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The most energy efficient skyscrapers in the world.
1. Pearl River Tower: The Most Energy Efficient Skyscraper
By Kaushik Wednesday, June 05, 2013 Architecture, Asia, China No comments
While many buildings claim to being green by incorporating a single eco-friendly technology into their design, the Pearl River
Tower in Guangzhou City, China, is one that architects call the most energy-efficient skyscrapers in the world. Designed by
Chicago-based Skidmore, Owings & Merrill (SOM), the design team’s original goal was to construct a “net zero-energy”
building that would sell its excess power to the local electrical grid. But SOM’s high dreams remained unattainable. The
completed structure still consume energy, but nearly 60% less than a traditional building of similar size.
Pearl River Tower’s reduced energy demand is achieved through its 309-meter high sculpted faces, which redirect wind to
four openings at its mechanical floors. Here, the wind is drawn through the building’s body and into a series of turbines, which
generate electricity for the offices within. In addition to driving turbines, the wind that is pulled in is also routed throughout the
tower’s ventilation system. The building uses double wall with mechanized blinds on the northern and southern facades, and
triply glazed facades on the eastern and western sides of the structure that keeps heat out, thereby reducing cooling
requirements.
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Art and Decor of Moscow Metro Stations
By Kaushik Saturday, May 18, 2013 Architecture, Russia, Travel No comments
The Metro began operating in Moscow in 1935 with a single 11 km line connecting just thirteen stations, but it has since
grown into the world’s fourth busiest transit system, spanning more than 300 kilometers and offering 188 stops along the way.
The Moscow Metro was one of the USSR’s most extravagant architectural projects, with stations constructed as luxurious
“palaces for the people”. Built under the command of Stalin, the iron-fisted leader ordered the metro’s artists and architects to
design a structure that embodied svet (radiance or brilliance) and svetloe budushchee (a radiant future). He directed his
architects to design structures which would encourage citizens to look up, admiring the station’s art, as if they were looking up
to admire the sun and—by extension—him as a god. With their reflective marble walls, high ceilings and grandiose
chandeliers, many Moscow Metro stations have been likened to an “artificial underground sun”.
The art includes bas-reliefs, friezes, marble and bronze statues, stained-glass windows and countless mosaics made with
glass, marble and granite in good Byzantine fashion. You can find the images of the former revolutionary and historical
characters, their victories, sports, industry, agriculture, and warfare, as well as of common Soviet people such as workers,
soldiers, farmers, and students.
Ferrari World Theme Park in Abu Dhabi
By Kaushik Thursday, May 09, 2013 Architecture, Middle East No comments
Ferrari World in Abu Dhabi is the world’s largest and the only Ferrari branded indoor theme park that sits at the center of a
2,500 hectare Yas island. Typical of UAE, the island is entirely dedicated to leisure, entertainment and lifestyle, and Ferrari
World is its central attraction. Opened in 2010, the park features more than 20 Ferrari inspired rides and attractions, in
addition to a wide variety of Italian delicacies and shopping malls, and is reportedly a must-visit for all Ferrari enthusiasts.
However, one of the theme park’s iconic attraction can only be experienced from the air – the enormous roof inspired by the
classic double curve side profile of the Ferrari GT body, spanning 200,000 sq meters and carrying the largest Ferrari logo
ever created. The theme park, measuring 86,000 sq meter is located under this 50 meter high roof. The perimeter of the roof
is more than 2 km in length. More than 12,370 tonnes of steel has been used to support this roof. At the center, there is a
100 meter glazed funnel. The Ferrari logo that adorns the roof of the building measures 65 meters across.
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Fujian Tulou: Ancient Earthen Castles of China
By Kaushik Tuesday, April 30, 2013 Architecture, Asia, China, Travel No comments
Fujian Tulou is a collection of earthen houses, impenetrable by outsiders, built between the 12th and the 20th centuries,
located in the mountainous areas in southeastern Fujian, China. A tulou is usually large, several storeys high, and built along
an inward-looking, circular or square floor plan. The doughnut shaped house has a central open courtyard and can house up
to 800 people or 80 families each. The outside wall is a solid block served by only one entrance, and windows to the outside
are located only above the first floor. Tulous were built for defense against armed bandits that plagued southern China from
the 12th century to 19th century. The people of southern Fujian first built strongholds on top of mountains as a defense.
These early strongholds later evolved into Fujian Tulou.
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The fortified outer structures are formed by compacting earth, mixed with stone, granite, bamboo, wood and other readily
available materials, to form walls up to 6 feet thick. Branches, strips of wood and bamboo chips are often laid in the wall as
additional reinforcement. The entrance is guarded by 4-5 inch thick wooden doors reinforced with an outer shell of iron plate.
The top level of these earth building have gun holes.
The Leaning Buildings of Santos, Brazil
By Kaushik Tuesday, April 30, 2013 Architecture, South America, Travel No comments
The coastline along the city of Santos, some 80 km from Sao Paulo, in Brazil, offers a strange sight. Like dominoes about to
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topple, the waterfront is lined by a string of high rise apartments that are unmistakably tilted to one side.
The problem lies in Santos’ soil. Below a seven-meter layer of sand is a 30-40 meter deep bed of slippery clay that doesn't
cope well with the weight of the structures. Until 1968, the local building code had no restrictions whatsoever on the type of
foundation that could be used for multistory buildings. Ideally, the foundations of buildings should reach bedrock, which in the
region is about 50 meters deep. But these buildings in Santos’ waterfront has foundations that are only 4 or 5 meters (13 to
16 feet) deep. After the leaning in the first building became visible, there was realization that the practice of placing tall
buildings on shallow footings could not continue, and a requirement was added to Santos building code to use deep
foundation for tall buildings.
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Twisted Skyscrapers Around The World
By Kaushik Tuesday, April 23, 2013 Architecture 1 comment
One of the latest design trends that seems to have found appeal among some architects is a towering skyscraper that twists
its way up to the top. Possibly the first, modern, twisted skyscraper constructed was the Turning Torso in Malmö, Sweden.
The residential building is constructed in nine segments of five-story pentagons that twist as it rises, with the topmost segment
twisted 90 degrees with respect to the ground floor. The construction of this building was featured on Discovery Channel's
"Extreme Engineering" TV program. The tower received some more publicity when on 18 August 2006, Austrian skydiver Felix
Baumgartner jumped off it and parachuted to the ground.
After the successful completion of the Turning Torso, designers started proposing similar audacious structures elsewhere.
Many projects got shelved, others were passed and built, and a handful of them are currently under construction. Here we
explore some of the most twisted skyscraper designs around the world, but first, a few pictures of the tower that started it all.
Taum Sauk Hydroelectric Power Station
By Kaushik Friday, April 12, 2013 Architecture, Engineering 2 comments
Hydroelectric power stations are typically located near water sources, or on the source itself, such as dams on rivers. But
Taum Sauk Hydroelectric Power Station is located more than 80 kilometers from the nearest water source – the Mississippi
river. Built on top of the mountainous St. Francois region of the Missouri Ozarks, approximately 140 km south of St. Louis
near Lesterville, Missouri, the Taum Sauk Hydroelectric Power Station is a pure pumped-storage hydroelectric plant,
designed to help meet peak power demands during the day. During periods of high electrical demand, water stored in a
kidney-shaped reservoir on top of Proffit Mountain is released through turbines into a lower reservoir, two kilometers away, on
the East Fork of the Black River. At night, when electrical demand is low, the excess electricity available on the power grid is
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used to pump water back to the mountaintop. In essence, the power plant functions like a huge battery, storing excess power
until it is needed.
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The Thorne Miniature Rooms
By Kaushik Friday, April 05, 2013 Architecture, Art n Design No comments
In a special wing at the Art Institute of Chicago, and in the Phoenix Art Museum, are several exhibits of incredibly detailed
miniature rooms. Painstakingly constructed on a scale of one inch to one foot, these rooms faithfully depict the architecture
and interior design of actual rooms found in the United States, Asia and Europe during the late 13th century to the early 20th
century. The rooms were conceived, designed, and in large part created by Narcissa Niblack Thorne (1882-1966). An Indiana
native, Thorne began to collect miniature furniture and household accessories during her travels to Europe and the Far East.
Impressed with the period rooms she encountered in major museums, beginning in 1930, Thorne began commissioning
master craftsmen and artisans to build interiors to hold her growing collection of miniature objects. Many of the rooms even
contain period-style rugs Thorne had woven specifically for each space.
Model of a Virginia Dining Room, c. 1800
Thorne's best-known works show the interiors of upper-class homes from England, the United States, and France. They are
painstakingly precise, and when maintenance is required, it has to be done with delicate tweezers and cotton swabs, the
furnishings being carefully restored to their original position with reference to a detailed layout plan.
Metropol Parasol: The World's Largest Wooden Structure
By Kaushik Friday, March 29, 2013 Architecture 2 comments
Metropol Parasol is a wooden structure located at La Encarnación square, in the old quarter of Seville, Spain. Designed by
German architect Jürgen Mayer-Hermann, the structure resembles a grove of prefabricated wooden trees soaring 26 meters
into the air. It has dimensions of 150 by 70 metres and claims to be the largest wooden structure in the world. The building is
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popularly known as Las Setas de la Encarnación (Incarnación's mushrooms).
The Metropol Parasol actually is a device for revitalising the Plaza de la Encarnación, which was used as a parking lot for
years and seen as a dead spot between more popular tourist destinations in the city. The structure consists of six parasols in
the form of giant mushrooms, whose design is inspired by the vaults of the Cathedral of Seville and the ficus trees in nearby
Plaza de Cristo de Burgos. The Parasol contains a market, shops, and a podium for concerts and events. In the basement is
an Antiquarium, where Roman and Moorish remains discovered on-site are displayed in a museum. On the roof there is an
open-air public plaza, shaded by the wooden parasols above and designed for public events. There are panoramic terraces,
including a restaurant, offering one of the best views of the city centre.
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Gasometers of Vienna: Former Gas Storage Tanks Turned Into
Housing
By Kaushik Wednesday, March 20, 2013 Architecture, Europe, Travel No comments
In 1896, Viennese authorities decided to invest in large-scale gas and electric utilities to provide the townsfolk with coal gas
for stoves, street lights and furnaces. Previously gas was provided by an English firm called Inter Continental Gas Association
(ICGA). Once the contracts with the ICGA expired, the city decided to construct facilities to handle its own gas needs. So they
constructed four massive storage tanks called gasometers, in the 11th district of Simmering. The tanks were enclosed by a
brick façade, each approximately 70 meters tall and 60 meters in diameter, and with a storage capacity of over 90,000 cubic
meters. At the time, they were the largest in Europe.
Overtime, town gas (coal gas) was replaced by natural gas and the gasometers were no longer needed. After nearly a
century of operation, in 1984, the gasometers were decommissioned. But owing to their outstanding architectural and historic
value, the gasometers were not demolished, rather classified as the country’s heritage building.
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