Category Archives: Architecture
The Empire State Building, the tallest standing structure in the City of New York has been giving us neck sores all through its life, as we’ve been looking up, counting its floors. The colossal building will now begin buying wind energy to fulfill all its electricity needs, and is currently undergoing a multimillion dollar green renovation. 100% wind energy will be purchased from Texas based Green Mountain Energy Company while the building has already worked hard on shedding as much as 40% watts of energy consumption. The contract stands for two years for a total of 55 million kilowatt hours of renewable energy, keeping out 100 million pounds of carbon dioxide emissions each year, the equivalent of planting nearly 150,000 trees.
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The wind blows the right way in Japan, and the Japanese sure know how to make use of all its energy. ZENA Systems, a Japan-based firm, is busy drawing out the blueprints for a colossal wind energy generating tower. To tower up 50 meters up above, the hexagonal building is basically a giant scoop that compresses wind from all directions and then runs the rushing air through a series of ground-based generators, creating energy in the bargain. That’s not all this plant does. It also houses a desalinization system, on-site energy storage, and a visitor’s center too. Also, for now, the technology isn’t all that clear, and remains hollow in a few areas. With time and developments, we sure hope this tower turns into a reality.
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Haiti has been through testing times of suffering and the world is looking for ways for the land to develop and be complete again. One such proposal is collaboration between Boston architect and designer E. Kevin Schopfer and Tangram 3DS, the Harvest City. Basically an industrial and agricultural floating city that might just find its place of the shores of Haiti, the Harvest City can house up to 30,000 residents and can be a community in itself. The city is designed to be ecologically sustainable covering a 2 mile diameter with tethered floating modules. With a linear canal system dividing it into four separate zones, the green city will also be resistant to hurricanes and typhoons, owing to its low profile, low draft dead weight capacity and perimeter wave attenuators.
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Ever dreamed of a lovely home back there in Aspen, Colorado? Well, you better get your checkbook out then, and head out for the auction of the Vision House Aspen. The first Gold LEED certified home, this one will be auctioned on site on January 28th. And taken that it has a Gold LEED to its name, this one undeniably has to be as green as a home can get. To be put under the hammer by Concierge Auctions, this 6,750 square feet of pure green luxury living was originally to be sold at $13,975,000, though the price being too high has landed up under auction with absolutely no minimum bid. The house uses native rock from the Telluride Stone Company and earthen plaster by American Clay, spray-in foam insulation, geothermal heating and cooling, flyash concrete mix, below grade insulation, rigid insulation, Low-E windows, reclaimed beetle-killed wood siding, and solar hot water panels and boasts a 360-degree views of Aspen Mountain, Snowmass Mountain, Capitol Peak, Mt. Daly, and the Upper Roaring Fork Valley!
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Centuries ago, in the days of the Old Testament, God decided to flood the earth to wipe out evil and had Noah build an Ark to save the animals. We came across a more modern rendition of the good old wooden Ark created by Russian architectural firm Remistudio. Well, this one really is a hotel, designed to stand strong and endure the worst floods imaginable. Designed in connection with the International Union of Architects’ program “Architecture for Disaster Relief,” the structure can be built in various climates. The shape enables it to integrate photovoltaic cells to, for green energy generation, making it a true green concept. The concept also makes use of naturally warmed air, gathered in seasonal heat accumulators that help provide with energy too.
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Need a roof above your head away from your cozy home? Lab Zero, Italian designers, has just come up with the Yeta Log Cabin. This little residence can be placed just about anywhere and measures approximately 12.5′ wide x 14.5′ long x 10.75′ tall. Complete with a small kitchen and bathroom equipped with a shower, the Yeta Log Cabin makes sure you feel right at home, away from home. And here’s why this cabin showed up here. It’s green. Equipped with a bunch of photovoltaic modules that soak in the sun and keep the LED lighting powered on, this one is built by using untreated wood. With a rain water collection system, and a black water storage tank, this indeed is a great way to live away from home, when needed.
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The world is changing and we know and, and along with it, we’re learning new ways to live too. Green energy is on everyone’s mind these days and we’re all looking for ways to generate and use it. Here’s a home that today is just a dream for us urban folks, but could be the way we live in future. Built for Germany’s Federal Ministry of Transport, Building, and Urban Development, the Plus Energy House is a real life showcase of just how eco-friendly a house can get. The house is well designed to make optimal use of natural day light with minimal energy loss. The house also uses a load of integrated photovoltaics that trap solar energy, allowing it to not only generate enough energy to power its light bulbs, but also charge the electric cars parked up front.
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Fashion and eco-friendliness go hand in hand like childhood buddies really, and that’s exactly what struck fashion distributor Inditex Group while coming up with this new flagship store of Zara on Via Del Corso in Rome, Italy. The store is housed in a 120 year old building, the Palazzo Bocconi and architecture firm Duccio Grassi was hooked on to make the changes. The store spanning an area of 5000m2 boasts four facades with a double skin of perforated panels that disguise the building’s inner layout and at the same time, allowing rays of natural light to stream in. the store also equips an automatic monitoring of the store’s indoor air quality, motion detected lights in low-traffic areas, an air curtain systems, user-sensitive escalators and FSC-certified wood.
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Now we’re pretty used to those sky-scraping buildings that we have in our cities today. We as human beings have adapted to living in smaller pigeon-hole type homes these days. Well, small isn’t necessarily bad, and that’s what student of Hunan City University Dai Haifei thought while building this little Egg House. In cities like China from where Dai hails, space scrunches are now as common as the dust in the air. So, he built this little solar powered home, for just $960. With a water tank, a small bed and a lamp powered by solar energy soaked in by the panel on the top, the Egg House is an innovative little way to life.
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Remember Noah’s Ark and the great flood? Two creatures of every species were saved, while God wiped the earth clean of all evil. Well, that happened a long time ago, as the Bible states, though it still seems to have an influence on people today. No, we aren’t worried about yet another great flood. We’re talking about an eco-friendly park inspired from Noah’s Ark. The Christian-theme Park, Ark Encounter, will swing its gates open in 2014, being built by Answers in Genesis. With a budget of $150 million, the park has a lot more than living the Old Testament. LEED building standards are being adopted for this 160 acre park, complete with a huge ark, a Middle Eastern village and a live animal show.
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