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| Europe's first LEED platinum shopping centre in Stockholm Liljehomstorget Galleria, a shopping centre developed and owned by Finnish real estate firm Citycon, has been awarded a platinum LEED environmental certificate, the highest available. This Stockholm-based centre is the first shopping centre in Europe to achieve the highest LEED classification, and one of the world's few platinum-rated buildings of any kind. The LEED certificate, awarded by the U.S. Green Building Certification Institute, is the best recognized international classification system rating buildings' environmental impacts. Liljeholmstorget has an excellent location in Liljeholmen, an urban redevelopment area. The centre is integrated with a metro station, a bus service hub terminal and a tramline. Built underground, the parking hall optimises land use, which is hugely important to this shopping centre situated in a densely built city structure. Liljeholmen is one of Stockholm's fastest growing employment and residential districts. Water facilities within the centre use around 40 per cent less water than standard solutions. Energy simulations reveal an energy saving of 18.9 per cent based on standard comparison values. In addition, each set of retail premises has its own electricity meter, while air conditioning is based on district cooling and the centre's electricity is generated from wind power. The centre's waste sorting solutions guarantee a high degree of recycling, and 95 percent of waste from the construction phase was also recycled. Most construction material are locally produced, no more than 800 kilometres away from the centre. Indoor air quality is outstanding: ventilation exceeds the ASHRAE standard by 30 percent, in addition to which low-emission materials were selected as building materials, releasing the minimum odours and particles into indoor air. A special feature in Liljeholmstorget is the green roof between the shopping centre and the neighbouring office building. Even the parking hall promotes low emissions; low-emission cars are directed to separate, green parking grids. Leveraging plot efficiency and the aim to create a dense urban structure close to services, new apartments have been built on top of the shopping centre. Liljeholmstorget is the Nordic countries' first platinum-level building and Europe's first platinum shopping centre. It already represents Citycon's third LEED-certificated project. Last summer, the Trio shopping centre in Finland was awarded the Nordic countries' first certificate, while at the beginning of 2010 the Rocca al Mare shopping centre attained the Baltic countries' first, silver certificate. write your comments about the article :: © 2010 Construction News :: home page |