St. Petersburg
Lakhta Center
Installation and commissioning of fire alarm, voice evacuation and building automation on office floors of the Lakhta Center tower, Europe's tallest building.
- Low-voltage systems
- Automation & BMS
The project in numbers
Based on the estimates of our contracts on the project
Lakhta Center is the headquarters of the Gazprom group and the tallest building in Russia and Europe: 462 metres and 87 floors. In 2022–2023 our team installed and commissioned fire protection and automation systems on office floors of the tower that were being fitted out for new offices.
Our scope
We worked on floors 3, 4, 5 and 16 of the tower and in a retail unit. These office spaces were fitted out inside a building that was already in full operation. Our scope covered the fire alarm, aspirating smoke detection, fire protection automation, voice evacuation, fire-resistant cable lines, and the automation of climate, lighting and solar shading.
We installed the systems to approved technical solutions, commissioned them and handed each system over to the client against its own checklist.
Systems
Fire alarm
An addressable analogue Schrack Seconet Integral system: multi-sensor detectors in the rooms and in the void above the suspended ceiling, manual call points along escape routes, and duct detectors. Every detector has its own address, so the operator sees exactly where an alarm comes from.
Equipment: Schrack Seconet MTD 533X, MCP545X, LKM 593X
Aspirating smoke detection
Very early smoke detection where a point detector struggles: above the suspended ceiling and under the structural slab. The unit continuously samples air through a network of pipes and detects smoke at the earliest stage, before any open flame.
Equipment: Schrack Seconet ASD 535, PVC DN25 sampling pipework
Fire protection automation
X-Line modules link the fire alarm with the building services. In a fire they send commands to ventilation and dampers, doors and visual alarm devices.
Equipment: Schrack Seconet X-Line modules, BX-FOL beacons
Voice evacuation
Voice alarm through ceiling and wall loudspeakers, illuminated exit signs and direction signs to the emergency exits.
Equipment: TOA PC-648R and BS-680F, Arsenal Bezopasnosti signs
Fire-resistant cable lines
The fire protection circuits use certified fire-resistant cable lines: the cable and its fixings are tested together as one system and keep working in a fire. Every line is labelled.
Equipment: Spetskabline, LSZH fire-resistant cables
Climate and ventilation automation
Ventilation control panels, temperature and pressure sensors, valve actuators for fan coil units and convectors, leak sensors and room thermostats.
Equipment: RCA Visko panels, Siemens sensors, ABB and Danfoss actuators
Lighting and solar shading
Lighting control over KNX and DALI buses with relay and analogue actuators. The solar shading blinds are run from a dedicated shading control panel.
Equipment: ABB KNX and DALI
How the work went
- Technical solutions. For every floor we issued equipment and routing plans, wiring diagrams, a cable schedule and address tables. Everything was approved by the client before installation started.
- Installation. Cable routes ran above the suspended ceiling, which already carries ducts, pipes and trays of other systems, with beam bypasses and partition crossings.
- Commissioning. Continuity testing and an audit of every line, checks of the addressable loops, labelling of lines and devices.
- Handover. Every system was accepted against a checklist signed by the client, with as-built drawings and documentation.
What made the project special
- A building in operation. The floors were fitted out while the rest of the tower went about its normal life: access control, work permits, trained and certified staff.
- A crowded ceiling void. Above the suspended ceiling of an office floor run ventilation, chilled water, sprinklers and power. To get through, we built 195 beam bypasses and partition crossings.
- Rebuilding existing systems. Some floors were already equipped, and the systems had to be rebuilt for the new office layouts: on floor 16 alone we removed more than 2 km of old fire-resistant lines and laid the routes again.
- An urgent floor. Floor 5 had to be ready by a fixed date, so we also worked through the New Year holidays, from 1 to 9 January 2023.
Interesting facts
- The foundation slab of the tower was poured in one go: 19,624 m³ of concrete in 49 hours, a Guinness World Record.
- The complex received LEED Platinum, the highest level of the green building standard, on 24 December 2018.
- The design is by the British practice RMJM; Gorproject adapted it to Russian codes.
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