Climaveneta for the Most Beautiful Skyscraper in the World
Bassano del Grappa (VI), Italy, December 2, 2014 (Newswire.com) - This prestigious win has been announced on the 19th of November by The Polytechnic University of Milan, where Bosco Verticale, designed by Stefano Boeri, has been selected from 800 other projects and unanimously nominated as the most beautiful skyscraper in the world. Within the reasoning it reads “Bosco Verticale is a marvellous project and surely represents a model for the development of areas with high population density in other European countries”.
The award, created in 2003 and awarded every two years is aimed at all buildings not less than 100 meters tall and evaluates numerous parameters including sustainability, design, quality of the space and integration with the urban context. Above all the sustainability design has been projected and developed also in the air conditioning plant of Bosco Verticale, composed of two residential towers of 80 and 112 meters in height (27 and 19 floors, 113 residences in total) able to accommodate 800 trees between 3 and 9 meters tall, 11,000 perennials and ground covering plants and 5,000 shrubs, for a total of more than 100 different species.
FOCUS ON HVAC
These modern and complex buildings, demand, within the span of a year, heating and cooling, also simultaneously. For this plant 4 ERACS2-WQ 2152 water condensed INTEGRA units by Climaveneta were selected. They are an evolution of the traditional reversible chillers with heat pump function that are able to produce cold and hot water at the same time. During the months of the year when the building is mainly requesting cold (summer, spring and autumn), the heat generated on the condenser is free, on the contrary when the building mainly requests hot air, the cold generated on the condenser is free (during winter). The main feature of the Climaveneta INTEGRA units is that in each period of the year they independently maximise the efficiency of the energy cycle that generates the heating and cooling. In particular units get higher efficiency in spring and autumn, when there are more possibilities to have simultaneous cooling and heating requests.
To maximize plant energy efficiency, the project provides the use of upper aquifer water, a renewable source peculiar in Milan surroundings, with a constant temperature of 15°C all year round. The water is extracted from 12 underground wells and placed in a 350mm distribution ring that connects to the complete Porta Nuova development. “Energetically exhausted” water coming from each building flows in a network that discharges into the Martesana river.
Stream levels are monitored by a level sensor to avoid water discharge in case of river flooding. In this case the water is deviated to six wells that pump it back in the aquifer.
Primary objectives of the designed plant system are flexible use of space in terms of reconfiguration based on the needs of the end user, changeability of the loads treated and hours of use; the ability to account for all consumption of each hypothetical tenant, ease of use and energy efficiency.
The installation of the multipurpose unit for summer and winter indoor comfort, is able to utilise renewable resources such as ground water, helping to provide a substantial increase in energy efficiency and a drastic reduction in the local CO2 emissions from all the buildings that are included in Porta Nuova in Milan, that are all LEED certified, or, in the case of the Bosco Verticale, in the process of being LEED GOLD certified.