GATE RESIDENCE: CAIRO'S FUTURISTIC ULTRA-GREEN MIXED-USE COMPLEX

The Gate Residence will promote environmental sustainability
By Allison Blackburn, Interesting Engineering, 6 November 2014.

Many buildings built today make use of technology that will minimize the impact on the environment. However, one building of the future, the Gate Residence in Egypt, will take things to a whole new level. The building will features a host of energy technologies such as solar panels, solar heater tubes, windcatchers, geothermal cooling and wind turbines.

The Gate Residence is the idea of Vincent Callebaut Architectures (VCA) and they have focused on environmental sustainability before with the Dragonfly concept and the Agora Garden. They plan on using a lot of the same technology with the Gate Residence, but on a much bigger scale.

It will be a mixed-use complex, a combination of residential, commercial and retail spaces. Over 9 levels the building will be home to 1,000 apartments. VCA said that one of the main objectives to the building’s design was to raise awareness of sustainable green architecture.

The building was designed with bioclimatic rules as the focal point and includes a solar cycle along with endemic plant species and taking prevailing wind directions into account. The project makes use of Passivhaus principles along with renewable energy technology and these will help to bring down the amount of energy used by as much as 50%.

One of the features that will be put to use are windcatchers and these should not be confused with wind turbines, which are also going to feature in the design of the building. The idea behind the windcatchers is that they will direct airflow from the outside into the passive cooling system of the building.

The building has been designed so as to regulate temperature by using the natural environment. Air will pass through the pipes that have been buried under the ground and then enter into the cooling system, thus helping to keep the building cool in the summer and warm in the winter.

The water that is used in the house will be heated using solar power to some extent. The water will be collected in tubes located on the roof that are heated by the sun. Photovoltaic panels will be installed on the roof for generating electricity and this will be used to power the building. Another way of generating electricity will be the use of vertical axis wind turbines.

The Gate Residence is to feature a garden on the rooftop and this will be used to grow fresh produce along with being a place for people to exercise and meet. The internal temperature of the building will be kept down thanks to the green walls, which will also be aesthetically pleasing. The residents will have many home automation options and these will help them to keep energy use down to the minimum. They will be able to control ventilation, lighting and temperature.

Construction on the Gate Residence should start in March 2015 and if all goes to plan, it will be completed by 2019.

Via [Vincent Callebaut Architectures]

All images courtesy of Vincent Callebaut Architectures.

[Source: Interesting Engineering. Edited. Top image and some links added.]