Category Archives: Architecture
Time and again we come across news about the dramatic change in Dubai’s skyline. However, now Dubai’s skyline is going to go to places with an eco-friendly colossal billboard. In an attempt to daze the world with its grandeur and impressive skyline, Adrac, a global advertising and marketing agency, has come up with this majestic proposal. Finding its way in to the Guinness Book of World Records, this world’s longest billboard is exceptionally designed to capture a piece of Dubai and take it to as many people as possible in a year’s time. Intended to tour 40 countries withing that period, this record-breaking project is set to launch alongside the opening of Adrac’s new Dubai office in the Burj Business District. Brushing aside its mammothic size as well as opulent role, allow me to update you that such an outstanding project promises to leave zilch carbon footprint behind.
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Talk about being versatile in a green style and it’s the Greentainer Project that takes a bow. Based in Gandino, Italy, this green architectural project stands out for its form as well as function. To address the eco-sensitive issues, a 40-foot container was transformed it into a structure that’s mobile, flexible, and self-sufficient. Akin to the other cases where containers have been reused by transforming them into temporary residences or construction site offices or permanent structures, Greentainer’s USP lies in the fact that it is 100% transportable. Ideal for multiple uses and destinations, from a small company canteen to a trade show lounge bar, and even as a mobile exhibition center or a meeting room; it can be positioned in any alfresco location. Fitted with a solar roof adds on to its green persona. A photovoltaic system supplies all the energy necessary to run the heating-cooling system, the lights and other devices.
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Hollywood is synonymous to glamour, movies and celebrities. But henceforth, it will also be associated with Los Angeles’s first solar-powered, green urban community. Located in Southern California, this uber green Gatsby Hollywood is planned and developed by MasterCraft Homes. Though still under construction, this eco-friendly community comprises of 34 homes that are already flaunting a Certified California Green Builder stamp of approval. This solar-powered urban enclave is designed with 100% eco-friendly features like solar roof panels that generate clean energy from the sun, dual-pane windows with Low-E coating, low-emitting building materials, energy-efficient interior and exterior lighting, Energy Star appliances that reduce green house emissions and Bosch Tankless Electric Water Heaters.
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Intending to bring all the green features under one roof, folks from Sander Architecture have giving shape to Residence for a Briard. Spread over a 3,800sf, it is the first example of Hybrid House by the firm. Making extensive use of ecological and sustainable materials, systems and strategies, this abode is also honored as the greenest residences built in California to date. Determined to create an eco-friendly Case Study House for the 21st Century, the firm also focused on the prime aspect that is reducing the construction costs for custom homes. Making such eco dens affordable for eco-dwellers is much needed as it’s not only the green thumb but the size of the wallet that primarily decides the kind of house a person can reside in. Recycled blue jean insulation tops the list of the eco-friendly features of this structure. The rest green features include greywater systems, passive heating and cooling strategies, cistern to capture rainwater for watering landscaping, sunflower seed wall board, bamboo flooring, marmoleum, eco-resin panels, low-flush toilets, on-demand water heater and more.
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The concrete jungle is packed with buildings and towers that barely leave any space for your green dream abode. This necessitates the need to move out of the terrestrial boundaries on to the blue waters in the well-designed eco-friendly houseboats. Designed by confused-direction and christened as Schwimmhaus, these eco-friendly house boats are intending to float on the German waters in the coming spring. Comfortably spacious to house a bachelor or a couple, this house on water consists of one bedroom, a living room, a kitchen and a bathroom. Spreading out to14m in length and 3m in breadth, Schwimmhaus rises to 4m above the water level. Still in conceptual stages, this house boat boasts of a green roof and other zero emission features. Another green feather on its hat is that the boat is crafted out of recycled wood from an old farm barn.
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Dubai the city of extremes, after building a ski resort in the desert which could be the worst contributor of green house gases, Dubai is all set to build a new shopping mall. Shopping malls in the city spring up everyday, but what’s unique in this one is that it will be built keeping LEED certification criteria as its guideline. Thereby making it the most Eco-friendly mall in the region, specifications suggest that the roof will be made of reflective materials to reduce the energy required to keep the building cool, and landscaping will include plants that need less water, along with on-site recycling for glass, paper, metal and plastic. The new Eco friendly mall will hopefully start a new green conservative trend in new shopping mall construction and maintenance.
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Johnny Depp is planning on converting his island home to run on solar hydrogen technology. In 2005, Depp bought the the 35-acre island in the Bahamas for around $3m. The star is third in line to receive a grid-independent solar hydrogen system from Mike Strizki. For those of you who dont know Mike Stirzki, well he is the inventor of the first solar-hydrogen house in New Jersey.
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If you live in an all day sunny environment house its time to tap into all that wasted solar energy. Tokyo-based Nihon Telecommunication System Inc. has given householders another option to do their bit to help the planet by developing windowpanes with built-in photovoltaic cells. The electricity produced through the panes will be just enough to power a PC and recharge a cell phone. The electricity will be tapped via USB ports. The new windowpanes are supposed to generate up to 70 watts of electricity per square meter of glass. The solar cells have a power generation efficiency of 7 to 8%. The glass (thickness: 10.5mm) will prevent up to 90% of sunlight coming into a room and therefore reduce air conditioning costs.
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With the number of home owners installing solar panels everyday and more communities now reaping its benefits, it’s no surprise that the solar business is booming. The newest adopters are Fresno-Yosemite International (FYI). The airport, which served 1.38 million passengers last year, is situated on 2,150 acres and mostly deals in private air traffic had a large amount of the land around that was sitting idle and undeveloped while the airport was struggling to deal with soaring energy costs. Meanwhile, the airport was launching a trial program to deploy solar panels on the roof of an expansion building which was to house rental car services. The idea clicked — solar power could fuel the airport’s power needs. Not stopping with the rooftops, FYI expanded its solar offerings, placing panels over the equivalent of seven football fields’ worth of undeveloped land. Now, with its construction complete for the time being, finishing last month, FYI has found itself in a new position — green leader. A 2 MW solar facility which was finally put to use last month it now powers the airport’s lighting and the communications tower. While modest compared to some dedicated solar plants, the FYI’s installation is a perfect example of a business putting solar to use.
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The town of Okotoks, Alberta, Canada has set a world record as being the first solar powered community of North America. 800 solar panels located throughout the community on garage roofs, and they produce 1.5 mega-watts of thermal power during a summer day and supply heat to the district heating system. The homes are average sized, with low energy demands ranging from 1,492 to 1,664 square feet. The homes have been built using locally manufactured materials, and recycled material too has been used in construction. The homes will be certified to Natural Resources Canada’s R-2000 Standard for energy efficiency, and the Built Green™ Alberta program. An array of solar panels on the roofs of their houses and garages, the solar panels absorb the solar energy during the daytime and heat the glycol solution. The glycol solution travels through the collector loop and reaches an underground heat exchanger within the community’s centralized Energy Center. The heat is then transferred from heat exchanger to the water stored in a short-term storage tank. The glycol solution returns to the solar collector system. The Energy Center has short-term thermal storage tanks and long-thermal storage tanks (Borehole Thermal Energy Storage (BTES) system). During the warmer months the heated water is transferred to the underground borehole thermal energy storage (BTES) system via a series of pipes. The water heats up the surrounding earth increasing the temperature to 80 degrees C (176 °F). The water returns to the short-term storage tanks to be heated again. The heat is stored underground insulated with sand, high-density R-40 insulation, a waterproof membrane, clay, and other landscaping materials.
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