Net-Zero High-Rise Buildings for Sustainable Vertical Urbanism: Lessons from Pertamina Energy Tower

*Semra Arslan Selçuk and Hüseyin Emre Ilgın* 

#### **Abstract**

Cities are growing exponentially. The "energy issue" consumed in cities and particularly in the built environment is one of the most important issues of this century. Especially, high-rise buildings as key elements of vertical urbanism are gaining more attention by designers, investors, and conductors since they are affecting, changing, and transforming the environment considerably. Thus, new concepts, design approaches, and implementations for sustainability are becoming important research areas in architecture. In this context, this chapter presents a discussion on sustainable vertical urbanism and energy efficient high-rise buildings. To exemplify these discussions, Pertamina Energy Tower (Jakarta, Indonesia) is chosen as a case study designed by Skidmore, Owings, and Merrill (SOM). Results show that the tower is a net zero energy building designed to operate the building with on-site renewable energy providing more than 100% of the energy required. Pertamina Energy Tower proved that there are numerous approaches to mitigate the energy use to satisfy the comfort criteria in a building. The combination of numerous passive design approaches could be integrated into a high-rise building based on the site condition, building orientation, and local climatic conditions. Conclusively, this building has the potential to change our outlook towards the "vertical urbanism" regarding energy efficiency.

**Keywords:** urbanism, sustainable vertical urbanism, high-rise buildings, net-zero high-rise buildings, Pertamina Energy Tower

#### **1. Introduction**

 With nearly 70% of the populace residing in cities, the world's population is projected to grow from 7 billion to more than 9 billion by 2050 [1, 2]. Due to this change and transformation, the trend to design and build more vertical cities are becoming more suitable for changing lifestyles, economics, and urbanization [3, 4]. When one of the most significant issues of this century is thought to be the "energy issue" consumed in the built environment, the discussion of the concept of "sustainable vertical urbanism" [5–8] is gaining more importance. High-rise buildings as key to the vertical cities affect and changes/transform the environment noticeably. They are not only complex systems or esthetic objects, but they also have an important

place in the life of a city with their impacts through their transformative powers [7, 8]. Therefore, new concepts, design approaches, and implementations like sustainability, eco-friendly, environmentally friendly buildings, ecomimetic, biomimetic, energy efficient structures, and façades are becoming important research areas in architecture as well as in other related disciplines [9–11].

In this context, this chapter starts with a discussion on sustainable vertical urbanism and net-zero high-rise buildings. To exemplify these discussions, Pertamina Energy Tower (Jakarta, Indonesia) is chosen as a case study designed by SOM [12, 13]. The structural system of the tower employs structural steel, reinforced concrete, and composite to resist both gravity and lateral loads—namely, seismic and wind loads—and to meet serviceability criteria as well [14]. The Tower's structural system is an outriggered frame system with composite construction which comprises a reinforced concrete core, composite perimeter columns, 3-level of steel outriggers, and belt trusses located every 30-story [15, 16]. This 99-story structure with a height of 530 m, provides many lessons on the design of energy efficient, low construction waste, having more natural light and carbon-neutral buildings so-called "net-zero energy buildings" [17].

 The results show that Pertamina Tower, a net zero energy building designed to operate the building with on-site renewable energy providing more than 100% of the energy required [15]. This performance has been achieved by reducing energy demand through a combination of active and passive strategies. Especially, with the geothermal field located beneath the building and use heat exchangers to extract energy for electricity generation and cooling from the 150°C energy source is seen as a distinctive implementation [15–17]. Furthermore, as a passive strategy, the high-performance façade that allows daylight penetration while at the same time minimizing cooling loads through optimized glazing and specially designed external shading components have been found valuable. Similarly, high-efficiency ventilating and LED lighting fixtures, air conditioning system, occupancy sensors that automatically dim and/or switch off luminaires, a demand-controlled ventilation system that provides the precise quantity of fresh outside air to meet occupant needs, a regenerative system that recovers energy during the braking cycle of the elevators, and double enthalpy wheels in the outside air-handling units that recover otherwise wasted energy [12–17]. At the end of the research, it is concluded that the use of recent technologies helped designers understand the holistic approaches aimed at early design stages of the project. It is also possible to highlight that such complex and challenging buildings should be designed in high-level cooperation with all stakeholders where coordination can only be done in a Building Information Modeling (BIM) environment.

#### **2. Energy issue in built environments and towards a sustainable vertical urbanism**

Today, more than half of the world population lives in urban environments, where more than 70% of greenhouse gases (GHG) emissions have been globally generated. According to the UN report, the current world population of 7.3 billion is projected to reach up to 8.5 billion and 9.7 billion by 2030 and 2050, respectively [18] (**Figure 1**). Nearly 3.5 billion m2 of building floor area will be newly constructed and 2 billion m2 of buildings will be reconstructed as a replacement of older building stock in urban environment globally, each year from 2013 till 2025. By 2030, over 80 billion m2 of buildings will be newly constructed and reconstructed in an urban environment worldwide, an area approximately equal to 60% of the total global building stock.

*Net-Zero High-Rise Buildings for Sustainable Vertical Urbanism: Lessons from Pertamina… DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.5772/intechopen.87836* 

**Figure 1.**  *Projected world population [21].* 

The built environment including the building and transportation industries plays a vital role in resource utilization and environmental effects. Almost 36% of global final energy consumption and 40% of total direct and indirect CO2 emissions result from the buildings and buildings construction industries together. Furthermore, in the same report, it is claimed that, "energy demand from buildings and buildings construction continues to rise, driven by improved access to energy in developing countries, greater ownership and use of energy-consuming devices, and rapid growth in global buildings floor area, at nearly 3% per year" [19]. Moreover, the final energy consumption of these industries is expected to grow between 20 and 44% from 2009 till 2035 for climate mitigation and business-as-usual scenarios, respectively [20].

Sustainability has been "the topic" across all disciplines over the last few decades. As probably one of the most (mis)used, abused subject of the twenty-first century; businessmen, politicians, scientists, and the people from technology sectors discuss "sustainability" [22]. Sustainable design approach aims to improve the indoor and outdoor of environmental quality by diminishing adverse effects on both building and the natural environment [23]. In addition to this, it is a design philosophy that the searches are conducted to integrate the sustainable development concept regarding initiatives and values into sustainable building envelope design [24].

In order to meet the demands of growing populations with different lifestyles, cities of today have shown a tendency to expand in all possible directions [18]. Moreover, in many cities and downtowns in the world, it is unavoidable to expand vertically due to the lack of land. Since more and more cities becoming taller and denser, much more attention is required to improve the quality of indoor and outdoor spaces by diminishing adverse effects built environment. As when the sustainability issue comes to the forefront, the better treatment of the environment and the sources (particularly climatic data, water, and energy), the better use of proper technologies, reducing the undesirable effect on the environment, planning the recycling process (water, waste, etc.) employing suitable materials could be the first components.

Anderson et al. [20] state that energy use and sustainability issues should be evaluated in two main scales: *building* and *urban scale*. Energy use in the built

environment at the building scale can be summarized as follows: *materials, architectural design, operational systems, structural systems, construction,* and *analysis methods*. McLennan [23] identifies sustainable building design strategies as day-lighting, indoor air quality, passive solar heating, natural ventilation, energy efficiency, embodied energy, construction waste minimization, water preservation, and renewable energy [23]. Flowingly, the second scale of analysis, the urban scale, focuses on entire systems (urban form, density, transportation, infrastructure, consumption, and analysis methods) within the built environment rather than individual elements such as buildings [20].

There is no doubt that high-rise buildings have been generating the architectural language/identity of metropolises of the twenty-first century. As a symbol of power and prestigious, high-rise buildings accommodating thousands of people are the center of business and economics. Since they are responsible for huge energy consumption and an enormous amount of waste discharge into the environment, high-rise buildings deserve more attention to fill the gap between the building and urban scale in the sense of energy usage and sustainability.

 In the late nineteenth century, high-rise buildings emerged in the United States for using dense urban land in an effective way. As an architectural phenomenon, high-rise buildings were the results of technological developments particularly in structural systems, constructional materials, facades solutions, and lifting technologies. Today, these buildings are raising not only parallel with the cutting-edge technologies but also in harmony with the socio-economic and cultural needs of the cities. Supported by rapid economic growth, major cities in Asia and the Middle East have been demonstrating the new generation of high-rise buildings with an awareness of environmental issues.

 Since high-rise buildings are among the most energy consumers of the built environment, architect and all stakeholders are questing for more efficient design solutions concerning sustainable building materials, renewable energy sources, structural optimization, etc. As a result of these researches, clean technologies are merged to achieve the greenest high-rises the world has seen. For instance, nearly 80% of the structure of New York City's Hearst Tower (**Figure 2**) is made from recycled steel. Furthermore, the diamond-like shape of the steel support beams allows less material compared with the same level of structure. Additionally, the tower uses rainwater for half of its need by treating and redirecting resources to irrigate plants and provide for a nifty water sculpture at the entrance of the building [25]. Similarly, the Pearl River Tower (Guangzhou, China) (**Figure 2**) is a performative high-rise building with its structural system, effective building skin, and production of green energy via integration of wind tribunes [26]. As one of the tallest buildings in the world, Shanghai Tower (**Figure 2**) with its 632 m height boasts several sustainable strategies with renewable energy sources, landscape to aid cool the building, and its distinctive form and structure contributing the improvement of the wind resistance of the tower [27]. These strategies have made a reduction in the total energy consumption by 21%, slash its carbon footprint by an estimated 37,000 metric tons yearly, and save US\$58 million in material costs [28, 29]. With the increasing awareness among designers, users, investors, and so-called the stakeholders of the construction industry, quality and quantity of examples are increasing day by day.

 Among these examples, the Pertamina Tower has a special place as the project's goal of generating 25% of its total energy portfolio is from renewable resources. This rate will be a very critical achievement in a high-rise building. Therefore, the design approaches of the tower deserve much more attention to its pioneering properties.

*Net-Zero High-Rise Buildings for Sustainable Vertical Urbanism: Lessons from Pertamina… DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.5772/intechopen.87836* 

**Figure 2.**  *Hearst Tower by Norman Foster [29]; Pearl River Tower by SOM [30]; Shanghai Tower by SOM [31].* 

#### **3. Lessons from Pertamina Tower**

 Located in Jakarta, Indonesia, the Pertamina Campus is an innovative and dynamic campus designed by SOM mainly composed of a pavilion with optimized solar shading and roof photovoltaic panels (**Figure 3**), a central energy plant with geothermal energy (under consideration), Pertamina Energy Tower (99 floor) with wind tribunes (**Figure 4**), a public mosque with passive cooling and thermal mass, a solar-paneled roof walkway called "Energy Ribbon" [14, 32]. This will be clad in photovoltaic panels producing energy and providing weather protection. The walkway will connect campuses, land bridges, and gardens to provide accessible public space.

Sustainable strategies, particularly energy concerns, are the primary driving force behind the architectural design of Pertamina Campus, where SOM's design approach provides integration among architectural, structural, and sustainable design considerations to accomplish "zero energy target" owing to utilization of on-site energy from sun, wind, and geothermal sources [14, 34]. As the primary renewable energy source, Indonesia has 40% of the world's potential geothermal resources thanks to its 400+ volcanoes [35]. SOM stated that there will a geothermal

**Figure 3.**  *Pertamina Campus [32] (leftmost); Pertamina Energy Tower with wind tribunes [32, 33].* 

**Figure 4.** 

*The tower form and orientation according to wind (left); vertical axis wind turbines in Pertamina Energy Tower (right) [32].* 

 power plant as the energy generation hub. Furthermore, another goal of the project is "zero water discharge" in order to diminish necessary water consumption for the fixtures and related systems and to recycle the water from alternative sources [32].

 As a modern green building, the sustainable design strategies of Pertamina Energy Tower targeting net-zero energy is mainly based on harvesting wind power and solar control as well. The tower is formed and oriented by taking into consideration of wind and sun. Acting as a giant wind farm, Pertamina Tower with vertical axis wind turbines utilizes the prevailing wind to generate electricity rather than mitigate or get rid of its impact as in the case of ordinary tall buildings. Thanks to the optimized wind funnel located at gently tapering crown-shaped architectural top, wind through the upper floors can be augmented over the turbines to produce more energy for compensating up to 25% of tower's energy need [36] (**Figure 4**).

 On the other hand, in order to provide solar control in terms of heat gain, glare, and daylight as well; static exterior fins, 657 of which were tested according to 5 parameters, and automated interior blinds are employed through the building curved façade. Owing to the combined utilization of these elements [32]:


 Thanks to the sustainable strategy combination including collected, treated on-site, and reusing rainwater, gray water, black water, and condensate; the need for campus potable water could be decreased by 66%, the overall sanitary discharge by 95%, and finally the stormwater runoff from the site by 100%. Sádaba [32] states that as a result of this design strategies, the proposed energy consumption (mWh) of the whole campus is 30% less than the baseline energy consumption (**Figure 5**) [32]. Similarly, planned on-site generation (mWh) is more than (106%) proposed. With this ratio, this tower will be the first zero-energy high-rise building.

All these design approaches result with an innovative solution that carried Pertamina Tower to a special place in architecture.

*Net-Zero High-Rise Buildings for Sustainable Vertical Urbanism: Lessons from Pertamina… DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.5772/intechopen.87836* 

**Figure 5.**  *Simulation results of energy efficiency [32].* 

#### **4. Discussions and results**

Throughout history, cities have been at the heart of human development and technological advancements. Today, cities are growing much faster—bigger, higher and denser—than they did before. The population living in urban areas is growing exponentially and adequate energy for the growing population need to be supplied. Without adequate energy, there would be no clean water, there will be a food shortage and no shelter. In the end, we may come up with the darkest scenarios. Yet, there are always solutions that human being develops. Option one is to keep going what we are doing. Option two is creating nuclear energy with hazardous pollutants and wastes, which is extremely dangerous and never goes away thousands of years. And the last option is to shift our outlook on energy production and consumption. We can keep up with the exponentially growing population by only becoming more energy efficient. We can solve the problem by reducing or eliminating our demand from the electrical grid. The consumers of energy have been already identified as "buildings". Research conducted by the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP) indicates that about 30–40% of global energy use, a third of total resource consumption, and 40% of solid waste generation are resulting from buildings. The problem here is that buildings are neglected. Areas such as transportation getting more attention on energy issues. For this purpose, recently designers, investors, and conductors have been integrating cutting-edge building technologies with the data/ computational tools to optimize urban systems performance integrating buildings, urban climate, transportation, and socio-economics. For example, energy and water-saving technologies, like helical wind turbine technology, solar panels, sunlight-sensing LED lights, rainwater catchment systems, and even seawaterpowered air conditioning are among these technologies.

 High-rise buildings are creating the architectural language/identity of cities of the twenty-first century. They are a symbol of power and prestigious, the center of business and economics, hosting thousands of people at the same time. Hence, they are considered as a great consumer of energy which utilized a huge amount of resources and materials; produce massive volumes of waste discharge into the environment and more often called as unsustainable buildings. On the other hand, owing to the computer-aided design, optimization tools, manufacturing, and operating systems, the architecture of the twenty-first century has been changing, which is not only performed as an "art" but also empowered by all kind of evaluation and optimization of environmental performance.

#### *ISBS 2019 - 4th International Sustainable Buildings Symposium*

 As seen from the example discussed in this chapter, Pertamina Energy Tower has the potential to change the outlook towards the "vertical urbanism" regarding energy efficient design strategies. The tower is the world's first supertall building where reducing energy consumption completely informs the tower's placement, shape, systems, and materials. Owing to taking advantage of Indonesian profound practice on geothermal energy, empowering the neighboring campus as a resource for preserving and producing energy and shaping the tower itself to direct wind into building-mounted wind turbines; SOM reached at this final design by going beyond conventional sustainable building strategies. Consequently, Pertamina Energy Tower showed that there are numerous approaches to decrease energy usage to satisfy the building comfort criteria. The combination of numerous passive design approaches could be integrated into a high-rise building based on the site condition, building orientation, and local climatic conditions.

#### **Author details**

Semra Arslan Selçuk1 \* and Hüseyin Emre Ilgın2

1 Department of Architecture, Gazi University, Ankara, Turkey

2 Department of Architecture, Middle East Technical University, Ankara, Turkey

\*Address all correspondence to: semraarslanselcuk@gmail.com

© 2019 The Author(s). Licensee IntechOpen. This chapter is distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/ by/3.0), which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.

*Net-Zero High-Rise Buildings for Sustainable Vertical Urbanism: Lessons from Pertamina… DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.5772/intechopen.87836* 

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**25**

**Chapter 3**

**Abstract**

A Prototype of Energy Efficient

Architecture Principles and

Moroccan Thermal Regulation

*Khalid El Harrouni, Najma Laaroussi, Najoua Loudyi,* 

The building sector is an activity where the potential for saving energy is important and Morocco is now placing the housing sector energy efficiency and renewable energies among the national priorities in order to reduce the energy consumption and improve the thermal comfort. As part of the national energy strategy, several actions have been initiated, the code energy efficiency in the building, including the thermal regulation of construction setting the energy performance rules for buildings. This chapter presents the good practices for the control of the energy by using the principles of the bioclimatic architecture, and by adopting the passive and active energy efficiency for two house building case studies (villa in Marrakech and modern Moroccan house in Midelt), both situated in severe climate conditions. The approach method analysis covers three thematic subjects: (1) the architecture and building relationship with the climate; (2) the usage and the thermal comfort; (3) the energy management and the performance according to the Moroccan thermal regulation. Investigation and methodological tools were based on the documentation, numerical modeling (Cypetherm Eplus by CYPE), plans, photos, and surveys (architects and occupants). The process is then described from design to completion,

*Rime El Harrouni, Hajar Amir and Ricardo Castello*

with its techniques, materials, and learned lessons.

pilot house buildings, CYPE

all, on the following orientations:

technological choices.

**1. Introduction**

**Keywords:** bioclimatic architecture, energy efficiency, thermal regulation,

Morocco is experiencing strong economic and social growth resulting in accelerated energy needs. In order to combine security of supply and reduction of dependence on energy, environmental preservation, reduction of energy consumption, and thermal comfort, Morocco has developed a new energy strategy based, first of

• An optimized and diversified energy mix around competitive and reliable

Houses Meeting Both Bioclimatic

#### **Chapter 3**
