London, UK – Bee’ah, the Middle East’s leading fully integrated environmental and waste management company has commissioned Zaha Hadid Architects to build its new Headquarters building in Sharjah, UAE, following the 2013 international competition.
The new Headquarters building is part of Bee’ah’s ongoing investment to transform attitudes and behaviours in individuals, communities, businesses and cities by providing the infrastructure, tools and support to achieve their environmental goals. Working towards achieving its Zero-Waste to landfill, cleaner air and water, renewable energy and sustainable future targets, Bee’ah is developing and providing coherent and sustainable environmental solutions to meet the challenges of the community it serves.
The Bee’ah Headquarters building embodies these principles by providing the company with an administrative centre of sustainable construction of LEED Platinum Certification, with ultra-low carbon and minimal water consumption in operation and minimised material consumption in construction. The new building and site will also be used as a learning resource to demonstrate practical environmental awareness to the wider community.
Bee’ah aims to set new standards in the UAE through utilising 100 percent green renewable energy sources to power its new Headquarters and are ensuring that the maximum amount of recycled materials recovered from waste are used in its construction.
The Headquarters building has been designed with environmental considerations woven into every aspect of the design using a hierarchical approach to first limit the need to consume resources; where resources are required - to minimise their consumption; and finally to offset consumption of resources through the harvesting of renewable systems.
Designed in response to its natural environment to provide comfort for visitors and staff alongside minimising energy and resource consumption, the formal composition of the new Bee’ah Headquarters building has been informed by its desert context as a series of intersecting dunes orientated to optimise the prevailing Shamal winds, and designed to provide its interiors with high quality daylight and views whilst limiting the quantity of glazing exposed to the harsh sun.
The 7,000 square metres Bee’ah Headquarters is located on a 90,000 square metres site adjacent to the Bee’ah Waste Management Centre. The large site enabled the development of the design as an array of dunes within its desert landscape leading to the two central dunes of the Headquarters building.
The building’s structure has been developed in conjunction with Buro Happold to minimise material consumption through architectural and structural integration. Individual elements of the building’s structure and skin are of standard orthogonal dimensions, enabling significant portions to be constructed from materials recovered from the local construction and demolition waste streams managed by Bee’ah, minimising demand for new materials.
