The Burj al-Taqa [‘Energy Tower’]

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Designed by German architect Eckhard Gerber, this 322 meter, 68 storey skyscraper to be constructed in Riyadh, Dubai and Bahrain [yes, multiple buildings, apparently] will not only be the world’s 22nd tallest building – it will be zero emissions as well.

Despite its looks [not a huge fan – you?], the project has a lot going on – more than I’m going to get into in depth. For starters, its shape is designed to expose as little surface area [of facade] as possible to the sun. The building also has a ‘solar shield’ covering the 60% of its surface most affected by the sun – constructed from ultra modern materials that aren’t even available on the market yet.

The building will also utilize natural ventilation for cooling, as well as some sea-water air cooling systems. Additionally, a 60 meter wind turbine and 15,000 square meters of photovoltaic panels on the building’s roof – along with 17,000 square meters of ‘floating’ PV panels on the ocean [within view of the tower] – will generate ALL of the building’s electricity. All excess electricity will be used to obtain hydrogen from the sea water – which is stored in fuel cells which are used to power the building at night. It even has heliostats to bring natural light into the center of the building.

Want more? Read the in-depth article over at spiegel online.

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::via spiegel online – thanks to Pete Quily for the link::

::also covered by architechnophilia and treehugger::

ed. note : I’m thinking that Tuesdays will somehow be our ‘green architecture/design’ day from now on. Not to say that we will be limiting when we post on green arch & design, but Tuesdays will actually be a focused day devoted to green posts [just pretend those shopping carts below are made of bamboo or something]. So if you see a ‘green’ project or item that you think should be on architecture.mnp let us know at architecture@myninjaplease.com!

Posted: May 15th, 2007
at 12:03pm by orangemenace


Categories: architecture,green arch,featured ninjas,towering pagodas

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  1. this story also is featured at our blog…

    Bradley Swarts, editor
    ecAr2.0

    ecAr2.0

    15 May 07 at 6:59 pm

     

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