehicle and lifts the boom.
Several other interlocking functions through IBMS can be created to suit the building owner’s specific requirements. The system interfaces, protocols and controls are based on international standards without using any proprietary protocols or control system, so the owner is not bound by any such product or system.
Integrated Security Management System (ISMS). In contrast to most buildings, which have CCTV systems, access card control, and intruder alarm systems set up as three individual and independent systems, the Capital Tower system fully integrates all security components into a security communication network, including card readers, CCTV cameras, intruder and duress alarm, motion detectors, etc. This integration takes advantage of the digital and communication technology to give the owner a high-tech and labor saving system.
No-Smell Toilets. The no-smell toilet concept is anything but new, but the way it was implemented in the Capital Tower involved some experimenting of its effectiveness and a blending with the interior aesthetic. Most ventilation for toilets (based on number of air changes) is designed as general ventilation of space. The mixing of air with ceiling exhaust air points can make the toilet smelly in certain instances. In Capital Tower, the exhaust points for the toilets are located at the source of the smell. Instead of fixing low-level wall louvers near the urinals and water closets, exhaust air boxes hidden behind the accent panels are provided. With the air boxes sized with high-exhaust air velocity of 8 m (26 feet) per second, the source of the smell is “contained.” The air boxes and conduits are made of heavy grade PVC to prevent corrosion.
Ventilation of Passenger Lift Lobby after Office Hours. The passenger lift lobbies in most office buildings are air-conditioned by the central air handling unit and become “stuffy” when the central plant shuts down after office hours. The Capital Tower presents a “cool” solution to this problem. Additional in-line ventilating fans were installed and connected to air-conditioning ductwork with damper controls. The ventilation fans cut in automatically when the central air handling unit shuts down. The duration of fan operation is programmed through the IBMS.
Multimedia Approach. The owner wanted a “high-tech and IT” image for the building, something that would differentiate it from the other office buildings in town. We proposed a multi-media approach as an appropriate solution. Plasma screens are provided in the public area and liquid crystal displays (LCDs) are in the lift cabs—all of which are integrated with the IBMS. The screens and LCDs in the lift cabs can display live TV broadcasts, video clips or any multi-media input.
Figure 2: The visitor's informtion center
situated at the middle of the entrance lobby
of the capital tower
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There is also an interactive information kiosk in the lobby to showcase a multi-media approach (Figure 2). Visitors can use the kiosk to search for information or send e-mails to the building operators or tenants, and authorized personnel can use it to surf the Internet.
Impact on the Profession at Large
Except for the integrated IBMS, many of the features and solutions designed for Capital Tower can be readily adopted in other office projects. The IBMS is actually a large IT system, so it requires the employment of IT engineers to maintain the servers and administer the system. Not every project would have the level of staffing and financial resource to see through its implementation, testing and commissioning.
Notwithstanding the pessimism, with the continuous progress of the skills and technology of the IT industry, the cost and difficulties integrating the various M&E systems will be reduced in time to come. The building profession must ride on the IT wave to improve our designs and produce more sophisticated products to satisfy the increasing demands of our developers and end users. |
