6 stars for office complex

Macquarie Group’s iconic headquarters in Sydney’s Darling Harbour has set high standards in environmental sustainability and workplace functionality, achieving a coveted 6 Star Green Star rating from the Green Building Council of Australia. Owned and managed by Brookfield Multiplex, the $316 million complex incorporates a range of technologies such as harbour water cooling, passive chilled beam air conditioning and an innovative lighting control system.

Architecturally, the 11-level 33,000 m² complex makes a dramatic statement, comprising two window-dressed buildings separated by a central atrium. Internally, the building has a strong focus on workplace functionality and environmental sustainability with large open-plan office areas and meeting rooms jutting into the sunlit atrium cavity, taking advantage of natural light.

One of the key sustainability initiatives required to reach a 6 Star Green Star rating was an intelligent centralised lighting control system that would manage lighting energy consumption for the entire building. The client specified that the lighting control system must be able to feed information to the building management system (BMS).

The innovative design of the building allows natural light to flow into the building, which is complemented by the Philips Dynalite advanced lighting control and energy management system.

Importantly, the lighting control design incorporates several strategies to optimise energy consumption. The lighting system allows zone switching and dimming flexibility, to ensure no areas of the building are overlit or illuminated when not in use.

The lighting system is programmed to operate in two distinct modes - ‘trading’ and ‘after hours’ - which are timer based. While timing and functionality is individually configurable for each floor/zone, ‘lights on’ begins at the start of trading, followed by a timed sequence of dimming to ‘lights off’ when the system goes into after-hours mode. In after-hours mode, motion sensors in amenities areas and lift lobbies switch on lighting if movement is detected.

In trading mode, daylight harvesting sensors dim perimeter lighting, taking advantage of natural light.

To ensure lighting flexibility in the open-plan office areas, the digital addressable lighting interface (DALI) was chosen. A single DALI network can control up to 64 individually addressable DALI devices including fluorescent ballasts. These 64 ballasts can be configured into an unlimited combination of areas, by using the Philips Dynalite system.

The Philips Dynalite DDBC320 DALI controller - which can control up to three DALI networks per controller - made it possible to install a single controller in each quadrant to allow all DALI ballasts to be individually dimmed or switched. The controller also powers down the DALI networks when not in use to conserve energy.

The Philips Dynalite EnvisionManager graphical user interface provides a visual overview of the entire lighting system, which makes it easy to reconfigure zones on each floor and temporarily or permanently adjust scenes. The easy-to-use system allows the building manager to access any part of the system with a click of a mouse.

Importantly, employees can control the lighting in their workspace via the Philips Dynalite touch screens installed on each floor of the building. The touch screens are also used to put the lighting system into after-hours cleaning mode when required.

The lighting control system is based on the Philips Dynalite DyNet, a peer-to-peer communications serial bus network which links all the controllers with over 300 multifunction sensors and 75 touch screens throughout the building.

Not only has the system optimised energy consumption, it has also delivered a lighting power density of just over 5 W/m², significantly below the targeted 9 W/m². Using a combination of motion and light sensors along with timed events, the flexible lighting control system delivers optimum lighting to enhance workplace productivity and energy efficiency.