Thermal storage and leisure facility

Helsinki, Finland

Architects: Carlo Ratti Associati

Designed by Zaha Hadid Architects, the 172,800m² Leeza Soho in Beijing was awarded LEED ‘gold’ certification, recognising its energy efficient, green and sustainable architectural accomplishments. It also won many awards, including awards for excellence from the Council of Tall Buildings and Urban Habitat in the categories ‘best tall building’ and ‘interior space’.

The 45-storey building straddles a new subway tunnel in the growing Fengtai business district with halves on either side. This has created the world’s tallest central atrium at 194m high, which twists 45 degrees, in what has been described as a dynamic pas de deux that realigns the upper floors with the north.

The two parts of the tower are constructed with a double-insulated glass façade, which are laminated and insulated low-emissivity. This helps to mitigate heat loss in winter and heat gains in summer. Recyclable materials used in its construction.

For the atrium façade, it was important to keep the maximum amount of transparency. The façade is made up of 3,720 glass panels which were optimised for bending ratios.

Office, retail and masterplan

Hangzhou, China

Architects: Bjarke Ingels Group

The 110-metre-high, spherical Aldar headquarters in Abu Dhabi was designed by MZ Architects. Overall, it offers 62,000m2 of office space and has the capacity to hold 120,000 people.

It was recognised for being one of the country’s first green buildings, having been constructed in line with the US Green Building Council's Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design rating system. The building's efficiency is classed as 82%, making it one of the most efficient designs for the floor area.

The construction materials used over the 23 floors are mostly glass, steel and concrete, but glass was used extensively. With a striking semi-spherical structure, which comprises two fully glazed, convex-shaped facades, around 25,000 glass triangles make up the HQ’s exterior.

MZ Architects decided to use high-performance clear glass, which was energy-efficient and able to maximise natural daylight (and views) in all directions lowering the electricity costs. Its resistance against abrasions, rust, weathering and noise pollution are further reasons the company chose to focus on glass.

The carbon footprint of production was reduced by setting up a glass factory on site, which manufactured the special type of glass and sped up the construction process due to the reduced transportation time.

As well as being energy and maintenance efficient, the building has an underground vacuum waste collection system that transports rubbish directly to a local waste transfer station for recycling and compacting. It was the first of its kind in Abu Dhabi.

Campus

Dhaka, Bangladesh

Architects: WOHA

The Belgium-based headquarters of AGC Glass Europe is a ‘nearly zero’ energy building designed by architects Philippe Samyn and Partners. Some 13,0000m² of AGC’s glass take centre stage in the design of this building, which accommodates 500 staff members.

The provision of natural light and low energy consumption are at its heart, and the building received a BREEAM ‘excellent’ classification, scoring highly (83) for energy.

Overall, 95% of the glass used has cradle-to-cradle silver certification. To achieve low energy consumption, the glass utilises both thermal insulation and solar control glazing designs. The ‘double-skin’ façade combines glass louvres made of extra-clear glass (outside skin) with super-insulating glazing and white spandrel double glazing (inside skin).

The inner façade of the building uses AGC’s Thermobel Energy on Clearvision glas (92% light transmission) and the exterior façade uses Thermobel Top on Clearvision. Thermobel is insulating coated glass – also called low-emissivity glass – that reduces the carbon footprint of a building. The solar gain means that, despite the any heat loss, the low- emissivity glass leads to a net CO₂ saving.

Green energy is produced by the 900 photovoltaic panels on the roof and 42 geothermal probes sunk 75m below ground, which power heating and cooling throughout.

Residential

Quito, Ecuador

Architects: Ateliers Jean Nouvel

British architects BENOY and Slovakian studio Siebert + Talaš joined forces to design New Nivy, a 140,000m² complex of buildings that makes up a new city zone in Bratislavia.

An international bus station serving 20,000 people daily, a five-story shopping centre, luxury hotel, offices and a high-rise building called the Nivy Tower are some of the facilities making up this new community.

At 125m and set over 29 floors, the Nivy Tower is the tallest building in the city. The energy-conscious design earned the project BREEAM and WELL certification – the latter certifying spaces that advance health and wellbeing.

The building’s 19,000 m² glass façade has been designed with 60% light transmission, thermal insulation and a maximum external reflection of 13% to 26%.

The façade comprises interspersed opaque glass fields which were ceramic printed. It was designed using glass producer Saint Gobain’s Climatop Cool-Lite SKN 176 triple glazing and Climatop Cool-Lite Xtreme 70/33 II – a neutral and highly selective solar control glass.

To achieve a high daylight yield along with an efficient use of solar energy, the project uses the company’s Eclaz One with low-emissivity technology.

This project is the first to be awarded the BREEAM Communities certificate in Slovakia and was certified at ‘excellent’ level.