Baku White City
BREEAM certification

Historical context
The Baku White City project is being implemented in the territory of the so-called Black City in the east of the capital of Azerbaijan, where at the end of the XIX century oil industry enterprises were located. The history of this industrial district is more than a century old. In the second half of the XIX century, the provincial authorities of Baku allocated plots of land for the construction of oil plants and transferred all oil production facilities to one zone.

It was strictly forbidden to build plants outside this area in order to improve sanitary conditions in the city. The new industrial district appeared in the distance (more than 2 km) from residential areas of Baku. By 1880, there were already 118 enterprises in the new district, and by 1905 most of the city's oil refineries were located here. Exactly because of black soot and smoke of factory buildings the district got its own name.
Here is how Boris Akunin describes this territory in his novel "The Black City": "Erast Petrovich looked at it: it was not trees, but towers. Wooden and metal, high and not very high, they filled the whole plain. Perhaps, this spectacle resembled not a forest, but a cemetery, closely set up with black obelisks. The factory pipes were sticking out almost as tightly. It was all smoky, sooty, sooty, sooty... What seemed to the traveler a storm cloud was actually a very dense smog.
"As it develops, the territory of the former "Black City" turns into a dynamic and comfortable business and living environment, which represents a new stage in Baku's life itself. The high status of the project and its importance for the country pay special attention to the problems of environmental protection. To certify the first "green" building, the project team of the Baku White City Office Building business center chose the BREEAM standard, as this standard is distinguished by a comprehensive scientific approach and compliance with international best practices in the assessment of energy-efficient buildings," the customer company representatives comment on the issue.

Baku White City is the largest redevelopment project to be built on the reclaimed territory of the former industrial region.

Heydar Aliyev, the national leader of Azerbaijan, considered one of the priority tasks to turn the Black City district into one of the most beautiful corners of the capital.

The foundation of the Baku White City project was laid on 24 December 2011, and the first office building was commissioned on 24 December 2014.

This is the first facility in the country to be certified according to the BREEAM international environmental standard.

Certification process
The project team started the evaluation of the building in February 2014 during the construction phase of the facility. The certificate was received in December 2014. As a result, the certification of the object took only 10 months. The customer has started certification at the construction stage, which limited the ability to achieve the highest possible ratings.

While implementing certification measures in full, there were difficulties associated with the environmental organization of design and construction of the facility. The environmental strategy was incorporated into the project as early as at the sketch stage, as it was developed by Atkins, a well-known British architectural company. International best practices and standards were applied during the preparation of the working documentation, and the principles of passive design were applied in the design.

In the process of certification the models of computer simulation of natural illumination and energy consumption were used. In addition, the total carbon footprint of the project throughout its life cycle was calculated, which in itself is an innovative methodology for evaluating the interaction of the building with the environment. The project scored the highest points on BREEAM in the categories Health and Well-Being, Transport Accessibility and Economical Water Consumption.
The experience of certification of this unique architectural project has shown that quality architecture is often not enough to achieve high ratings.

It is important not only to design quality, but also to observe all measures related to the environmental organization of research, design and construction.

User characteristics
Particular attention was paid to creating a comfortable environment when designing the building. During the sketch phase, a special study was carried out to plan acoustic comfort inside the building, and the insolation of all rooms was also taken into account.

Specialists considered various options for orientation of the building in space, and as a result, architects were able to achieve the maximum insolation for 100% of jobs (Fig. 2). The negative impact of the building's shading of the surrounding buildings was also reduced (Fig. 3). The design of the office building provides for a reduction in the total number of columns in all rooms, which allows for a variety in the organization of space of each office, freedom in the choice of layout and placement of equipment and furniture.
Room layouts allow for the arrangement of workstations with a view of the street for all employees, which reduces the risk of eye diseases, provides communication with the world around them and helps to increase productivity. The surface of the ceilings in almost all rooms is not disturbed by protruding beams, which provides greater ceiling height and increases the depth of daylight penetration.
The quality of the visual environment directly depends on artificial lighting, for the planning of which international best practices - EN 12 464 standard - have been applied.

This standard not only takes into account such indicators as the illuminance of the work surface, but also the unevenness of the light, the colour rendering index, the zoning of the lighting control and the glossiness of the luminaires.

A mechanical ventilation system ensures air exchange in rooms, and there are also windows that can be opened for ventilation. The quality of the indoor air largely depends on the environmentally friendly finishing materials used. This is due to the emission of pollutants inside the building for a considerable period of time. Emissions of toxic substances have a carcinogenic effect and can accumulate in the body, which is very harmful to human health.

To reduce this effect, materials with a reduced VOC content are used in the office building. The air conditioning and ventilation system complies with international standards for reducing the risk of legionellosis in buildings.
In order to ensure a comfortable working environment in the building there are small common kitchens for all tenants. Each kitchen has a flowing cooler, which provides clean drinking water for all comers. Flowing coolers are good not only because they provide a continuous supply of cold and hot drinking water, but also because the result is a reduction in carbon emissions from the transportation of bottled water. In addition, such coolers are considered more hygienic, as they are more carefully maintained than coolers designed for ordinary bottled water. The water supply system in the building is equipped with water filtration and softening equipment. The uninterrupted water supply tank is treated with a special antibacterial coating.

Read more