Category Archives: Architecture
The ancient Egyptians build their pyramids to store the bodies of their Pharaohs. Our generation though will be building pyramids that help power up homes! A bunch of artists put together their drawing pads and pencils and came up with this design that could just show up in the deserts of Abu Dhabi. Nine massive pyramids generating solar energy clothed in a beautiful black could sprout up in the desert. Called the Lunar Cubit, this design has won the Land Art Generator Initiative too! Using frameless solar panels that together produce
enough energy for 250 homes, the pyramids glow at night with a bunch of LEDs too!
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What can you possibly do with a lot of space which is occupied by a huge waste incinerator? Well, you can get innovative and help people enjoin skiing down its sides! Well somebody seems to be taking my advice seriously as Danish architecture firm Bjarke Ingels Group is planning to do just that through their project called Amagerforbrænding by creating wrap around a new waste incinerator located at Copenhagen.
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We just stumbled across a pavilion, that not only looks like an art sculpture taken straight from a modern art museum, but also generates some renewable energy too! The Sun Pavilion as it’s known, reminded us of Medusa’s hairdo. The many small, prefabricated, square, curved, steel tube components you see here are joined together to form thirteen large interwoven curved elements with each having a side covered with flexible solar cells. The ends of the elements are shaped like funnels while the solar cells generate electricity, monitoring random light distribution in the pavilion. Extra electricity can be sent back to the grid to power up homes in the pavilion’s vicinity.
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A city’s skyline is like a birthmark. It defines the city and makes it distinct, with picturesque views as the sun sets below the horizon. Cities like the Big Apple, Chicago and Shanghai are known for their sky scraping skylines with all those tall buildings reaching for the clouds. The Las Vegas skyline will now have an additional touch that will stand tall above with the 37-storey veer° TOWERS by Murphy/Jahn. These towers, probably gaining inspiration from Italy’s iconic leaning tower of Pisa are inclined at opposing angles and will house some 400 residences. With all this, the building aims for a LEED Gold certification and will use some green technology to achieve this, including the use of staggered panels of clear and fritted yellow glass cut glare that let in daylight and give the façade a better look too!
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Well, if you could afford a pool in your backyard, we’re pretty sure you could also do with a high tech cover for the pool, to keep the water free from any of those falling autumn leaves or the neighbor’s dog who wasn’t properly trained. Anyways, this pool cover is far from ordinary and is packed with a fully automated operation, added safety, heating systems, insulations, attractive build-in options, and the best part, solar power. The Hydrodeck cover uses solar slats that provide, effective, environmentally friendly heating of the water and come with double hook fastening, 3 large airtight chambers, 60 mm net width and are 14 mm thick. These slats work great, heating your pool up with natural energy straight from the sun, and are an eco-friendly option for a warm swim. So, protect your pool and keep it clean, and warm too, with the Hydrodeck!
[Archiexpo]
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Japan has had its share of natural disasters before, with teeth chattering earthquakes and the likes. So, here’s a post-apocalypse home concept design known as the EDV-01 from Japan sure seems a practical way to get a roof above one’s head in times of need and disaster. Produced by Daiwa House, this concept home actually springs up at the push of a button. Small and sturdy, these homes measuring 6m x 2.5m x 2.4m weigh about 10 tons. Complete with a bathroom, kitchen, beds, and satellite connectivity, these homes can house a couple of people comfortably. Here’s the green part. These homes are powered by fuel cells and batteries along with solar panels, allowing them to function smoothly even if the grid connectivity snaps!
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The JR Osaka Station is busy undergoing a makeover that will complete in April. Well, besides a new look and better feel, the station is also being given a darker shade of green by JR West in an effort to turn it into an eco-station. The new station will equip a rainwater recycling system that will collect rainwater from the new 180- by 100-meter dome-like roof and the restaurants and other facilities in the 31-story “North Gate Building”. All this will then be filtered in a water tank capable of holding about 10,000 metric tons. The filtered water will be used to fulfill 90% of the toilet water needs at the station and will also be used to replenish the rooftop garden on top of the 14th floor. That’s not all. The all new Osaka Station will also equip 800 square meters of solar panels that will produce 90,000 kilowatt-hours of electricity a year. This will be used to power up the stations escalators and such.
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South Africa now proudly plays home to a super green football training center. Building collaboration with a Canadian firm, RUFproject and the Nike Global Football Brand Design, this training center known as the Soweta Football Training Centre took six months to build, complete with multiple fields, training and locker rooms, offices, a gym, a kitchen, all in a wooden encased building with louvers and sandstone. With green features like sun shading, natural ventilation, and reduced energy loads, the double-walled air cavity covered with locally-sourced sandstone acts as a rain screen while a locally-sourced South African timber louver structure suspended from the steel acts as a sun screen on the east, north and west facades keeping out solar heat gain.
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The Pratt Institute of Brooklyn, New York now plays home to a green building, a six storey academic and administrative facility, built to meet the expectations of a Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design (LEED)-Gold certification. The building is complete with green features like exterior sun shades, a green roof that absorbs rainwater, reflects heat, and sequesters greenhouse gasses, and solar photo-voltaic panels that generate on-site electricity, named the Myrtle Hall. Located at 536 Myrtle Avenue between Grand Avenue and Steuben Street, this building will play home to the college’s Department of Digital Arts and a bunch of offices too.
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Prince Charles, the beloved Prince of Wales sure loved the movie Slumdog Millionaire, so much that he was inspired to build a similar shanty town, a lot cleaner though, for the homeless in India. The town will be fully equipped with schools, shops, and about 3,000 homes in an area large enough to cover 14 football pitches. To be build on a 25 acre land on the outskirts of Calcutta or Bangalore, these homes will be eco-friendly. Fascinated by the Dharavi slum’s network of streets, shops, factories and homes, the Prince will make sure these homes have proper sanitation, waste disposal and everything to make it perfectly hygienic and livable. Complete with rainwater collections systems and water recycling, the slum will be a little village in itself.
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