Beirut City Centre Mall - Hazmieh, Lebanon

Client

Suburban Development Company Sal.

Architect

Samir Khairallah & Partners (SKP)

Location

Beirut City Centre
Damascus Highway, Hazmieh
Beirut, Lebanon

Description

A new-build 7-storey shopping centre of circa 164,000m², including four basement levels hosting parking facilities and retail areas. In addition to retail shops, the BCC Mall will house restaurants and cafés, a large Carrefour supermarket, and a movie theatre.

Objective

The Client’s current aspiration is to achieve at a minimum the Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design LEED Core & Shell 2009 “Silver” certificate.  
The BCC Mall is the 2^nd building in Lebanon to obtain the LEED Pre-Certification for the Silver rating, based on the US Green Building Council (USGBC) LEED sustainability scheme. Silver Pre-Certification was achieved on the 27^th of October 2010.

Brief

While still at early conceptual stage, we were appointed and joined the project’s design team as the LEED Sustainability Consultants. Our role throughout the design, tender, and construction stages is to advise on the various LEED credit requirements and sustainability measures to ensure that the building obtains at least the LEED Silver Certificate.

Part of our responsibility entails undertaking dynamic day-lighting simulations and thermal modelling analysis of the proposed building, and advising on cost-effective and suitable energy-efficiency solutions for the BCC Mall –taking into account the local coastal Mediterranean climate and available resources. The aim is to reduce the building’s cooling load, as well as its overall energy consumption, while keeping in mind constraints imposed by the inherent nature of a shopping centre.

Other sustainability matters are being tackled, namely: lessening waste generated during construction by recycling, reusing, or donating waste materials; significantly reducing the project’s water consumption through low-water fixtures; favouring public transportation access by establishing new bus shelters around the Mall; enhancing internal thermal comfort and indoor environmental quality; specifying low-toxicity paint and finishes as well as FSC-certified wood; and implementing a Green Cleaning Policy as well as a thorough Recycling Policy once the BCC shopping centre is operational.
 

 Images Courtesy of Samir Khairallah & Partners

3D Thermal Model using TAS - EcoConsulting