FM business – office. The new Unipol Tower in Milan, Italy has been awarded the prestigious Platinum certification by the sustainable building system, Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design (LEED). This is the highest level of certification awarded by LEED.
Unipol Tower is the most recent new entry in the Porta Nuova district in Milan. During the pandemic, the first hints of a structural skeleton appeared and it will be completed in 2023 – Interni Magazine reports. It is the new headquarters of the Unipol Group, an elliptical skyscraper with a bioclimatic design capable of insulating the building in winter and limiting its overheating in summer.
The main skeleton of the tower is made of a combination of steel, wood and glass. It has a height of 120 meters, with a total of 26 floors, 3 of which extend underground while the remaining 23 are above ground, shaped as an ellipse so that it blends better into the surrounding environment. The floor area of the tower is over 31,000 square meters.
What lead to LEED
The three main features that have been incorporated into the development making the headquarters of the Unipol Group a candidate for Platinum certification by LEED are:
· the BIPV solar panel arrangement by Metsolar that provides much of the power used by the building, a potential total of around 112 kilowatts;
- climatic control that allows the building to remain warm in winter and cool at the height of summer;
- the tower’s rainwater harvesting system which reduces the need for an external supply of water.
The Tower’s solar panels are designed to be tilted by a series of installed motors that maximize the amount of power provided by the sun, while also controlling the amount of light entering the building. The design ensures optimal levels of energy efficiency for the whole building.
The atrium is a bioclimatic device
On entering, visitors are greeted by a large central atrium that extends all the way to the top of the building, with the various floors overlooking the light- and vegetation-filled space. Together with the rooftop greenhouse and the façade system itself, the atrium transforms the entire tower into a bioclimatic device.
The vast atrium is located on the south-west side, toward the city centre, where it enhances the environmental quality of the entire building by protecting the south façade from direct sun and by creating natural ventilation of the interior spaces through the “chimney effect” – the designer team, Mario Cucinella Architects points out.
Photos: mcarchitects.it