GreenBuild Blog

Monday, November 28, 2011

Singapore Leads the Way in Greening Existing Buildings

In October 2009, Singapore’s Building and Construction Authority (BCA) opened of the Zero Energy Building (ZEB) located on BCA’s Waddell Road campus. Formerly a workshop, the renovated 4,500-square-meter (48,438-sq. ft.) structure now houses corporate offices and academic classrooms and is a true zero net energy building. Jerry visited this building in 2010 and saw first-hand not only the measures taken to reduce energy use, but the continuous readout of energy supply/demand in the main lobby, making this one of the more transparently ZEB’s in the world.

An agency under the Singapore Government’s Ministry of National Development, BCA is tasked with developing green technologies to meet the goal of making 80 percent of all Singapore’s buildings green by 2030. ZEB is BCA’s flagship project and the first net-zero energy building in Singapore.

ZEB was conceived with two primary objectives:

To serve as a laboratory for the integration of green building technologies in existing buildings.
To be a hub for the study of energy efficiency and green buildings.

The technologies currently being testing at ZEB will have potential applications for many of the existing buildings that will be retrofitted over the next two decades to meet the national goal.

Strategically placed photovoltaic panels serve the dual purposes of energy generation and sun shading.

Download the Singapore Case Study

Courtesy of the Building and Construction Authority of Singapore

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Tuesday, September 27, 2011

Western Australia’s Greenest Building Sets High Design Standards

Located in Perth’s central business district, 2 Victoria Avenue is a 7,185-square-meter (77,000-sq.ft.), four-story Class-A office building. Designed by Woodhead Architects, the contemporary and innovative glass and burnt orange metal facade represent the building’s most prominent design features.

The western facade is fully shaded by automatic operable louvers that respond to the movement of the sun throughout the day. Individual bays of louvers respond independently depending on shade created by adjacent trees and buildings, providing movement and visual interest across the building front facade.

Owned and managed by Australia’s major property developer Stockland, 2 Victoria Avenue was designed to be a benchmark for new sustainable office developments. Located adjacent to the company’s 13-story Durack Center, 2 Victoria Avenue is Stockland’s highest rated certified green building. The project was the first in Western Australia to receive a 6-Star Green Star Office Design V2 rating from the Green Building Council of Australia. The building was also the first in Western Australia to commit to a 5-star energy rating from the National Australian Built Environment Rating System (NABERS), a rating equivalent to a high-level Energy Star score in the U.S.

Download the 2 Victoria Avenue, Perth, Western Australia Case Study

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Friday, September 23, 2011

First LEED Gold Green Building in the Czech Republic

What once served as a dumping ground for hazardous waste is now the site of one of the greenest buildings in the Czech Republic. CSOB, a commercial bank, member of KBC Group, decided to consolidate its headquarters offices in southwest Prague, an area of the city that had not been redeveloped since it was destroyed during World War II. The former brownfield site is now home to the first LEED Gold certified building in the country. Prior to moving into the new headquarters building, the CSOB Group occupied several buildings in Prague’s old town. Many of these buildings were inefficient, out-dated and operationally expensive. Pavel Kavanek, chairman and chief executive of CSOB, explained one of main reasons for moving the bank’s offices, “So far, we have been scattered in various buildings in the center of Prague, so a lot of colleagues knew each other more from telephone calls than personally. At last, we will be closer to each other in the new headquarters. It is an important incentive for corporate culture of the entire CSOB Group.” Now more than 2,500 bank employees are located in one of the largest office buildings in the country. In addition to offices and workspaces, the five-story 900,000-square-foot building contains a public bank branch, a cafe for employees, a medical center, post office, hairdresser, dry cleaning and flower shop. Public, shared and non-work areas and amenities make up 35 percent of the net built area. The new building, located in Radlice, part of Prague, has also spurred urban redevelopment and stimulated local economic development in the area.

Download the CSOB Headquarters, Prague, Czech Republic Case Study

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Thursday, September 22, 2011

San Francisco Bay Area Ohlone College Leads the Way in Green Building

This is one of the case studies to be included in my forthcoming book, The World’s Greenest Buildings, Ohlone College in Newark, California. When a new college president, Douglas Treadway, took over early in the building program, he insisted that the building prioritize sustainability principles throughout the design, construction, and operation phases. This would offer several advantages to the college; it would signal their commitment to sustainability, boast a new environmental studies program, and reduce energy costs. “A college’s purpose isn’t just to distribute content. Its purpose is to develop knowledge workers,” said Treadway. “Once you look at it that way, then you shift the paradigm. You start asking, what kinds of environments are conducive to learning and discussion? Then you start thinking about the built environment.” Designed by architects Perkins+Will, the Newark Center for Health Sciences and Technology is a state-of-the-art research and teaching facility that houses laboratories, classrooms, offices, a library, and an exercise center. The Center serves 3,500 students in academic areas of health sciences and technology. Built on a former brownfield site adjacent to San Francisco Bay, the 130,000-square-foot, two-story building was completed in January 2008 and was awarded a LEED for New Construction Platinum certification.

Download the Ohlone College Newark Center for Health Sciences and Technology Case Study