Office building with advanced technologies for energy and water saving

Fhe Oval in Limassol was to be progressive and sustainable at the same time. This was the premise on which the planners approached the technical building equipment of the office building in Limassol, Cyprus. The result is convincing.

The design was by internationally renowned architects Atkins in collaboration with WKK and Armeftis Associates, the electromechanical design was by Yfantis engineering and the contractor was Sychem.

The “Oval” is not only a spectacular office building reminiscent of the pebbly beaches of Cyprus, but also has a state-of-the-art technological facility with advanced energy and water saving technologies.

Dynamic flow control, condensate recovery and a range of state-of-the-art technologies make it a sustainable building that sets new standards in environmental performance in Cyprus and throughout Southern Europe. Products from aquatherm have contributed significantly to this.

The “Oval” features a bioclimatic design with appropriate orientation and insulation to minimize energy requirements, plus all lighting is LED. It is the first multi-storey building in Cyprus with a Class A energy efficiency certificate and the first building with a decentralised open geo-exchange system in Southern Europe.

A total of eight drill holes are located within the perimeter of the site. The water present there is pumped into the building at a temperature of 19 to 22 ° C, passes through the heat exchangers in the basement and then returns to the re-entry wells. Starting from the machine room, the heat pumps of each office are fed via a riser pipe. Each office has a small technical room in a cupboard, which provides room cooling, room heating and hot water. This innovative design allows energy savings, total autonomy in any office, high reliability and excellent building aesthetics as there are no external units.

The complete piping of the heating and cooling circuits in the building including the connection to the geothermal system and the heat exchangers was realized with aquatherm blue pipe and aquatherm green pipe.

Thanks to the material polypropylene, the piping systems are not only corrosion-free, but also guarantee decades of trouble-free operation thanks to their secure, material-locking connection.

Many components of this project were still prefabricated in the aquatherm factory and delivered to the construction site ready for installation.

For the customer, this not only meant a significant time saving, but also reduced the impact of the shortage of skilled workers in the region. After all, all that had to be done on site was to join the sections together, so fewer skilled workers were needed.