KARELA OFFICE PARK

In a rapidly changing world, an idea was born: to create a unique green office park that would incorporate all the benefits of innovative work space and eco-architecture. The idea had one main focus: to connect employees with nature by providing a green ambiance, whilst considering the surrounding environment.

Karela Office Park sets the market benchmark as being the first LEED certified building in Greece.

Located at Paiania, the Karela Office Park consists of six connected three-story high building volumes, housing 1,350 employees. It includes restaurants, a café, a gym and a covered atrium, which forms the main entrance to the complex. With its three underground parking floors, it provides a total of 1,100 parking spaces. It is adjacent to the main highway connecting the airport to the city of Athens.

Recognizing that building green would make the office facilities more appealing to potential tenants, DIMAND decided to pursue LEED certification for the project, conceiving sustainability as a way to meet the programmatic goals, provide considerable cost savings on operating expenses and a healthier work environment for its occupants, while fulfilling the organization’s mission. Managing the project costs and the construction schedule in a real estate market during the financial crisis was critical to the success of this development.

The aim was to create a structure that would process its own wastewater, capture light, create energy and provide habitat for wildlife while on the inside improve worker productivity and health. The design of Karela Office Park is most and above all, a quiet, tranquil and environmentally friendly working place.

The project is a commercial office building with superior indoor comfort and occupant-focused amenities. The roof of the entire complex is vegetated with indigenous plants and incorporates a running track, turning it into an immense (92,500 square feet) recreational space for the employees. The complex beckons employees into a healthier life style, featuring a gym, bicycle racks and showers. To ensure high indoor air quality, the team used finishes with low volatile organic compounds (VOC).

The entire facade is covered by aluminum louvers, reflecting daylight into the office areas and providing substantial shading. Especially the daylight and occupancy sensors combined with dimming strategies reduce energy consumption and provide at the same time adequate lighting levels. The enhanced commissioning activities guarantee the optimum function of all installed systems.

The goal for the protection of natural resources lead to Innovative strategies for water management. The selection of materials focused on the use of rapidly renewable materials, recycled content materials and over 50% of materials which were sourced locally. The diversion of over 85% of all construction waste minimized the effects on the environment also during construction stage.

Dimand has envisioned an office park that is bound to make a design statement above and beyond any other in the Greek Market. It became not only the first building in Greece to earn LEED certification, but was certified to the GOLD level.