A Happy St. Patrick’s Day from MEL/ARCH
From the MEL/ARCH team, we wish everyone good luck on their endeavors and a happy St. Patrick’s Day. Sustainable design is one of our firm’s key principles, so we wanted to highlight some buildings that are as green as can be!
Pixel Building - Studio505, 2011, Melbourne, Australia
This is Australia’s first carbon neutral office building and a front runner in green design across the world. This project achieved the highest source from LEED across the entire world. Its systems and construction material all contribute to its highly effective and sustainable design. Pixel Building is a great example that green project don’t necessarily have to have plants everywhere in order to be green.
Bahrain World Trade Center - WS Atkins, 2007, Manama, Bahrain
The Bahrain World Trade Center clearly shows the power of wind energy. The two towers are specially shaped to direct wind between the buildings and into the turbines. Each turbine is almost 100 feet in diameter. Now they don’t generate enough power to supply the whole building, but they display the big potential renewable energy and sustainable design can and should have on future buildings.
California Academy of Sciences - Renzo Piano & Stantec Architecture, 2008, San Fransisco, California, USA
This new building houses the California Academy of Sciences. It promotes sustainable practices through its mission but also through its design. The mission statement states, “Sustainability is not enough.To repair our damaged ecosystems and climate, we need to redo what Earth got right the first time. It’s time to regenerate the natural world.” The building embodies this as it recycles rainwater, uses solar panels, cultivates a 2.5 acre green roof, and utilizes a number of other sustainable strategies.
The Museum of Tomorrow - Santiago Calatrava, 2015, Rio de Janeiro, Brazil
Embracing unique site conditions, The Museum of Tomorrow stretches across Guanabara Bay. The form is influenced from the local culture. Sustainably, the building focus on water conservation as it treats and recycles water, collects rainwater, and has an air conditioning system in place that uses water from the bay. Additionally, the building was constructed with local materials and utilizes solar panels that follow the sun path. This building was awarded “Best Innovative Green Building” by MIPIM.
