M:OFA Unveils Air-Filtering Green Office for the Delhi Pollution Control Committee

When the Delhi Pollution Control Committee set out to build a new office, they wanted it to be an expression of the work they do to clean the environment. The winner of their design competition was Manifestation: Of Fluid Architecture (M:OFA), whose proposed building is a giant urban filter that soaks up pollution through its pores and pumps out clean air and water. The new office complex will use both passive and active strategies to reduce energy use, and it will soak up polluted air through the walls, generate its own energy through photovoltaics, collect rainwater from the roof and process black and grey water for further use.

The Delhi Pollution Control Committee’s design brief for their new building called for an affirmation of the organization’s purpose, which is to improve environmental quality through sustainability. M:OFA responded to this brief with a building that acts like a sponge – soaking up pollution and spitting back out clean air and water. The design for the six-story office begins with the building’s orientation to provide natural daylighting and encourage breezes from the prevailing winds. Walls and the large overhanging roof were arranged to shield the interior from the sun and prevent overheating.

The building itself is made from bentonite clay-lined foam concrete with micro cavities that acts as a filter to clean out polluted air. Living walls and gardens interspersed throughout the building work to pump out fresh and clean oxygen into the space. During the winter, underground mechanical filters force polluted hot air from the basement through the hollow walls, which acts as a heater and reduces pollution at the same time. In the summer, rooftop mechanical filters pump in fresh air and continue to help keep the pollution in check.

The parasol roof acts like a basin to collect rainwater, which is stored in cisterns underneath the building. Photovoltaic panels generate electricity for use in the building and are stored in batteries to power outdoor lighting at night. Sewage and grey water from the building is processed through an on site reed bed and koi pond. An anaerobic digester produces methane that is used in a co-generation gas engine for more electricity. Leftover waste is used as fertilizer in the gardens and landscaping and the clean water is used in a chilled beam system to provide cooling. The new office for the Delhi Pollution Control Committee in New Delhi is underway and is expected to be complete in 2014.

Via ArchDaily

Green-Roofed Villa Topoject Emerges from the Hills Near Seoul, Korea

Instead of creating walls and fences to demarcate a plot situated in a small valley near Seoul, Korean architects AND (Architecture of Novel Differentiation) designed a house that is nestled into a hill and spirals up from beneath it. Villa Topoject flows with the hilly topography of the area to create semi private outdoor spaces that blur the line between exterior and interior. 

The house is clad in black-stained cedar panels that, with cedar’s earthly quality, visually merge with the ground and contribute to the warmth of the place. The protruding balcony floats above a decked terrace ground floor level that opens up to a shallow pool of water and a small creek running along the site. The first floor houses a living room, bedroom, study and greenhouse, while a guest suite and storage are accommodated underground, “at the tail” of the building.

Villa Topoject is a home for a couple who would like to enjoy rural life. Strongly linked to the ground, the house is a land-building hybrid that allows residents to be in direct contact with the land, like farmers. As the building gradually emerges from the landscape, the residents seem to observe nature more like tourists, benefiting from the beautiful balcony views of the area.

Less is More at Norway’s Minimalist Juvet Landscape Hotel

We're excited to share yet another study in classic minimalist design, this time from Jensen & Skodvin. Their Juvet landscape hotel in West Norway features 10 tiny rooms that fit snuggly into their picturesque surroundings with virtually no environmental footprint - like these adorable pods from France and this incredible treehouse studio. Intrinsically respectful of its mind-blowing natural surroundings and light on materials, this boutique hotel comprises the epitome in eco-architecture. But beware! It costs a hefty €300 to spend a night.

An award-winning design, Juvet became a reality when Knut Slinning, its owner, discovered that the Norwegian government was spending a boatload of money to renovate portions of the country’s National Tourist Route. He then commissioned Jensen & Skodvin to construct ten mini-rooms out of soft, fast-growing pine on what was an old farm property, each with at least one wall of glass to emphasize connectedness with nature.

The hotel explores whether it is possible to build in nature without a huge footprint, and the rooms are practically bare on the inside save for a lamp, bed, and a couple of chairs. Although the bathrooms are painted canary-yellow, there are no wall hangings or other objects that detract from the spectacular scenery. Finally, the cabins are built on stilts to enable easy removal should that need arise, since, as Mr. Slinning notes, “we are only guests of nature.”

World's "First Floating Village" Unveiled by Baca Architects and ZM Architecture Design for Glasgow

 Baca Architects and ZM Architecture have teamed up with Floating Concepts to design what has been dubbed the world’s first “floating leisure village” at Canting Docks in Glasgow. The Scottish city—in which the docklands once served as a major industrial hub—has seen significant urban renewal in recent years and the mixed-use floating development could add to the city’s appeal. Plans for the location, which lies just off the River Clyde, include a boat-sharing facility, an 80-100 room pod hotel, single-family homes as well as a cafe and theater— much of which will utilize renewable energy.

The £30 million floating development is located directly adjacent to the Glasgow Science Center at the Pacific Quay, and will form a key part of the larger Clyde Waterfront redevelopment. Previous projects considered for that development include the ZM Architecture-designed solar power-generating floating lily pads. The Canting Basin development is designed around a floating horseshoe-shaped promenade, and public amenities at the development will include a public marina, an 80-100 bed pod hotel and a cafe and theater with rooftop seating. The hotel is comprised of modular stacking units atop a floating base, which has been awkwardly described as having the appearance of “luxury shipping containers,” with large glass facades to provide dramatic views of the river. The sloped elliptical theater can reportedly rotate (with the help of a tug boat) to provide views of events both on the water and on land.

The village will also provide apartments, townhouses and office spaces for residents, with lightweight steel frames allowing for three-story floating structures. The residential buildings, designed by Dutch and Scandinavian architects, will be available on an off-the-peg basis, and range from 1000-3500 square feet. All are designed with glass facades for views of the water, along with space for balcony and ground-floor level gardens, while on the outer edge of the property plantings will provide a buffer for the properties. Heat exchangers will harness the water for climate control for the floating homes, while grey water will be filtered and recycled on site.

While a large numbers of boats buzzing around the marina may not be the most ecologically sensitive thing, the developer’s focus on a water-borne, peaceful and car-free community certainly has its appeal. Each of the residential units will have its own berth, while office workers and visitors will be able to take advantage of a boat-sharing program and additional moorings to “encourage the use of the river for recreation and transport.”

The project was approved by the Scottish Executive last year, and is currently slated for completion by 2020.

BIG's Connecting Greenland: AIR + PORT Exhibit Proposes a New Future for Greenland

Dream it and they shall come. That's the premise of the POSSIBLE GREENLAND exhibit at the 13^th Annual Architecture Exhibition of the Venice Biennale, headed by the Danish Architecture Centre and curated by Minik Rosing and Nord Architects. This exhibit seeks to explore the huge potential and some of the challenges that face Greenland, a place that has gotten global attention of late due to its natural resources and its position on climate change. BIG (Bjarke Ingels Group) in collaboration with TENU, Julie Hardenberg and Inuk Silas Hogh created the Connecting Greenland: AIR + PORT portion of the POSSIBLE GREENLAND exhibit. The architects propose creating a multi-modal transportation hub for domestic and international travel just south of Nuuk, the capital.

Currently, Greenland residents rely heavily on air travel to get around, but are plagued by empty flights and staggering prices. BIG and its cohorts are proposing to address this domestic problem with a global solution. The Greenland Transport Commission identified the island of Augisunnguaq, south of Nuuk, as a potential new hub for connecting Greenland domestically and internationally by air and by water. But Connecting Greenland: AIR + PORT isn’t just about creating a new piece of transportation infrastructure. It proposes a variety of programs and mixed uses for the area as the genesis of a new paradigm of efficient transportation and vibrant public programs that would benefit the whole country. This holistic solution is what Bjarke Ingels calls Social Infrastructure.

This vision is part of Greenland’s attempt to position itself at the center of major world economies like Europe, Asia and America. Instead of positioning itself as a back-water in harsh and inaccessible part of the world, Greenland wants to explore its potential as a transit hub between Europe and America – increasing potential transit tourism while at the same time cutting costs for local commuters.

Other parts of the POSSIBLE GREENLAND exhibit include Cultivating Greenland, Inhabiting Greenland and Migrating Greenland, exploring the multiple aspects of the country as a way to work towards a more prosperous and connectedglobal future.

JDS Architects' Beijing Green Visitor Center is a Sustainable Building You Can Walk On.

JDS Architects' Beijing Green Visitor Center is a modern architectural marvel that welcomes visitors to walk right on top of it. The sloped structure is slated to be built in front of a new sustainable industrial park in order to connect the parking area with the rest of the facilities. The building's envelope can be manipulated to minimize energy loss from the climate and the sun, and it will be able to generate its own energy via a rooftop photovoltaic system.

JDS Architects recently unveiled their plans for the Beijing Green Visitor Center, which will sit at the entrance to a new sustainable industry park. The building serves as a welcome area for visitors and employees and joins the existing car park to the R&D centre and the park loop. Inside the 5,000 sq m (53,820 sq ft) visitor center are multifunctional and exhibition spaces along with a reception area, VIP room, a shop, a cafe and a children’s area. The building’s volume is based on a serious of manipulations to protect it from its environs. In this way, the original rectangular box is pushed and stretched to create an undulating roof, which is characteristic of JDS Architects’ design style.

This undulation is topped with a building integrated photovoltaic system on the portion that faces the south. The stretching of the roof also serves to protect the interior from direct sunlight, glare and overheating, while still allowing for natural daylight to to enter the space. Moveable photovoltaic louvers on the south side further block direct light by absorbing it and generating energy. In the winter, the sun is low enough to reach into the interior and heat up the floors that act as thermal mass and distribute warmth throughout the interior. Rainwater is also collected and stored in an underground cistern for use in the toilets and the park. Visitors and employees can enter through the building or bypass the interior by walking over the top and gaining a different view of the surrounding park and landscaping. The sloped roof can also serve as seating and an amphitheater when required.

 

 

Facebook Commissions Frank Gehry to Design New Green Menlo Park Campus

Facebook just announced a huge expansion to their Menlo Park campus, and have commissioned Prizker-Prize winning starchitect Frank Gehry – best known for his shiny, titanium-clad icons of blobitecture – to design the expansion. Even more surprising is that we’ve seen the designs, and so far they don’t appear to include Gehry’s trademark incomprehensible piles of eye-scorching titanium curves. The proposed design is quite eco-friendly, with a massive park-like, tree and grass-lined green roof featuring a ‘park benches’ and a ‘walking trail’ on top! In addition, Facebook submitted proposals to the city to allow its 6,000 planned new workforce to travel between old and new campuses to via a tunnel designed for pedestrian and bike traffic. Perhaps an eco architect like Bill McDonough might have been a better pick to design the giant green roof, but it seems Facebook was going for icon status here, and no architect is better known than Frank Gehry.

Zuckerberg’s team have made few changes to the former Sun Microsystems building they have occupied since their move in last summer. This area, the East Campus, cover 57 acres and about 1 million square feet of office space. The new plan proposes the creation of a 22 acre west campus, which will be able to house their proposed hire of over 6,000 people in the next six years.
In Gehry’s architectural models of the West Campus plan show a green roof extending over all of the planned building space. The plan will also conform to Menlo Park’s the Water Efficient Landscape Ordinance which requires that turf area shall not exceed 500 square feet. In the non-turf areas, the ordinance state that at least 80% of the plants be native plants, low water using plants, or no-water using plants, and the roof top will be peppered with eating cafes and kiosks, such as sushi bars, as well.

More than a third of the new workers will be engineers, and Everett Katigbak, Facebook’s environmental design manager, is making sure the new building takes this into account. “At every step of planning the new building, Frank has taken into account our engineering culture” says Katigbak in a Facebook post. “It will be a large, one room building that somewhat resembles a warehouse. Just like we do now, everyone will sit out in the open with desks that can be quickly shuffled around as teams form and break apart around projects.” The new offices will also include cafes, mini-kitchens, and comfy break spaces. The tunnel connecting the two campuses can be seen in site plans submitted in 2011 to the City of Menlo Park. The path creates a transit route for people and bikes underneath the Bayfront Expressway.

Frank Gehry is such a big name in architecture that inevitably, his buildings all seem to become ‘icons’, so we expect Facebook is hoping for a Bilbao moment here with their new campaus. Though Gehry is best known for his swooping, technically challenging, titanium-clad facades, we’re noticing that his more recent works heavily promote bioscaping. The Panamanian Museum of Biodiversity, L.A.’s Grand Park, and Chicago’s Millennium Park all capture Gehry’s uniqueness of form, consideration for the native plant-scape, while creating spaces that draw people outdoors. If Gehry’s team applies the same attention to detail to the Facebook West Campus, future Facebook employees should be happy campers. Strolling on the roof park of your office building while nibbling on sushi sounds pretty idyllic!

 

http://inhabitat.com