Transaction Center Building Vinacomin, Hanoi, Vietnam

ZWP international has been carrying out planning for an office-tower project in Hanoi since July 2011. The customer for the project is Vietnam Nation Coal Mineral Industries Group, known as "Vinacomin", Vietnam's state mining company. The planning team consists of the Vietnamese architectural firm I-AT (Hanoi), the French architectural firm AREP (Paris), Werner Sobek Ingenieure (Stuttgart; a firm specialising in statics / façade planning) and ZWP international (Cologne). The building in question is an office tower with some 120,000 m² net floor space and with 37 above-ground levels and 5 below-ground levels. The structure will have a height of 169 m. Levels 1 through 6 of the building, termed "podium levels", will house multi-functional areas, such as a large conference area, restaurants, a cafeteria, a health-club area and multi-functional work areas. Levels 5b and 19b are reserved completely for building systems. Levels 36 and 37 will also house a number of rooms for building systems. The underground levels will be used primarily as parking space, although they will also house some building services equipment, such as electrical systems.

ZWP international is involved in all areas of the building services for the new structure, including conveyor systems, in the planning phases basic evaluation to design. The conveyor systems area presents particular challenges in connection with planning for the building's elevators. The customer has specified that the elevators have to be able to transport about 6,100 persons within 1.5 hours (for example, to be able to handle the morning rush) to the office levels throughout the structure. As planned, the core of the building does not offer generous space for elevators, however. Use of twin elevators and/or double-deck elevators is thus being recommended. The podium levels will also be equipped with escalators for the public areas. The requirements pertaining to the emergency power system exceed those that would normally apply for European systems. In addition to powering critical security and safety systems, the emergency power system will be able to power nearly the entire building. Lengthy power failures are still a common occurrence in Vietnam. The great majority of the structure's air-conditioning systems include functionality for minimum outdoor air ventilation. The majority of the total cooling load is removed via chilled beams, cooling ceilings or fan coils (with the choice in each case determined by the required comfort category and the room ceiling height). The fan coil units can also be used for heating purposes (they include connections to a 2-line system). The air-conditioning systemsare equipped with rotary heat exchangers with sorptive coatings. Those added features reduce the energy requirements for fresh-air dehumidification by 30%. The refrigeration systems will use ice-storage systems (on 3 levels) and waste-heat recovery. They can also operate in a free cooling mode. The smoke extraction systems are being planned in accordance with special Vietnamese regulations, while the sprinkler systems are being planned in conformance with the NFPA 13 standard.