aquatherm products contributed to BREEAM certification of a shopping and leisure centre in Seville – The “Centro comercial y de ocio familiar Lagoh” in Seville, Spain, built in 2019, is much more than a shopping center.
On a total area of more than 100,000 square metres, the largest commercial and leisure district in the capital of the southern Spanish region of Andalusia not only has around 200 shops offering everything from fashion to multimedia and household goods, but also, among other things, a 6,000 square metre lake.
The lake was designed as the focal point of the complex and functions as a place for rest areas, playgrounds, viewpoints and water, light and sound shows. A spacious gastronomic area offers national and international cuisine and numerous seating options with direct lake views. The design of the shopping and leisure centre goes hand in hand with the latest architectural trends. Socimi Lar Spain has invested around 260 million euros in the project.
One aspect was at the forefront of the planning: respect for the environment. The building services should meet this objective and be designed to be particularly sustainable in order to achieve BREEAM certification for sustainable construction. For this reason, the specialist planners from the engineering firms JG Ingenieros and IDOM selected systems that would enable the BREEAM requirements to be met.
For the distribution of the drinking water in the building complex and the piping of the air conditioning systems two systems from aquatherm were used: aquatherm blue and aquatherm green. Both piping systems are made of polypropylene, which is 100 percent recyclable and thus meets the requirements for sustainable construction.
Requirements for sustainable construction fulfilled
Thanks to their corrosion resistance, the two systems are extremely durable and continue to operate in an energy-saving manner even after decades, as the water flow is not impaired by deposits. The secure connection technology makes the systems something special: In “fusion welding”, the pipe and fitting are briefly heated and then joined together. As a result, the plastic fuses into a homogeneous, materially bonded unit and is more stable than before at the connection point – which is critical with other systems. A quick assembly is guaranteed.
A decisive factor for the planners was that the pipes and fittings are also available in large dimensions up to 630 mm. Thus all requirements of the project could be covered.
The good availability of the material as well as the technical support by the Spanish sales partner aquatherm iberica S.L. in Madrid were also decisive for the use of the piping systems.
Smooth operation of the air conditioning system
In order to guarantee the drinking water distribution in the building complex, a total of nine kilometres of aquatherm green were installed. The hygienically perfect and odourless as well as tasteless piping system guarantees the preservation of the drinking water quality permanently. aquatherm green pipe is not only corrosion resistant, but physiologically and microbiologically harmless and has proven its technical suitability in decades of worldwide application.
For the piping of the fan coils, which are used throughout the building for air conditioning, the planners decided on aquatherm blue. Around twelve kilometers of the pipe were used to ensure the smooth operation of the air conditioning system for many decades.
Because: In contrast to steel pipes often used in air conditioning systems, which are particularly susceptible to corrosion on the outside of the pipe, corrosion damage is a thing of the past with aquatherm blue thanks to the material polypropylene.
The client and planners were equally satisfied with the use of the two piping systems. The speed of installation and the high quality of the pipes and fittings were particularly convincing. With the help of aquatherm products the BREEAM rating “Very Good” was achieved.
