Upper One, Poland (2021)

Mixed geothermal foundation for the tower Upper One, Warsaw (Poland)

The tower Upper One is an emblematic intervention designed by Buro Happold Engineering. The building includes office spaces and is built upon a parking garage with 5 floors constructed underground. These features provide the opportunity to effectively harvest renewable geothermal energy from the site, an endeavor that can take place by turning foundation systems already required for structural support purposes into renewable energy sources: so-called geothermal or energy foundations. In this context, GEOEG was involved in the schematic design of a mixed geothermal foundation for the tower Upper One located in Warsaw, Poland.

GEOEG provided its expertise to develop the energy, geotechnical, and structural design of a complex geothermal foundation comprising 53 energy barrettes, 7000 m² of energy walls, and 1700 m² of energy slabs, which is going to provide renewable heating and cooling to the building 24/7 through the harvesting of shallow geothermal energy from the underground.

A mixed geothermal foundation composed of energy barrettes, energy walls and energy slabs

For this project, GEOEG quantified the thermal energy that can be harvested from such geothermal foundation via its thermal activation with pipe heat exchangers and assessed the impacts of such energy harvesting on the geotechnical and structural performance of the foundation. 3D thermo-mechanical finite element analyses were performed to investigate the energy, geotechnical, and structural performance of the studied geothermal foundation over 50 years. The analyses considered representative data for the geometry of the system, the local thermal and hydrogeological characteristics of the site, the structural properties of the foundation, and the dynamic energy demand of the building.