Category Archives: Architecture
Sustainability has been the most used word for the last few decades now. To make a sustainable environment involves nourishment of the nature apart from the basic supply of necessities and support. And so Danish architects Cobe, in collaboration with Sleth modernism, Polyform and Rambøll are in the process of the facilitating the largest urban Scandinavian transformation on Copenhagen’s northern harbor, called as the Nordholmene. This project is said to be fully complete by the next 40 to 50 years and will be equipped to house and employ up to 40,000 people.
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The first striking point of this villa in the village of Vals in Switzerland is that it has been carved out of a mountain wall. The second most interesting fact is that the designer Jeroen van Mechelen has created a cabinet- cabin in the guesthouse with cardboards. Designed by the renowned architectural firm SeARCH in collaboration with Christian Müller architects this cathedral-like cabin is defined out of a 3 dimensional cardboard matrix. The two complete chapel like ceilings have been carved out of this matrix. The lightweight cardboard sandwich panels were directly CNC-carved from the design files and easily put together by the design team.
[Design]
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Los Angeles has always been a sought after city for housing. Now, houses that love the environment as much as you do are being constructed by RLG properties in Atwater Village in LA. Taking advantage of the small lot ordinance, the company is constructing 23 homes. Each of these will boast 3 bedrooms, 2.5 bathrooms and an open floor plan. Priced at $599,000 onwards, The Mews, designed by Corsini + Stark, have a whole lot of concepts and technologies that make these houses environment friendly and energy efficient. Some of these include extensive day lighting, natural ventilation, Grasscrete permeable paving, appliances that use energy efficiently, an installed solar system and bamboo flooring.
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Dubai may have its financial troubles. But that hasn’t stopped the country from plucking the moon out of the sky. Designed by Varabyeu Partners for an international design competition, the New Moon will be the center piece of a new landscape park, Zabeel Park, in the City of Dubai. The structure is designed as a crescent, a symbol of energy and power. The building has five levels with an observatory each. These five levels symbolize the Five Pillars of Islam; faith (Shahadah), prayer (Salat), charity (Zakaat), lent (Sawm) and pilgrimage (Hajj). The outward siding of the structure is made of steel frame with different transparency levels and is decorated with Arab calligraphy.
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Nicknamed as the Purple Silkworm Island or ‘zi can dao’, the pavilion built for the Shanghai Expo 2010 will be the largest ever built by Japan for a world expo. This structure, purple in color and shaped like a silkworm (hence the nickname Purple Silkworm Island) covers a plot of 6,000 square meters and is about 24 meters high. It will be
divided into three sections, the past, present and future exhibitions, and will showcase the relationship between China and Japan and other ideas that help man live peacefully and in harmony with the environment. Energy saving technologies will also be displayed with stage performances that speak about technologies that help save the environment. The exhibition center will make use of natural resources to power it up and for other energy requirements. The outer membrane of the pavilion is double layered and has photovoltaic cells to collect solar energy. Authorities haven’t leaked out any of the plans and are keeping them a secret for the visitors! Let’s hope that the Purple Silkworm will help us learn more about saving our environment.
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Dean Kamen has given a whole new meaning to energy conservation. His home, is a lighthouse on North Dumpling Island, off the Connecticut coast but technically a part of New York state. He is the inventor of Segway scooter and other devices, and so his new island home called ‘nation’ also comprises of devices that perform the same job. He has also installed solar, wind and geothermal systems throughout the house. He claims it is a fully self-powered house with a lot of LED’s and has no room for incandescent lights. Making lighting the key asset in the house, he has tried to make the island zero-carbon and a net producer of energy.
[ElectronicHouse]
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China has done it again, this time with the unveiling of the world’s largest office building! And its not only big, its solar powered! This giant office building spans a whopping 75,000 square meters. It is self contained and includes research facilities, exhibition centers, meeting and training areas and even a hotel! And all this is powered by the sun. The external structure of the building is made of only 1% steel. An advanced roof and insulation system helps reduce energy
requirements to a great extent, 30% more than the national energy saving standard. The exterior of the building is white to symbolize clean energy and the building is shaped like a sun dial. The building will and deserves to play host to the 4th World Solar City Congress.
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The design for the tallest building tower in East Asia has been revealed by SOM. This super structure known as the Digital Media City Landmark Tower is sure to make the city of Seoul and Korea proud! So what separates this 2,100 foot giant of a tower from the rest of its peers? Well, the building is powered using wind turbines placed at the top of the building which helps satisfy 3% of the energy needs. Vertical and horizontal fins on the eastern and western facades protect the building from the suns heat and horizontal shades on the southern face of the building prevent heat from the mid afternoon sun from penetrating.
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We have often heard of so many solar panels or devices that use solar energy to charge or power a particular gadget or function. But Panasonic has come up with an entire house that is a living energy saver. With sensors all around the rooms, the lights get switched on and off by sensing presence, lighting and temperature in the room. Solar panels on the roof and a fuel-cell in the backyard power the family house, a lithium-ion battery stores the surplus electricity, hot water pipes double as floor heating, and good insulation saves energy. Called the ‘Eco Idea House’, has extremely intelligent appliances like a washing machine that almost halves the water used by simply tilting its drum and a fridge that adapts itself to the users habits and remains off around the time when it is not expecting to be opened for a long time.
[Physorg]
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I have lately been seeing in supermarkets a huge bin with sigh put up on it that says ‘please deposit used bags here’. No doubt I was highly impressed and hoped many others will follow suit. But the news that a supermarket chain NTUC FairPrice opened its first green outlet at City Square Mall at Kitchener Road in Singapore has left me speechless- in a positive way. It is a store that has over 400 bio-degradable and environment friendly products. Also there is a little incentive for customers who bring their own shopping bags by having special check-out lanes for them. Also there is a system where you can deposit your old plastic bottles and cans in return for vouchers. Agreed, that the setting up of the eco-friendly supermarket is 30% costlier than the regular ones, yet as long as it’s for a good cause, a little extra money would not harm anybody, I’m sure.
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