Category Archives: Architecture
The University of California-Davis has decided to give the living spaces for its students a green touch, with plans to build a zero-net energy housing community. Using a bunch of energy-efficient technologies and a 4 megawatt high efficiency SunPower solar power system, the project aims to create an eco-friendly housing-community for the students at the University. The first phase of the project will play home to 2,000 students. Besides that, it’ll also house an education center for Los Rios Community College, recreation and study facilities besides a village square, a retail facility and about 343 homes for sale for the faculty and staff.
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We all know just how spoilt Saudi Arabia is, with all its wealth pouring in from the wallets of nations across the world, hungry to get their hands on the ever-flowing barrels of oil in the Middle Eastern kingdom. Saudi however is now switching to the greener side and is busy looking for sustainable options too! For starters, the kingdom has invited architects from around the globe to come up with designs for a sustainable royal wedding celebration hall for Riyadh. And like just about everything in Saudi, these designs will need to be as grand as possible and equally green too.
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What do you get when you put a bunch of old campers and a run-down vacuum-cleaner factory together? Well, the Germans came up with a pretty sound way to put these two to use with the Hüttenpalast hotel in Berlin. A paradigm shift away from the usual hotel you’d spend a day out of home in, the Hüttenpalast chooses to remain different. Instead of rooms, the hotel makes use of old recycled camper trailers, refurbished and refitted to serve a new purpose in life. Also, staying here isn’t too expensive either, with all the amenities one would require on a stay away from their comfortable abodes, this hotel offers a roof above your head for thirty Euros a night!
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This July, the United Kingdom will have one of the greenest sports facilities around. Located in Scunthorpe, the Sports Academy facility promises to keep you athletic and healthy and do the environment a whole lot of good too. Complete with a swimming pool, sports hall, fitness suite, dance studio, and climbing column, all located below six dome-shaped pods, the $24 million Sports Academy complex was designed by Andrew Wright Associates to keep the energy supply to the building a minimum, helping cut down on costs substantially. Making utmost use of natural lighting and using ground-source pumps to satisfy 80% of the building’s heating needs, plans for greywater collection from shower areas are also being put into place.
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If you American, we’re pretty sure you might’ve heard of America’s Most Convenient Bank as it chooses to tag itself, the TD Bank. Now America’s Most Convenient Bank could probably be America’s Greenest Bank too, with the bank switching over to carbon-negative banking processes. With the first bank in the whole of the United States to generate just about as much energy as it uses to soon swing its doors open, TD Bank has tried its level best to have its banking facility green enough to be certified with an LEED Platinum. The new banking facility will produce a minimum of 100,000 kWh annually on site, enough to fulfill its 97,000 kilowatt-hours (kWh) of electricity a year requirement.
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Homes have never been greener than the ones built by Sarasota home builder Josh Wynne recently. These homes carry an epitome of eco-friendliness and green, making them one of the greenest living spaces around. Wynne recently added the finishing touches to one of his greenest home designs yet, the house in the Polo Club at Lakewood Ranch called the Power Haus. This residence covering an area of 2,520-square-feet is good enough for an LEED-Platinum certification and boasts every green fixture from water-conserving plumbing, energy-producing PV panels, to recycled-content building materials. The photovoltaic system is capable enough to generate 14.2-kilowatts of energy, helping the owners save up $3,163 on electric bills annually!
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Airplane makers, Boeing, have decided to go a step further towards green, opting to use 100% renewable energy at the final assembly site in North Charleston. The firm inked a deal with South Carolina Electric & Gas (SCE&G) to provide 100% renewable energy at the production site for the Boeing 787 airplane. 20% of this energy will be generated from thin-film solar laminate panels owned, installed and maintained by SCE&G. the array will be located on the roof of the facility and will be the sixth largest in the US. The energy produced by this installation will sum up to about 2.5 megawatts, enough to light up 250 average homes. That’s not all. The site is being built while adhering to Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design (LEED) Silver certification and will also have point-of-use containers as well as recycling centers!
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Victoria University’s students have had their share of the limelight recently with thousands of people flocking to give their solar-powered home a look. Located at the Wellington waterfront, this home designed by the architecture students packs 28 solar panels, 48 water-collecting tubes on the roof for a solar-powered hot water system, triple glazing and wool insulation and is as eco-friendly as a home can get. Costing $500,000 to build, this one sponsored by Meridian Energy had a 40 meter line of people waiting to grab a look.
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The Dutch these days seem to be sprinting towards greener sources of energy, leaving the old polluting ways behind. Now, two home development projects in Netherlands are being tested for energy efficiency, and boast just about every automated-home energy system you would come across. The homes located in Breda are part of a two-year pilot project developed in partnership with Netherlands grid operator Enexis, power company Greenchoice, and housing developer Heja. 300 homes using cutting-edge energy-saving technologies have been built for the Jouw Energie Moment (Your Energy Moment).
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It’s been 57 glorious years since the first commuter stepped through the Terminal 2(T2) at the San Francisco International Airport. Now, nearly six decades after it was first opened for public use, the Terminal gets its first touch of green, by design firm Genster. We’ve reported on the facelift being given to the Terminal before, which has now been completed, with Mayor Edwin M. Lee inaugurating it last Wednesday. The renovation of the Terminal has won it a LEED Gold certificate too, owing to the water treatment facilities put into place, the displacement ventilation system to filter air that use 20% less energy and the use of skylights, sustainable building materials, recycled glass and recycled carpeting!
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