Posts Tagged ‘Buildings’
April 30th, 2007 in Buildings No Comments
This article concerns a building project by BNIM Architect in Missouri, a new national prototype “that highlights the successful marriage of sustainable construction methods with the General Service Administration’s Workplace 2020 program, which includes a set of criteria for creating efficient and collaborative government workspaces.”
The key to transforming a 1940s military aircraft engine factory into an inviting and productive workspace lay in a series of design considerations, including:
- A glass-topped atrium that let in natural light;
- Oculus-like skylights punched into the ceiling allow natural light to pour in over the workstations;
- A massive light sculpture; and
- An environmentally-friendly terrazzo floor.
The article includes a list of materials and suppliers.
Source: Jean Nayar, Contract (San Francisco; Apr, 2007)
August 13th, 2006 in Buildings No Comments
SOM’s Tower in Guangzhou, China, Aims to Generate More Energy Than It Uses
This article notes that “green” building practices have been adopted as far away as China. Pearl River Tower in Guangzhou, China will harvest wind, humidity, and solar power from the environment and use it to maximum efficiency through myriad interwoven systems. Designed by Skidmore, Owings & Merrill (SOM), the Pearl River Tower will house the CNTC Guangdong Tobacco Company headquarters and take advantage of aggressive sustainability incentives from China’s Ministry of Construction to become a zero-energy structure.
Source: Jude Stewart, MetropolisMag.com/Next Generation; Aug, 2006
September 26th, 2005 in Buildings No Comments
Rising Energy Prices Turn Spotlight On Conservation-Friendly Facilities
This article explores the cost savings provided by conservation-friendly facilities in the age of unfriendly energy costs. A look at the headquarters of the Inland Empire Utilities Agency serves to illustrate the author’s point about how quickly extra costs in building “green” are paid back. Since its erection in 2003, the headquarters of this public sector water agency in Chino, California has saved more than $800,000 a year in energy costs and plans to be energy self-sufficient soon. The agency originally expected to realize a return on its design and solar panel costs by 2013 but will see it next year instead.
The Washington-based U.S. Green Building Council bemoans the fact that the emerging environmentally-friendly building trend remains mostly in the government sector, but expects that rising energy costs will soon push the trend throughout the private sector as well.
Source: Chris H. Sieroty, The Business Press; Sep 26, 2005
September 23rd, 2005 in Design No Comments
This article looks at “the new thinking in workplace environment” that results from the latest style of office buildings rising in Australia. Gone are the days of vertical towers with an elevator core, corridors, boxy offices, formal meeting rooms, partitioned workstations and a copy room in back. In their place are open, light-filled environments of flexible office spaces clustered around atriums, interactive meeting lounges, and coffee kiosks. This article touches on the collaboration that springs from these design trends and the problem-solving and the new-business generation that can result.
Source: The Gold Coast Bulletin; Sep 23, 2005
