5 EXTREME GREEN BUILDINGS

Earth Day Pictures: Extreme Green Buildings
By Brian Clark Howard, National Geographic News, 21 April 2013.

1. BedZED: Zero Energy

With its whimsically shaped ventilation cowls and lush foliage, the sky garden at Beddington Zero (fossil) Energy Development (BedZED) in England looks like something out of a Dr. Seuss book.

Located in Wallington, a suburb south of London, BedZED is also Britain's largest mixed-use, carbon-neutral green development.

Built in 2002, BedZED features 82 affordable housing units and 27,000 square feet (2,500 square meters) of work and office space. The complex boasts many green features: It was constructed from reclaimed steel, wood certified as sustainable by the Forest Stewardship Council (FSC), and as many local materials as possible.

The buildings are heavily insulated and feature large, south-facing windows to take advantage of natural heating and light. Offices face north to reduce air-conditioning costs in the summer. (See pictures of floating green cities.)

According to BedZED’s designers, BioRegional, the Peabody Trust, and Bill Dunster Architects, the appliances are energy efficient. The complex is festooned with solar panels, and a combined heat and power plant runs on tree-clipping waste. BedZED reportedly uses about 90 percent less energy for heating and 25 percent less electricity than conventional buildings use.

All the fixtures are designed to save water, and rainwater is collected. Sewage is also treated on-site through biological processes.

BedZED is an example of a growing number of buildings that are designed to be "net zero," meaning they produce as much energy as they use (Walgreens recently announced plans to build the first net zero energy store).

To some, net zero is the logical extension of a green building movement that has been growing steadily from the 1970s, when people started putting up solar panels and boosting insulation, after decades of cheap fossil fuels in the early and mid-20th century.

"It's critical to look at buildings as whole systems," David Bergman, a green architect, professor, and author of the book Sustainable Design: A Critical Guide, recently told National Geographic.

"How much can they be self-sufficient or impact free, both in terms of their materials and internal systems, and how they affect communities?" he asked.

(Check out National Geographic and Google's live Hangout on Earth Day at 12 p.m. on April 22, 2013.)

2. Italy's Vertical Forest

In Sustainable Design, Bergman wrote that some of today's designers are "merging organic with modern architecture, breaking down the old division between eco-design and contemporary design, as well as the barrier between building and landscape."

Perhaps nowhere is this more apparent than in Milan, where Italian architect Stefano Boeri has been erecting Bosco Verticale, Italian for "vertical forest." When completed, the twin skyscraper apartment buildings will be nearly obscured by greenery, thanks to balconies that will support 900 trees, as well as a lush complement of shrubs and other plants. Organizers hope the total vegetation will be roughly equal to 108,000 square feet (10,000 square meters) of forest.

Boeri has said he hopes the towers will provide habitat for urban wildlife, as well as produce oxygen and counteract some of the pollution in the smoggy city. (See pictures: how green walls may cut pollution.)

In this sense, the vertical forest project is an example of what Bergman calls regenerative design, which seeks to restore the environment. It's a step beyond simply reducing energy use or other impacts.

Boeri says the building's plants will be irrigated largely by recycling used water on-site. "The diversity of the plants and their characteristics produce humidity, absorb carbon dioxide and dust particles, produce oxygen and protect from radiation and acoustic pollution, improving the quality of living spaces and saving energy," he wrote in a statement.

3. Bullitt Centre: Living Building

On Earth Day, April 22, 2013, the six-story Bullitt Centre officially opens in Seattle. Backed by the eco-minded Bullitt Foundation, the designers hope the 50,000-square-foot (4,645-square-meter) office building will achieve "Living Building" status.

To earn that designation from the Living Building Challenge, the centre will have to pass a year of auditing to prove compliance with a set of rigorous sustainability standards, including self-sufficiency in energy and water. Only a handful of structures have thus far met the Living Building Challenge, although more than 140 projects are currently in the works around the world.

That still pales in comparison to the many thousands of buildings that have been certified through LEED (Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design), although Living Building goes much further. (See pictures of buildings made from shipping containers.)

The International Living Future Institute, which administers the Living Building Challenge, writes on its website that the program "defines the most advanced measure of sustainability in the built environment possible today and acts to diminish the gap between current limits and ideal solutions. Projects that achieve this level of performance can claim to be the 'greenest' anywhere."

The $30-million Bullitt Centre boasts a big solar array on the roof, a rainwater-filled cistern, composting toilets, many efficiency measures (including a regimen of energy budgets for the tenants), and "a conspicuous lack of on-site parking," reports the New York Times. It also includes a kiosk that displays real-time energy, water, and air-quality data.

To encourage walking, the stairwell is enclosed by glass, offering panoramic views of the city. In contrast, the elevator is less conveniently located and requires keycard access.

According to the Times, the designers "hope to demonstrate that a carbon-neutral office space can be commercially viable and aesthetically stunning without saddling its occupants with onerous demands."

4. Hawaii Prep's Energy Lab

Students at Hawaii Preparatory Academy in Kamuela on the Big Island learn about green technologies at the Energy Lab, a laboratory and showcase. Completed in 2010, the learning centre earned LEED Platinum and Living Building Challenge certifications.

"The project's fundamental goal is that of educating the next generation of students in the understanding of environmentally conscious, sustainable living systems," the International Living Future Institute writes on its website.

The lab is net zero in energy, thanks to solar power and efficient design. Rainwater is collected and stored in a cistern. Materials used included FSC-certified sustainable wood and nontoxic finishes.

According to the institute, the designers also wanted to fulfil the Hawaiian concept of 'ike ('ee-kay), which means "sense of place." The location was chosen "to resonate with its surroundings: south facing for solar energy, exposed to strong trade winds for wind power and passive ventilation, adjacent to a sustainable agriculture restoration project, and the only disturbed site on the campus, preserving the natural beauty of the land."

5. BIQ Algae-Powered Building

At the International Building Exhibition in Hamburg, Germany, Splitterwerk Architects and engineering firm Arup debuted BIQ, a prototype 15-unit residential building that is partly powered by algae. The south-facing facade supports rows of glass panels, called bioreactors, that are seeded with algae.

The tiny algae are encouraged to grow with a steady stream of water and nutrients. According to the designers, the algae help insulate the building, provide shade, and cut down on noise. When mature, the algae is sucked up as a pulp and then fermented on-site to produce bio-gas. The gas is burned to produce hot water for the building (the rest of the electricity is currently supplied from the grid).

Researchers around the world have been working on "algae power" for decades. Algae often grows fast and has limited nutrient and space requirements, so it offers some advantages over other crops.

BIQ's designers posit that algae may one day be incorporated widely across our built environment, perhaps not unlike the symbiotic relationship that many corals enjoy with algae in the sea.

For their part, Arup is used to thinking outside the box; the company helped build the iconic Sydney Opera House and several Olympic stadiums.

[Source: National Geographic News. Edited.]

Related Posts:
1. BIQ House: The World's First Bio-Building Powered By Algae
2. 14 Green Buildings That Will Blow Your Mind
3. 25 of the Most Amazing Eco-Friendly Offices in the World
4. 10 Incredible Eco-Friendly Accountants’ Offices
5. 12 Gorgeous Green Vertical Gardens
6. 15 Mind-Boggling Next Generation Skyscrapers For A Greener Future
7. 5 Hot Green Building Materials For 2013
8. 10 Most Impressive Smart Cities On Earth