In the heart of La Défense – Europe’s largest purpose-built business district – stands the Majunga tower, owned by Unibail Rodamco. This skyscraper reinvents the concept of office buildings, in that it is designed to be at the service of the people who use it and to harmonise with its business and city surroundings. At 195 meters, Tour Majunga is the second-tallest tower in France, after the First tower.
Breaking with the monolithic architecture that characterised towers of generations past, Majunga is a building that is open, bright, and environmentally friendly. Distinguishing features include a façade comprising three vertical strips that suggest movement through subtle variations in their shape, to offer outdoor areas on every floor (loggias or balconies), an open area every two panels, and 2,000 m² of terraces and gardens around the base of the building.
Ever since its design phase, the Majunga project has aimed to create a building that enables its occupants to significantly reduce their energy consumption and carbon footprint. Specifically, the building has a primary energy consumption of less than 80 kWh PE/m2 /year, which is five times more efficient than other office blocks1 . Meanwhile, its carbon footprint is four times lower than the average for buildings on the outskirts of Paris. In recognition of this, the tower won a BREEAM Award in 2012, and attained BREEAM and HQE certification in the ‘Excellent’ category in the design phase.
Schneider Electric – a global specialist in energy management and leader in energy efficiency – played an important role in the Majunga project, providing the building with its electrical distribution system with digital services and solutions that bring greater efficiency and comfort.
‘Unibail-Rodamco envision Majunga upon the concept of “new way of working” with changing working patterns,’ says Bruno Donjon de Saint Martin, Managing Director – Offices – France at Unibail-Rodamco. ‘For this, it is essential to be able to provide operators with suitable tools for energy and space management but also provide residents with services making their life easier, both for comfort and collaboration services. Schneider Electric’s solution meets these expectations in a digital way, which is perfectly in line with our vision of the commercial property.’
The backbone of a smart building is its BMS (Building Management System)
A key part of Schneider Electric’s collaboration in the creation of Majunga was the integration of its building energy management system, SmartStruxure™ solution powered by StruxureWare™ Building Operation software, helping to achieve the very highest levels of space management and energy efficiency.
This system improves upon traditional BMSs, and offers a wide range of services to satisfy users and owner expectations in terms of both comfort and efficiency. The SmartStruxure™ solution enables analysis and monitoring of the building’s performance throughout its entire life cycle, bringing together control and management of the building’s energy distribution, HVAC, lighting, blinds, and fire safety.
Comfort and space management
In order to create a work environment that is both comfortable and productive, while simultaneously reducing energy consumption, Schneider Electric implemented the WorkPlace Efficiency™ service in the Majunga tower. The system connects a network of sensors (installed in strategic positions throughout the building) with radio frequency identification (RFID) tags inserted into employees badge holders. Anonymity is respected at all times and there is no risk to people’s health. The tags transmit information to the sensors via radio, meaning that real-time occupation of each different space can be monitored. In this way, the system can use the data collected in different zones to assign spaces and make sizing calculations according to real needs at any given time. It can also adjust lighting and HVAC levels to optimise energy performance.
This technology proves to be extremely useful, for example, for improved management of meeting room reservations in large workplaces. The real-time application Meeting Room Finder™ works with the WorkPlace Efficiency™ technology. Employees can see which rooms are available, and they can reserve them from their computer, tablet or smartphone in line with their needs, which could relate to the type of space (meeting room, cubicle) or the location (floor, zone, etc.). When a room is reserved at a certain time, the system can detect whether the space is occupied in the first 15 minutes; if not, it can send a cancellation email to the person that made the reservation or cancel the reservation directly. If the administrator agrees to cancel the reservation, the room automatically appears as available again on all the other users’ mobile terminals.
Better-informed decisions regarding energy savings and efficiency.
Furthermore, the system compares real occupancy rates with the reservations made and each room’s capacity. This provides additional information on the rooms’ real usage and occupancy, which can be of great use if it later becomes necessary to redistribute the space. Thanks to the information provided by the WorkPlace Efficiency™ service, it is possible to track the use of space throughout the building life cycle, some valuable data for real estate managers.
Upon their arrival, users can connect to the Majunga tower services portal, enabling them to remotely control the rooms’ lighting, temperature, and blinds from their smartphone, thereby adjusting their workspace comfort to their own taste. The system also makes it possible to regulate the building automatically in accordance with the sustainability objectives defined by the Energy Efficiency Manager. The system turns off devices that are not in use, instead of setting them in stand-by mode. As an example, turning off a DVD player can save up to 80-90% on its total energy consumption. Thanks to the 3D modelisation of the building integrated into WorkPlace Efficiency™, the SunTraking™ feature calculates the sun trajectory and its impact on each window, so as to pilot the blinds and light accordingly, respecting users’ comfort and energy efficiency. Finally, the system gives a real-time view of all of the building’s consumption defined by type of use and by zone. This provides improved knowledge of the building’s performance, which in turn leads to better-informed decisions regarding energy savings and efficiency.
