Citibank One Bay East, Hong Kong

WSP was called on for support at an early stage following the bank’s decision to take 18 floors at One Bay East, a new-build Grade A office development in the new and rapidly growing Central Business District of Kowloon East. Our role as MEP consultant was to ensure the client achieved high standards of energy efficiency, environmental and wellbeing standards in excess of the requirements of LEED Platinum. Furthermore, WSP would need to implement the bank’s own stringent, international fit-out standards, whilst also meeting local codes and regulations.

Covering around 330,000 sq. ft., Citibank’s tenancy was confirmed before building work on One Bay East had been completed. Importantly, this meant our designers were able to review the base building infrastructure. Working together with the developer, client, and consultant teams, we ensured the base building MEP provisions were tailored to the needs of Citi’s office fit-out. Upgrades to the building base would contribute to creating high performance space with a focus on worker wellbeing and energy efficiency. Reporting how the standards were maintained would be a consistent and key part of the project.

In addition to contributing to the building base, our design team provided MEP engineering support aiming at high performance energy efficient design for the offices’ final fit-out, including client meeting rooms, boardrooms, call centre, work stations, dining area and breakout spaces. We also provided support in designing main server room and floor server rooms for general office and call centre. We made sure that our design followed the bank’s Global Workplace Design Guide with customisation to meet the specific project needs.

A notable challenge was creating a suitable space for a gym - an essential component of Citibank’s new workplace because access to fitness facilities is required for WELL certification. The original building structure didn’t allow adequate fresh air for its proposed gym so WSP suggested relocating the facility to a floor above a sky garden (situated on the second floor). This allowed fresh air to be drawn up from the elevated green space into the fitness centre.

Supplying Citibank’s meeting rooms with fresh air was another concern due to limitations with the original base building MEP provisions. To meet WELL requirements for reduced CO2 content and superior air ventilation, we installed CO2 sensors to a regular air handling unit fresh air dampener. LEED environmental achievements for the project were wide ranging and spanned its whole life-cycle.

For example, occupancy sensors feature in 98% of the building’s lighting, and 53% of the lighting has daylight controls. The system is managed through a Digital Addressable Lighting Interface (DALI) that enables the building’s facilities managers to access, and manage, multidirectional lighting data. Motion sensors are used to manage the HVAC system, too. Wireless lighting switches and sensors were used to provide flexibility of space so that re-wiring for lighting provision will not be needed for the future reconfiguration of the office space.

WSP’s support in providing energy efficient MEP design at One Bay East contributed to the creation of a high performance workspace that achieved LEED Platinum Certification and WELL Silver pre-certification.