The Council on Tall Buildings and Urban Habitat (CTBUH) has announced Kohn Pedersen Fox Associates' International Commerce Centre in Hong Kong as the winner of its first ever Performance Award. The new award recognizes the project with the lowest measured environmental impact on the urban realm, as measured using actual data from the completed construction.
The CTBUH explains the need for the prize, saying: "Most awards programs focus on design intent, as opposed to actual performance – often well-intentioned projects are not revisited, and thus not held accountable." KPF's 484-metre tall office tower won the prize based largely on its policy of collecting and sharing performance data.
Read on after the break for more on the award
According to the Council, the award was established "to help the tall-building industry reverse a persistent and counterproductive trend – the resistance of building owners and managers to releasing valuable performance data, particularly energy data, from which the entire industry could benefit."
The decision to award the inaugural Performance Award to the ICC was a reflection of its computerized building management system, its best-practice maintenance policy, and a scheme which helps the building's tenants to make achieve the best possible levels of energy efficiency, with each tenant assigned their own account manager to document and report their energy use.
CTBUH also notes that "As an economic and commercial validation of this approach, the building is 98 percent occupied," adding to its efficiency overall.
In addition to the overall winner, the awards jury also commended the Jin Mao Tower in Shanghai, as another good example of a building which documents and actively pursues energy efficiency.
The winners will receive their award at the CTBUH Awards Symposium, along with other winners including Best Tall Building and Best Urban Habitat, at the Illinois Institute of Technology on November 6th.
