10 incredible 'green' buildings around the world
Darcel Rockett of the Chicago Tribune takes a look at 10 of the world's coolest city spaces, designed with greenery in mind.
Garden by the Bay South in Singapore
Garden by the Bay South is a nature park near the Bayfront Mass Rapid Transit station in Singapore. A number of conservatories are here, minimizing the city's environmental footprint and demonstrating sustainable building technologies. Visitors can take in the Flower Dome, Cloud Mountain (a structure made of plants) and Supertree Grove (vertical, treelike gardens with unique plants and photovoltaic cells that capture solar energy for use elsewhere in the park).
Bosco Verticale in Milan
The Bosco Verticale green buildings and residential towers at the Porta Nuova complex in Milan, Italy, house trees that aid with pollution, moderate temps in the building and reduce noise.
Council House 2 in Melbourne, Australia
The city of Melbourne’s new offices are housed in what claims to be Australia's greenest and healthiest office building. It features a substantial rooftop garden area. High-rise horticulture, like that atop Melbourne's Council House 2, helps cool urban heat-islands.
ParkRoyal Hotel in Singapore
The ParkRoyal Hotel in the financial hub of Singapore has a unique hotel-in-a-garden design. It was named hotel of the year by World Architecture News in 2013.
Vancouver Convention Centre in Canada
The West Building of the Vancouver Convention Centre features a six-acre "living roof" and is certified LEED (Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design) Platinum.
Shanghai Tower in China
The 623-meter Shanghai Tower is the tallest building in China and the second tallest building in the world. It was built with a large percentage of recycled material and is partially powered by wind turbines. One third of the interior is public green space.
Bank of America Tower in New York City
The Bank of America Tower in Midtown Manhattan has insulated floor-to-ceiling windows for natural light, a reusable rainwater-capturing system, CO2 monitors and waterless urinals. It has its own co-generation plant that produces 4.6 megawatts of clean, sustainable, energy.
Vanke Center Shenzhen in China
Vanke Center Shenzhen in China has photovoltaic solar panels that sit atop the structure's roof, supplying over 10 percent of the building's energy, while inside, all furniture, doors and floors are made from bamboo. The complex also boasts public gardens and a microclimate created by rectangular cooling lakes fed by a gray-water system.
Bahrain World Trade Center towers
The twin towers of the Bahrain World Trade Center in the Persian Gulf make up an eco-friendly office building with wind turbines sandwiched between two "sail"-shaped towers, generating clean energy for the building.
Bullitt Center in Seattle
The Bullitt Center has hydronic heat (spaces heated with warm water circulated in tubes embedded in concrete floor plates) and toilets that only use 2 tablespoons of water mixed with biodegradable soap. It’s the world's only six-story composting toilet system and has 575 solar panels in the building’s canopy that power the building.