my group and i (Ashley, Amy & David) did our research assignment on sustainable buildings. Each focusing on a different topic: Ashley did lighting and ventilation, Amy did coverings and roofs, David did energy saving and the overall footprint of a building....which you will find astonishing!! And i did building materials and paint.
I fell in love with a website that has an endless amount of pretty interesting stuff from architecture, furniture, fashion and more. The green buildings from this website are amazing: www.inhabitat.com. ----check it out
I also found another site that was more catered to my topic. It was a sustainable materials website by a company called Ecolect, their company name is actually two words that are merged into one: ecology and intellect, cool eh? What they do is provide architects and designers with only materials that have sustainable attributes, helping designers to discover, locate and use green materials more easily. Its really helpful because they have images for each material. This site also has a blog for green discussions and posted articles about recent environmental and sustainability issues. One such article discusses an eco- materials nutrition label, that inform the purchaser the sustainable qualitative and quantatative data in that particular product.
Getting back to materials...
historically buildings were inspired by natural elements and therefore nature's materials were used. A lot was taken into consideration when selecting materials for construction like the orientation of a building or the region it will be located in, as the climate is a large factor when making the right decision about materials. Many other factors play a huge role on the materials of a building....I'll leave that for a discussion in class.
It was hard choosing what picture to post because there are so many amazing green buildings out there and newer proposals that offer even better solutions to our building problems.
Anyways, I chose to post a picture of the Gherkin Building located in London designed by Norman Foster. It has recently begun testing an innovative vegetated facade panel. Now I know in class we've briefly disscussed green walls and whether we think they're going to be successful or not and this building clearly demonstrates a success. This new “Green wall” product, known as the Core Hydraulic Integrated Arboury panel, promises to bring the benefits of green roofs to any exterior surface of skyscraper. As we've mentioned in class skyscrapers get the most sunlight of any building and we've deemed that wasted sunlight....unless they're made of green!!!
Words stolen from the site: The panel works by obtaining moisture through the air and funneling through its specialized membrane properties allowing it to provide for enough water to allow for plant growth. The plants, mostly a mixture of lichens and grasses are expected to grow out of the panel and envelope the facade. Needless to say the benefits of the panels are many: Shading, increased internal daylighting, thermal insulation, reduced water consumption, energy generation for the entire building, recycling of materials, reduction of toxicity in the interior spaces, acceptance of the Kyoto treaty by the countries which have yet to sign, world peace, and a rise in property rental income.
....just in case you guys were REALLY curious how it worked. There is just too much information about sustainability because it is just the hottest topic today....if my eyes weren't closing right now I'd write you all a beautiful story of the materials I've discovered along with all the interesting buildings.
P.S. look forward to our presentation because theres some strange paint that you must know about
VERONICA
....just a couple more
1. Bahrain World Trade Centre
2. Orquiderorama: sustainable botanical garden
3. Schwimmhaus
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