Green
MR Credit 1 - Building Reuse
Excerpts from Green Building Rating System For New Construction & Major Renovations (LEED-NC) Version 2.1
Intent Extend the life cycle of existing building stock, conserve resources, retain cultural resources, reduce waste and reduce environmental impacts of new buildings as they relate to materials manufacturing and transport. Requirements Maintain at least 75% of existing building structure and shell (exterior skin and framing, excluding window assemblies and non-structural roofing material.) Potential Technologies & Strategies Consider reuse of existing buildings, including structure, shell and non-shell elements. Remove elements that pose contamination risk to building occupants and upgrade outdated components such as windows, mechanical systems and plumbing fixtures. Quantify the extent of building reuse. |
FreeAxez provides significant benefits for the retrofit and renovation of existing structures. Today’s demand for hi-tech space requires significant power/voice/data cabling. Oftentimes existing buildings are considered completely obsolete due to the difficulty in running these cables. Raised flooring solves this problem, and the FreeAxez design is optimal since it does not attach to the building at the sub floor or walls.
The FreeAxez low profile wire management system accommodates power/voice/data cables to allow older buildings to meet the current and future technology requirements of the modern office environment.
Historic structures are a perfect application for FreeAxez. As a result of its unique design, the gravity-held FreeAxez floors can lay on top of existing terrazzo, marble or wood floors without any destruction to the floor. Since the floor is not screwed or connected to the walls, FreeAxez does not damage the fine woodwork on the walls.
As the lowest profile access floor on the market (at 1.6” in height), the freeaxez floor allows for complete wire management with negligible impact to the vertical dimension. In lower existing floor-to-ceiling space, the addition of drop ceilings or tall floors to run wires often compresses the space to such an extent as to make reuse of the space impractical. FreeAxez extends the life cycle of existing building stock.