COMILOG Headquarters, Moanda, Competition,1st place, 2015
NET ZERO OFFICE BUILDING, HQE certification standard
The site for this project is a hilly sloped part of the city of Moanda, in the overall valleyed region, where geology has modeled a landscape whose nearest underground is mainly made of minerals. We’re only twenty miles away from the site of Oklo, where scientists once uncovered the rare phenomenon of a natural nuclear fission reactor in 1972. The brief asked for a hundred and twenty offices building aimed to host in one site all the operating and administrative functions of the mining company, part of the French multinational Eramet. The brief also asked for a building that passes the HQE international certification on the sustainability side.
The result is an articulate set of three volumes that gently break upon themselves to better adapt to the hilly topography while maximizing daylight exposure and mitigating soil erosion. The openness of the facades comes with widespread usage of terracotta sunscreens as part of the strategy for reducing energy consumption by shielding the interiors from the excessive tropical heat. Other sustainability features include harvesting rainfall water for sanitary usage, a double flux ac system based upon recycling nightly fresh air for daily cooling needs, as well as solar panels station and vertically-axed wind turbines for 0n-site energy production. Locally found laterite and stone, as well as endemic palm trees and acacia and mango trees, constitute the base for landscaping project: Retaining walls, drainage, and new planting.
