There's a great emphasis in our studio to design a sustainable skyscraper. Our prof is extremely emphatic in mastering sustainable energy systems (i.e. photovoltaics, wind turbines, passive heating and cooling). A skyscraper should not require air conditioning, being so easily accessible to wind as ventilation. Bearing in mind that architecture is responsible for 48% of the world's greenhouse gas emissions, it seems appropriate to learn how to cool a building without chemicals and electricity. At the same time, there is an overwhelming amount of knowledge to be learned in the energy control of a 60-storey building. The image below is just a tiny fraction of some of the things to consider. I'm not sure how far we'll go into details for this project, but we do at least have to architecturally integrate wind turbines and solar panels into the building.
Some of the basic issues to consider as benefits to the sustainable skyscraper include:
+Utilizing a minimal footprint to multiply floorspace. This is in many ways a counter-balance to suburban sprawl through densification
+Reducing transportation costs by servicing a high-density building with a major public transportation artery
+Desiging 'vertical landscaping' to add to a city's green space.
+Harvest clean energy to create energy-autonomous buildings
+Design a 'vertical city' not just a high-rise development of compartmentalized spaces. Finding a hardware store and a fresh fruit market shouldn't be unusual in creating life in the sky.
As basic points, there are huge implications in the design process to tackle each of these possible solutions to improving a tower's efficiency.
Here's a video of Jacques Ferrier's 'Hypergreen' HQE building. This columnless tower is interesting in that the structure is entirely external, but also designed with varied opacity to control lighting and heat gain. This means that the south-facing structure will have tighter members to minimize harsh, direct sunlight, whereas the north side of the building is much more spread out to offer ideal office environments.
Another video on Sustainable Skyscrapers.
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2 comments:
hi!
it's michal
i was just researching the "sustainable tower issue" ... it's one of those things still comming back to my mind and for which i feel need to research more one day... so accidentally i found your blog... just wanted to say i enjoyed it.. saw ur free-hand drawings also... and collages... there's somthing, that seems to me a bit remaining oldfashioned, "aksonometry"-incorporating collage/drawing/construction of old Russia style... (?)... however, heh cool... greetings from Poland!
Michal,
I'm glad you found my blog. The sustainable tower is a great and complex topic to study. Skyscrapers are relatively very young as a building type, though they can be traced back to the tower of Babel. A lot of interesting improvements can be made on sustaining our mega-structures. I hope you find something useful on this site or in your web-research.
Hand drawing is the most important tool an architect can have. I hope it never becomes fashionable (or old-fashioned), but able-to-fashion instead (i.e. make or form through a process).
Take care! Cheers from Canada.
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