The Suzlon One Earth Corporate Headquarters campus spread over ten acres of land in Hadapsar, Pune, India. However, the place conceived with a business and practical need to bring all trade verticals and corporate services under 1 roof. That although connected to each other would be independent sufficiently to be able to act as per their respective needs and requirements.

Case Study of Suzlon One Earth Corporate Headquarters

• Location: Hadapsar, Pune, India.
• Site area: 4,53,930sq. feet  
• Client –Suzlon Energy Ltd.
• Principal Architect –Christopher Charles Benninger Architects
• Landscape Architects –Ravi and Varsha Gavandi
• Interior Architects –Tao Architecture and Space Matrix
• Green Building Design and Certification –Environmental Design Solution

Project Typology

The campus is a Corporate Campus. Also, the occupancy profile of the campus twenty-four by seven global shared service providers and the think-tank’ for the globe across all places. However, the headquarters changed from a strategic center to a global control headquarter.

Philosophy of Suzlon One Earth Corporate Headquarters

To be a corporation that serves communities with sufferable wind power on a commercial scale with a focus. On continuously growing efficiency and reliability of wind turbines. With a philosophy that emphasizes innovation, to drive every aspect; the company has turned the dream of a greener world into a sustainable and profitable business.

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About site

This location surrounded by large townships and IT parks. The site rests amidst a fast-growing suburb context. The Corporate Campus developed by M/s Vascon Hadapsar Venture. The Plot Area is approximately 45,392 sq.m. The built-up area shall be approximately 70865.58 sq.m.The Campus shall also accommodate approximately 2500 Suzlon Employees.

Concept of Suzlon One Earth Corporate Headquarters

• Low rise campus.
• Flexible and Adaptable.
• Functional and durable.
• Integration of inside and outside.
• A green building.
• Based on the regulations of Vaastu and even climatic reaction the building developed in such a manner.
• The southwest side of the structure put with an overload water tank and with minimum openings/windows.
• The center ‘Bramhasthal’ of the building is open to the sky to get enough light.
• The direction of the building is North-South direction.
• The water feature should be on the east side of the plot.

• All sides of the structure have roads for better accessibility.
• The team was conscious of the reality that each of the Suzlon values should reflect and express itself in the campus design, interiors, landscape, and communication.
• The integrity seen in the campus design with connected buildings through some service elements.
• All the possible sides have peripheral routes and entry from them. (indirect access)
• The northeast part of the structure is low in elevation and has the highest openings.
• The entire plot divided into 2 parts with the corporate building placed on the eastern side and the learning center placed on the western side.

Planning & Design

Sustainability regulations have scrupulously adhered to, right from site selection and design to engineering, construction, materials, and operations. This includes usage of native flora, minimizing both environmental impact and decreasing the need for landscaping water, low-energy/green materials, proper orientation of the building facades that ensures adequate daylighting and minimizes glare, etc.

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Architectural features of Suzlon One Earth Corporate Headquarters

• Suzlon One Earth derives its inspiration from big Indian historical campuses like Fatehpur Sikri and the Meenakshi Temple complex in Madurai.
• Both employ an inter-positioning of open and closed spaces that counteracts one another. Both have strong horizontal features that tie the complexes together and accent qualities that emphasize quadrants and sacred places, like the Gopura at Meenakshi.
• The Panch Mahal at Fatehpur Sikri, a multi-storied construction. That maintains its scale through the employment of modular construction, whose elements expressed, imparting the structure scale and proportions. In these recorded precedents, there are also water bodies and open courtyards, as in Suzlon One Earth.
• It is the need of the hour that architecture should borrow components of critical rationalism, with overhangs, louvers, pergolas, courtyards, water, and natural light permeation
• The design strategy started with the premise of creating a central meeting space, or Brahmasthan, with the sky as its ceiling.
• There is visible access to the big central gardens from everyplace. They act as visible connectors between all the floors.
• The Deepa Stambh, set in the middle of the Suzlon reflecting pool. The waterbody in the lineal basin links the Brahmasthal to a fountain toward the east. These auspicious elements protect the campus from unwanted influences and create a central focus and landmark. They carry very Indian elements within a very global, high-tech ambiance.
• A big water body in the central court helps in enhancing the air quality and evaporative cooling. All the exterior landscape areas brought into the indoors along the perimeter of the structure bringing fresh air, nature, and natural light into the work areas so as to improve the productivity of occupants.

The Campus is designed to be 1 of the Greenest campus and is certified as:

Platinum rated building under LEED® India NC

LEED®: The leadership in Energy and Environmental Design rating method was developed and piloted in the US. The Indian Green Building Council has assumed the LEED method and has undertaken the LEED India version for a rating of new construction (NC).

5 Star rated building under GRIHA rating system

GRIHA: Green Rating for Integrated Habitat Assessment is a green rating system produced by The Energy Resources Institute (TERI), promoted by the Ministry of New and Renewable Energy (MNRE) as the Government of India’s National rating system.

Also, the headquarter was designed to bring together corporate leadership and senior staff in a specific building that reflected corporate deals and to provide a focal point for staff growth and learning. The building was constructed at an optimum construction cost while resulting in lower life-cycle costs and a smaller environmental footprint.

The tangible saving can be outlined as follows:

Sustainability is the hallmark of this building while the impact is an inspiring place to work. Sustainable solutions and routines are integrated towards efficiency and are described in the following sections.

Energy Efficiency Solutions

• During the design phase, installed load decreased from 6.5 MVA to 4 MVA due to energy-efficient facilities of HVAC and Lighting.
• Total Connected Electrical Load – 4 MVA. Anticipated directive during the full process of campus – 2.3 MVA
• Energy Efficient devices like VFDs, LED lights, etc. are used broadly throughout the facility and centrally regulated through IBMS. The power order during the processes is substantially low as analogized with the buildings created and built as per the National Building Code and ASHRAE standards.

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Innovative Approach at Suzlon One Earth Corporate Headquarters

• 63 MVA capacity off-site Wind Turbines to compensate with the total installed an electrical load of 4 MVA. While the need would be around 2.3 MVA.
• Approx 35 kW of renewable energy is linked to the contact server and hence the contact server at One Earth functions on green energy.
• 100% exterior lighting is on renewable energy.
• Partly air situations and internal lighting load are also on this system.
• Around 5% of the total energy requirement of One Earth will be fulfilled from on-site renewable energy installations.
• 100% renewable energy campus with on and off-site renewable energy.

Innovative lighting (Indoor and outdoor)

• One earth the 1st campus in India wherein LED lights used much for external general lighting to achieve preferred levels of energy conservation.
• The total load of exterior lighting is only 50 kW for the whole campus.
• External light design is on the basis of the lowest light pollution at night.
• All structures designed to harvest the highest daylight via glass & louvers with almost 90% of the users not requiring switching on lights during daytime.
• Big parking spaces, Common conference rooms, separate cabins provided with occupancy sensors while parking areas and open work stations equipped with daylight sensors to control lighting load.
• The whole office space provided with task lighting over the working spaces and is controlled separately as well as through occupancy sensors.
• 1850 meters of LED strips used for exterior lighting give the structure a floating effect. However, there is no UV, no heat dissipation from the usage of these lights and their lifespan is for 30,000 and 5,000 burning hours.
• Landscape lighting fixed in a way that it will complement and illuminate the components of the architecture and landscape as imagined by the designers. According to LEED necessity, the landscape cannot have more than five percent of light load as upward light hence very few up lighters are used that illuminate only what is needed and yet gives the entire garden a highly enhanced ambiance.

About the Deepa Stambh

• The Deepa Stambh (tower of light) located as a pivotal campus component uses fiber optics for all 40 arms of the tower which come out of a single box, which is maintenance-friendly and that makes the lamp accessible for repair etc.
• The common areas created by the buildings have been provided a very beautiful lounge effect which is created by indirect lighting. The designer has played with light and darkness as much as possible which has seen the lighting merging with the landscape so as to not overpower architecture and landscape features.

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About HVAC system

• One Earth is the first project in India to deploy Water-Cooled Variable VRV (Variable Refrigerant Volume) system fabricated by Diakin, Japan.
• A water-cooled VRV method is supposed to be the most energy-efficient system compared to a conventional system. However, the power consumption is as low as 0.5 k W/TR.
• The water being used in the air conditioning system is entirely developed through the sewage treatment plant. It is because of these design features the A/C load has been decreased by 40 percent as compared to any other conventional building of this scale.
•  While the main air conditioning system is water-cooled VRV based, the short occupancy zones like lift lobbies, learning center lobbies, cafeteria, gymnasium, etc are air-conditioned by the indirect evaporative cooling system. It cools air without refrigeration on a principle very similar to a desert cooler but without the addition of moisture.

HVAC load substantially reduced right at the design stage by value additions such as:

• Providing insulation at the roof
• Use of high-performance glasses
• Energy recovery from return air using Treated Fresh Air Units (TFAs)
• Use of multi-stage evaporative cooling systems for common areas such as cafeteria, basement cores, etc.
• Treated fresh air units installed on each floor are designed to provide 30 % fresh air in the office area as compared to 20% as per the guidelines mentioned in the ASHRAE standards.
• Treated Fresh Air (TFA) units combined with CO2 sensors and maintained through IBMS.
• A fully automatic Mechanized Ductless Ventilation system is provided for the terminus. It has connected with CO sensors which controlled through IBMS. As a result, it saves around 80% of the energy as compared to a conventional duct basement.

Materials used in Suzlon One Earth Corporate Headquarters

To reduce impacts resulting from the extraction and processing of new virgin materials, products with high recycled content used, which measure about 13.26% of the total value of the materials in the project. The use of PPC cement for nonstructural places with fly ash, use of Rerolled reinforcement steel, Fly Ash Bricks, High recycled content carpets, and modular ceilings are also a part of the Green design features.

To support the regional economy and reduce the environmental impact resulting from transportation. However, around 80% of regional materials (within a radius of 800 km) used in this project. Out of this around 20% of regional materials have extracted and manufactured regionally.

Also, rapidly renewable materials like Tarkett Bamboo flooring, Asis Board, Archidply, Interface Carpets, Cotton/ Jute carpets were and amounted to 5.89% of the building material cost.

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Indoor Environment Quality

• The campus is nonsmoking.
• CO2 Sensors have been provided in densely amused spaces and workstation areas to monitor. Also, maintain CO2 levels inside the building.
• An HVAC system created for 30% additional ventilation rates needed by ASHRAE Standard.
• Additionally, low emitting materials – to reduce the number of indoor air contaminants Low Emitting Adhesives, Sealants, Paints Carpets and composite wood creations have been used.
• 3M Mats used at the entrances to stop dust from entering the structure. Separate exhausts for the photocopier rooms, separate plumbing at selected service rooms.
• Task lights have furnished for individual control for all the workstations and occupancy detectors are provided for all the areas such as cabins, meeting rooms, and workstation areas.
• For Thermal Control openable boards are provided in the glazing for more than
• 50% of building occupants. Also, there are remote controls for each Indoor VRV unit for thermal control.
• Multi occupant spaces provided with the multi-functional light module, DSI Smart Sensor oculus, CEFL PIR Occus switches.
• More than 75% of spaces have designed to get daylight & more than 90% of occupants have views of the outdoors. The workstations designed with low partition for better external view.
• The basement designed to be an active part of the structure and not a dead-end meant only as a parking area. It houses the cafeteria and the central plaza and receives useful daylight through punctures in the upper slab. The result of this approach is a sense of openness and visuals.

Zero Waste Policy of Suzlon One Earth Corporate Headquarters

In addition, a Zero Waste Policy has developed that slated to evolve a very ambitious, committed, and synchronous part of Suzlon’s already designated list of Green Corporate Social Measures. The Zero Waste Policy will navigate people to redesign their resource use system with the aim of decreasing waste to zero. It will also help to make people understand that resources such as paper, cardboard, food, etc. should use responsibly in order to complete a green office environment. The policy will protect the basic knowledge that waste management starts at an individual level and that the person generating waste should be aware of its importance.

Suzlon has determined various processes to identify and develop the human behavioral skills necessary to understand and respect the inter-relationship between man and his bio-physical surrounding. In addition, the entire One Earth campus is based upon the principle of initiating and promoting awareness about sustainability. Also, among the various communication strategies adopted at Suzlon One Earth are Green Design Education, Green Signage, and the Green Tour. These strategies consider the built environment in its totality and create a continuous process for effectively communicating the goals of social sustainability through the building and its users.

Construction on Renewable Energy

The project offsets more than 50% of the annual energy consumption used during construction with renewable energy. Also, this is the most unique path have taken by any project to ensure dedicated concern towards the atmosphere.

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