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

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.”

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.

Italian Firefighter House is Carved Into a Cave

Bergmeisterwolf Architekten have essentially turned Italy's Margried volunteer firefighting team into superheroes by building their new fire brigade in the depths of a sharp black-fronted cave. Instead of using up valuable agriculture land, the community opted to carve three caverns out of rock, thereby minimizing the use of new materials and reducing the project's energy load.

Enclosed with a pair of folding glass doors that reveal the red fire trucks and then protected from falling rocks by a strong pitched wall tinted to resemble burned wood, the fire brigade features three large caverns furnished with simple materials such as wood, glass and steel designed to contrast with the plastered interior walls. A heat simulation test conducted prior to construction revealed that only the administrative area of the “cave” needed insulation.
Otherwise, even when it’s 10 degrees Celsius below outside in winter, the cave maintains a fairly steady temperature of about 12 degrees Celsius. At the front, however, which has more exposure to the outside doors, it is colder, so the design team installed triple-insulated glass to mitigate heat loss. A cantilevering glass cube inserted into the cave near the offices brings in natural lighting, further reducing energy requirements. And the remaining heat for hot water and the interior is met with an ecological pellet heating system.

Gensler’s Portland International Jetport Lands LEED Gold Certification

The newly renovated Portland International Jetport in Portland, Maine is the second commercial airport to achieve LEED Gold certification. Designed by Gensler, the new LEED-certified airport follows on the heels of their renovation of SFO T2, which was the first LEED Gold airport in the nation. Spurred on by the commitment of the city of Portland to ensure a high level of sustainability, the jetport makes use of materials from the region and has the largest geothermal heating and cooling system in the state. Despite how energy intensive airports often are, the Portland Jetport and Gensler are showing how beautiful, sustainable and energy-efficient they can be.

The Portland International Jetport expansion in Maine opened in fall 2011, but was just awarded LEED Gold certification, making it the second commercial terminal in the United States to achieve this status. The 160,000-square-foot, three-gate facility includes a new ticketing hall, a modern baggage handling area that places TSA baggage screening out of view, six new passenger checkpoint lanes, new departures lounges, concessions, and food court seating. Inspired by the natural beauty and resources of Maine, the terminal features timber construction, rarely seen in airport architecture. Natural daylighting, FSC-certified glue laminated structural timbers, and low-maintenance, polished concrete floors add to the sustainability strategies.
To make the airport more energy efficient, Gensler, with the help of AMEC Earth and Environmental and Haley and Aldrich, designed a dual strategy system that relies on geothermal heating and cooling along with a radiant floor system. The geothermal system was made possible by the first-ever Voluntary Airport Low Emissions (VALE) grant from the Federal Aviation Administration. Installed under the parking lot, the system features 120 wells, each 500 feet deep to serve as a giant thermal battery — rejecting heat in the summer and absorbing heat in the winter. The energy-efficient heating and cooling program will save $200,000 a year on fuel costs and 2 million pounds of CO2 emissions per year, which is the equivalent of taking approximately 180 cars off the road per year.