MEP Engineering Award of Excellence: The Exchange 106, Kuala Lumpur
Ji Li
Technical Director
Beca, Auckland
Ali Moghaddasi
Chief Development Officer
Mulia Group, Jakarta
To Deliver Efficient MEP Services to a Supertall Building, a Strong Backbone is Needed
At The Exchange 106, only three main MEP floors are integrated within the structural systems located on the tower’s lower, middle and upper sections. To coordinate with the limited number of MEP floors, the systems are designed with high static pressure backbone systems, but with low-pressure end-user runouts, using the limited number of pressure-break stations. The drainage systems are designed to capture and recycle almost every drop of water on the site, including rainwater, condensate and wastewater. The eight-level basement car park ventilation system is arranged vertically, with fans installed in the blockwork risers without any horizontal ductwork, allowing long structural spans, which afford increased parking efficiency and lower floor-to-floor heights.
To accommodate the single MEP floor in the middle of the building, the backbone systems such as the chiller plant are designed to withstand up to 2,100KPa of static pressure. To allow the use of standard commercial air handling plant, the static pressure outlets is limited to a maximum of 1,000KPa by using single-stage pressure-break heat exchangers. The car park ventilation systems for the car park are arranged vertically with axial fans installed in the riser shafts only. Jet fans are used to drive the horizontal air distribution through the car park, which avoids the use of horizontal ducts. Energy wheels are provided between the outdoor air supply and the spill air for thermal recovery, to limit the impact of the tropical ambient conditions. The volume of outdoor air is automatically modulated by indoor air quality sensors, to give an appropriate amount of fresh air for any given occupancy.
