Wheaton College's Mars Center for Science and Technology Awarded LEED Gold Certification!

The Mars Center for Science and Technology at Wheaton College has been awarded LEED Gold Certification from the U.S. Green Business Council for its environmentally-friendly design and extensive use of sustainable building strategies. The $42 million facility features a 1,300-square-foot green roof, energy recovering air-handling units, and extensive solar shading, which enabled it to meet one of the nation's highest green building and performance standards.

The Mars Center for Science and Technology has 12 teaching labs and 23 research labs as well as a rooftop observatory and greenhouse. The building’s green features include a 1,300-square-footgreen roof, drought-tolerant plants that conserve water, glass curtain walls to maximize interior daylighting, solar shading on glass and brims to reduce solar heat during the summer and interior lighting sensors to reduce energy consumption. The building also features energy recovery wheels in the air-handling units, which significantly reduce heating and cooling loads.

The entire campus is a testament to green design. as the green roof and landscaped plantings cover more than 65% of the project’s site. Native and adaptive species also account for more than 40% of the plants.

Speaking about the centre’s achievement, President Ronald Crutcher said: “This award reflects the commitment of the entire Wheaton community to excellence in every endeavor. The Mars Center is an exceptional facility—as a place for learning and research as well as a model for  sustainable development.”

“Our goal was to achieve silver certification,” the president added. “We exceeded that goal thanks to the support of our donors, the vision of our faculty, attention to detail of the college’s staff and our builder’s representative, The Rise Group; the expertise of our architects EYP; and the follow through of the general contractor, Bond Brothers.”

Colombia’s Hotel Gaia has an 8-Story Vertical Garden with 25,000 Plants!

Paisajismo Urbano is literally turning Bogotá green with their amazing vertical ecosystems. One of the world’s most sophisticated team of vertical gardeners, the group behind Hotel Gaia’s eight-story living wall have spent 18 years learning how to bring the jungle into cities. And what a job they’ve done! This particular vertical ecosystem boasts more than 25,000 plants, of which 40 percent are indigenous to Colombia.

A total of 55 species were planted on the facade of B3′s Gaia hotel in Bogotá. A self-polinating hydroponic vertical ecosystem, this insect-repellent living wall requires very little maintenance and the payoff is huge. Not only does it completely transform the face of a glum building, but it also insulates it, reducing its electricity load, and scrubs the polluted air clean. If you like this, then you’ll love Spain’s largest indoor vertical garden as well. Holy caramba!

Escale Numérique is a Free, Green-Roofed WiFi Station in Paris

Mathieu Lehanneur recently unveiled a free WiFi station covered with a beautiful green roof in Paris! The designer worked in collaboration with outdoor advertiser JCDecaux to tap into an underground fiber optic network to create a haven of peace available to everyone. Escale Numérique (which translates to Digital Break) features concrete swivel seats with mini tables and plugs on their base and a large touch screen that provides updated information about services in the city for visitors or those without their devices. Totally free and available for anyone, Escale Numérique is a brilliant installation that offers up a free connection to the internet.

Mathieu Lehanneur and JCDecaux won the call for intelligent furniture projects by the Mairie de Paris Escale Numérique, to create a connected haven of peace available to everyone. The free WiFi station is on the Rond Point des Champs-Elysées and takes advantage of an underground fiber optic network which is now supplying the capital. Lehanneur likens the project to the “Wallace fountains, which since the end of the 19th century have offered Parisian the free drinking water which was circulating beneath their feet, Escale Numérique allows everyone to benefit, like a real public service, from a high-speed WiFi connection by raising it from beneath the ground.”
The digital service station features super durable swivel chairs made from concrete and mini tables connected to the seat are perfect for a laptop, smart phone, tablet or even just a book. Vertical logs, like tree trunks, are used to support the shade structure, which is topped off with a green roof. The living roof was designed to be attractive both from the ground as well as from a balcony above. Attached to the station is a large touch screen that provides information about the city, news and augmented reality for tourists and visitors who do not have a device with which to get online. Escale Numérique is certainly the prettiest WiFi stop we’ve seen and is at the intersection of great design and technology.

Lively Urban Cabin in Brazil Features Nest Beds and a Spherical Shelf Window

Fabio Galiezzo took a shabby shack in Brazil and transformed it into a colorful urban cabin decked out with nest beds and an awesome spherical shelf that frames views of the verdant surroundings. The original building was so dilapidated that Galeazzo propped it up with bamboo beams and columns and topped the whole place off with a series of green thermal tiles.

The Urban Cabin’s interior flooring is comprised of a combination of FSC-certified timber and brown granite. Since the structure sits amidst a shaded woody area, it was treated as a work of art – a la modernist painter Tarsila do Amaral. The bright colored stripes and irregular forms give the youthful home an attractive lift.
The spherical window doubles as an awesome bookshelf that draws a distinct connection between the interior and exterior, while the lovely hanging nest beds round off the project’s overall sensitivity to and celebration of nature. Outside, nautical, stretchy fabric is used to shelter the owner’s tiny vehicle and the outdoor barbecue is decked out in beautiful tiles. Although this might be a bit bright for some, we absolutely love this home.

Bottom Up Showcases Giant Spider-Like House Made of Recycled Materials in Barcelona

A giant spider-like house made of recycled materials is just one of the many surprising projects that could emerge from the Bottom Up festival in Barcelona this weekend. Open to the public at no cost, this urban intervention project at eme3′s seventh International Architecture Festival will draw 50 participants from around the world. Artists, designers and architects will converge in different parts of the city to present a series of exciting design workshops that encourage uninhibited creativity – often using found materials. The Institute of Placemaking is among this year’s participants and they are planning to build fun new structures made entirely of recycled materials.

The Institute of Placemaking will scour junkyards and recycling centers to locate materials for their exciting project at Bottom Up, but they’re not the only team that will be making waves. Berlin design firm Raumlabor will be there for the second consecutive year to work on Raval Generator – an on-site experimental workshop that encourages interaction between Axel Timm, architecture students and local associations of the Raval in the Ciutat Vella district of Barcelona.

Madrid’s Pez Studio will also be there along with the collective BodyLab, which is planning an experimental workshop that will explore body and space through installations, images and sounds. Dozens of other installations and workshops will be available throughout the weekend, so if you happen to be in Barcelona, definitely stop in. You’re bound to walk away feeling inspired.

Green-Roofed Twitter Headquarters in San Francisco Also Has a Yoga Studio!

We've seen the inside of several funky corporate offices, including Google and Facebook, but Twitter might have outdone them all with their new green-roofed headquarters in San Francisco. Part of the city's plan to revitalize a seedy neighborhood, Twitter was given a tax reprieve for moving into BCV Architects' renovated 11-story art deco office building on 10th and Market street. But the new headquarters for 800 employees also reflects something of a sustainability ethos. Hit the jump for the deets and flip through the gallery for a closer look.

 In addition to the swanky green roof, which is already populated by rows of leafy vegetables and provides a nice lunch spot for the company’s jubilant employees, the new headquarters boasts a micro health kitchen stocked with wholesome food and a tranquil-looking yoga studio. Either working for Twitter is so stressful that it’s necessary to offer such calming spaces or this is just one really progressive company.
We are going to err towards the latter given the 9th floor reception desk, which looks suspiciously like it is made of recycled materials, and Twitter’s insistence that the city provide better public transportation links to the area in addition to more dedicated bike lanes. Also included in the 80,000 square feet building, parts of which are being leased out, are cafes, restaurants and a very “cool” local grocery store.

Beautiful Green Roofed Affordable Housing In the UK

 Affordable housing meets stylish design, renewable energy, green roofs, energy efficiency and prefabricated construction in this fantastic housing project in the London Borough of Hillingdon. Birchway Eco Community was built as an infill project to provide affordable housing for residents of Hillingdon and is more than just a series of green built prefab homes. The residents are creating a green charter that will serve as a guidebook for the community on how to live greener lives.

Designed by Acanthus LW Architects and built by Paradigm Housing in partnership with Hillingdon, Birchway is made up of 24 one and two bedroom units. Five buildings with curved sedum covered green roofs make up the complex, along with garden space and bicycle storage. The buildings are constructed from prefabricated modules made from 65% recycled steel, which were delivered with the kitchens and bathrooms already installed. Upon arrival, the modules were set into place by crane, connected together and then the exterior, roof and finishes were added. From site clearing to construction completion, the project only took two months to build out.
The beautiful green roofs include both skylights and daylighting windows to let in light to the rooms below. Rainwater is collected from the roof and stored on the side of the house. Photovoltaic systems are installed on the southern aspects and wood-pellet biomass boilers provide heating and hot water. With tight insulation, passive ventilation and heat recovery systems, energy efficiency was a top priority. On top of the spectacularly unique design, the award winning development was built to Level 5 of the UK’s Code of Sustainable Homes, with 6 being the highest.