ANZ is one of the four leading banks in Australia and one of the two major tenants of the new ANZ Tower being constructed at 161 Castlereagh Street, Sydney. The other major tenant is the global law firm Herbert Smith Freehills. Designed by leading architects Francis-Jones Morehan Thorp and being constructed by Grocon, 161 Castlereagh Street has been awarded the highest possible 6 Star Green Star - Office Design v2 rating by the Green Building Council of Australia. Due for completion in March 2013, 161 Castlereagh Street has a Net Lettable Area of 57,000 m² over 44 levels and features a number of sustainability features including high efficiency chillers, a tri-generation plant, a thermally shielded automated façade and rainwater harvesting. The design of the building's iconic roof structure and highly glazed façade allows high levels of daylight into the floor-plate.
One of the key sustainability initiatives in the building is the KNX lighting control system from KNX Award-winning System Integrator mySmartCTI. At over 1,800 devices this is the largest and one of the most prestigious KNX projects in Australia.
A challenge has been the interfacing of the tenants' AV requirements into the KNX lighting control solution. To achieve this over 30 AMX KNX interfaces have been used throughout the building's meeting spaces allowing the setting of lighting scenes and controlling the curtains and blinds within these rooms. Furthermore an Ethernet backbone runs through the building linking the NETx Automation Voyager based lighting control server to the various KNX networks. Finally the KNX lighting control solution is interfaced to the Building Management System via a KNX/BACnet Interface. This allows scheduling of the lighting in areas throughout the building including offices, carparks and the external lighting and signage from the BMS.
The energy efficiency measures that can be achieved with an intelligent KNX system were one of the deciding factors for a KNX solution. Trough intelligent lighting functions increased energy efficiency combined with a comfortable working environment due to optimum lighting levels have been realized. By an efficient control strategy after-hours lighting wastage is minimized. Furthermore the KNX solution is highly flexible for changes in tenants/uses.
To ensure the building's lighting system uses the minimum amount of energy daylight harvesting and presence/absence detection strategies have been employed. KNX detectors throughout the building constantly monitor the ambient daylight levels across the floor and automatically adjust the lighting to suit. Combined with the presence detectors this ensures that the optimum light level is delivered whilst reducing energy wastage. Specific attention has been paid to after-hours lighting. Naturally the safety and security of any occupants working late is paramount and this is ensured whilst also using a minimum level of energy to do so. This is achieved through the highly flexible lighting control solution and numerous user interface points.