Here’s an amazing building I learned about this morning at the Taubman College conference. It’s being built in China’s Pearl River Delta and should open early in 2012:
The 2.3-million square-foot Pearl River Tower redefines what is possible in sustainable design by incorporating the latest green technology and engineering advancements. The 309-meter tower’s sculpted body directs wind to a pair of openings at its mechanical floors, where traveling winds push turbines which generate energy for the building.
The design for the tower incorporates a series of other integrated sustainable and engineering elements, including solar panels, double skin curtain wall, chilled ceiling system, under floor ventilation air, and daylight harvesting, all of which contribute to the building’s energy efficiency.
Project Facts
Completion Year: 2011
Site Area: 10,635 m2
Project Area: 214,100 m2
Building Height: 309.60 m
Number of Stories: 71
Obviously, you wouldn’t be allowed to build anything nearly that tall in Washington, DC, but it’s ecologically friendly and it looks amazing. What’s more, if you put an ecologically friendly building near mass transit and make it really big, then you’ve got a whole green community. Instead we’re scaling back modest-sized buildings in the name of aesthetic conformity.
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