MEGA Silk Way, Kazakhstan

The largest Shopping Mall in Kazakhstan

Project Details

  • Scheme & Version: BREEAM In-Use International 2015
  • Certification Stage: In-Use
  • Rating: Excellent
  • Overall Score: 75.4%

Project Team

  • Developer / Client: Mega Plaza, LLP
  • Architect: Chapman Taylor
  • Assessor Company: E.E.S. Consult Natalia Naumova

About the Building

MEGA Silk Way is a new chapter for the MEGA shopping malls network. The British studio Chapman Taylor designed the large-scale and impressively-sized mall in a new and actively-developing district of the capital of Kazakhstan – the city of Nur-Sultan.

Currently, this is the most modern shopping and entertainment center in Kazakhstan, built in the capital of the country as the company’s flagship cutting-edge facility among shopping and entertainment centers in Central Asia. MEGA Silk Way is an important project in terms of tourism and investment prospects of the capital; it combines the best qualities of other MEGA network shopping malls.

MEGA Silk Way is built in accordance with BREEAM requirements. The introduction of the BREEAM standard in the MEGA Group of Companies, as well as the adaptation of operational policy and characteristics of building to the best international practices, was a strategic task for the Client, indicating progressive views on social and economic development, and providing an increase in the number of performance indicators.

The building is designed on the principle of a “shopping street”; shopping streets are popular both in European culture and in the Eastern bazaars of the Great Silk Way. It is a “city within a city” with its own “streets” and sheltered “areas”. Around the building, the author’s object d’arts are displayed in the form of sculptures, panel pictures and cache-pots.

The main advantage of the mall is the unique concept of social space. 1,5 million m3 of internal space in MEGA Silk Way is bright and airy so that visitors always feel comfortable. The building has 3 levels: 2 elevated floors and 1 lower ground floor; 9 entrances, 2 of which are underground. It has parking for 2,113 cars, including 410 underground parking spots. The ratio of the commercial premises of the shopping and recreation center to the gross floor area is 53%; this said, a third of the commercial premises (32%) is occupied by educational, sports, and entertainment facilities. Attendance at the shopping and recreation center is 1.1 million people a month.

MEGA Silk Way is uniquely located. Across the street from the shopping and entertainment center are the campus and main building of the country’s leading university – Nazarbayev University. About 5,000 students study there. The teaching staff of the university comprise more than 600 professors, lecturers and assistants from more than 50 countries. The Astana International Financial Centre (AIFC), which operates within the countries of Central Asia, the states of the Trans-Caucasian region, the EAEU, the Middle East, Western China, Mongolia and European countries, is within walking distance. The shopping and entertainment center is located near the Nur Alem sphere and EXPO-2017 pavilions, which hundreds of thousands of tourists from Kazakhstan and abroad visit every year.

Why did the building undergo BREEAM certification?

The selection of BREEAM as a corporate standard was carried out 5 years ago on the basis of a detailed analysis of existing international voluntary green building certification systems, their compatibility with the peculiarities of the Kazakhstan market and compliance with the corporate goals of the MEGA group of companies.

And the operated MEGA shopping malls in Almaty and Nur-Sultan (previously, Astana) were the first buildings in Kazakhstan to obtain BREEAM certificates in 2014.

The owner of the MEGA shopping malls has continued to adhere to the chosen strategy to this day, continuously confirming the high standard of assets under his management.

In this regard, BREEAM In-Use certification of the new MEGA Silk Way Shopping Mall, which is the largest in Kazakhstan, was a logical step on the business development path.

The positive experience in BREEAM certification of the MEGA shopping malls operated in Almaty and Nur-Sultan showed that sustainable construction standard requirements must be taken into account even at the design stage. This was later implemented in the MEGA Silk Way project authored by the British company Chapman Taylor.

Green Strategy

Building energy saving solutions-The bioclimatic design (a set of architectural elements and space-planning parameters of the shopping mall that reduce energy consumption in the building, i.e. building configuration and its placement on the building plot, orientation of window openings and stained-glass windows with respect to the cardinal directions, location and shape of roof lights, exterior architectural elements that prevent direct sunlight from penetrating the window openings in summer) reduces energy consumption for heating and air conditioning. The building uses supply and exhaust units with heat recovery and frequency converters, as well as an intelligent BEMS. The building and the surrounding area are lit by about 4,800 LED luminaries. Powered by renewable energy, they illuminate an open car park.

Solutions and actions to create a comfortable and favorable internal environment –Despite the harsh climate of Nur-Sultan, the MEGA Silk Way shopping mall has created comfortable conditions. More than 18% of the building envelope is glazed and provides good access to daylight. The temperature zoning is provided in the mall, which meets design parameters throughout the year. The ventilation system eliminates the possibility of air pollution by placing air intake grids of 74 AHUs at the required distance from any sources of air pollution. High quality indoor air in the building is also ensured due to the adopted operational policy, that focuses on careful materials selection and usage of VOC low-emitting materials and products.

Solutions and actions to reduce water consumption-MEGA Silk Way has more than 300 units of water-efficient sanitary equipment, including 110 sink mixers with IR sensors and a water flow rate of 3 l/min in common areas. The building has a rainwater collection system in a 145 m3 tank, designed for the irrigation of green areas. The water consumption by tenants, technological equipment and functional areas in the mall is automatically recorded, which makes it possible to continuously optimize the facility’s operational parameters.

Solutions and actions to reduce the risks of possible environmental pollution-The building employs solutions that minimize the risks of contamination of soil and rainwater with oil products. These include local facilities for the treatment of rainwater collected from the open car parking, as well as four specialized well-insulated rooms for the placement of diesel generator sets and diesel fuel tanks. The building systems are not sources of NOx emissions, and the management company is taking steps to minimize light pollution.

Actions to ensure the conservation and improvement of local biodiversity-As mentioned before, the region where the MEGA Silk Way shopping mall is located is characterized by sparse vegetation; however, there are lawns and flower beds arranged on the area of more than 10,000 m2. Coniferous and deciduous trees also grow there. In 2018, a qualified ecologist carried out an audit of the facility and made recommendations to increase its biodiversity. A biodiversity action plan was developed to set specific targets to enhance the ecological value of the site.

Actions to ensure efficient operation of the building -The facility is operated in compliance with the approved environmental policy, which contains performance targets for energy efficiency, water consumption reduction, minimization of general waste, and increasing the biodiversity of the facility. Along with the scheduled maintenance by the management company specialists, complex inspections of the facility are carried out no more than twice a day, allowing early identification of all possible malfunctions. To increase the environmental awareness of the users of the building, the management company regularly interacts with tenants and guests of the mall.

Benefits of assessing to BREEAM

The use of energy-efficient and water-efficient solutions allowed us to reduce heating energy, electric energy and water consumption in the building by an average of 50%, 58% and 56%, respectively. According to our assessment, the introduction of a proactive management policy, encouraged by the BREEAM In-Use standard, allowed us to reduce maintenance costs by 22%. -Abay Imambayev, Chief Engineer of the facility.