Real Estate in Mexico is, as we know, every day more competitive and, in recent years many recipes and keys for Real Estate success, in the past number we talked about the importance of forming teams as the key to success. In certain moments this phenomenon looks like those magazines were every kind of remedies and magic recipes to be in shape are offered every time. I wonder if we are before a marketing maelstrom about Real Estate.
In my experience from almost 30 years dedicated to architectural design and a good portion of it along Real Estate developers, I’ve seen a common denominator and this is: the efficiency in building performance.
In this case, talk about Intelligent Buildings is not about the BMS systems and technology associated with its operation; is about buildings that have been designed from a holistic point of view; this means, those where every aspect has been taken into account, not only its aesthetics, building efficiency and area ratios. I’m referring to buildings in a wider context: its life cycle, like energy consumption ant its impact in the environment like, apparently simple strategies can achieve outstanding results and tangible benefits to Developer.
I will refer solely to office buildings for not trying to cover too many punctual aspects that may result confusing.
The project and design of a building may take from 12 to 24 months or even more time of work, build it could mean from 18 to 36 months, depending on size and obviously its operation and maintenance could mean up to 50 years, a period where any deviation in operational cost signifies an important amount of money. More over, if we take into account that the greater part of companies expense that use those buildings is in their personnel that works there goes up to 80% of their operation cost is directly related to the work place and this one, at same time, with the building.
Other aspect to take into consideration is how the construction cost is composed, it is specially important if we consider that often, the lack of attention to those issues that are great money consumers. Typically the direct cost of construction in Mexico is composed in this way: Substructure and foundation 20%; superstructure 25%; MEP 35%; finishes 13%; exterior 5%; others 2%.
However, given that structural safety and systems functionality are regulated by codes, it tends to be lack of criticism in those issues and they are given as solved without adequate analysis: although they represents up to 80% of the cost construction. More over, the impact in the operation cost could last for the entire life cycle, making it even more expensive.
Counterwise, often more attention is taken to finishes and visible components of building that represents marginal initial costs and may achieve a greater impact in user perception and promote productivity.
With environmental rating systems, this situation has been changing in recent years and will continue change in the future. In other hand, and from energy perspective, buildings in Mexico accounts for almost the half of energy consumption: 47.6% according to National Commission for the Efficient Use of Energy (CONUEE in Spanish) and the source of that energy is fossil fuel in more that three quarters 76.56% and only 1% wind and 0.05% from other renewable sources. Here some data about how energy is use in a building: HVAC 41%; lighting 42%; office equipment 8%; other 9%.
As you can see, illumination, HVAC systems accounts for the bigger part of resources, that is why the emphasise its intelligent design, for this, there are many systems, devices and technology that are changing very quick this composition. With the arrival of LED lighting and control systems every time more affordable and available, lighting in near future will not be a great problem.
Finally, we could say in general that a more energy efficient building is more sustainable; however, with a deeper analysis, we may confirm that in some occasions monetary and energy costs associated to construction materials are ignored; embodied energy could be higher to its savings during operation. For this reason we should select regional materials and assure that during its manufacturing process the energy required is appropriate. There are many source of information and LEED design guides are an excellent beginning.
In VFO architects we are conscious about all of these issues and we are worried about to design building that perform as good as possible, taking into consideration aesthetics and functional aspects, our buildings have been LEED certified and re certified, what reveals our commitment with life cycle and architectural solution lasting, that is the case of HSBC tower, that have been in operation for more than 10 years from now with a LEED Gold certification and under 2.2 version and now re certified with Platinum under Operation and Maintenance certification under more stringent system. This is commitment and result of make Intelligent Buildings with Intelligent Design
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