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12. Changsha, China: Sky City
Sky City’s prospective builders, Broad Sustainable Building, estimated just 210 days to erect this tower in the south-central China city of Changsha, which included 120 days for modular prefabrication and 90 days for construction. But they didn't count on having to spent extra time on seeking additional approvals and, unfortunately, after a pre-construction government regulators inspection, the project was halted in August 2013. If and when the solar-powered Sky City goes forward, it is to contain 202 floors and measure 2,749 ft., topping Dubai’s Burj Khalifa by 33 ft. The mixed-use tower totaling 13 million sq. ft. will be 83 percent residential, with 5,000 apartments housing up to 17,000 people. The tower will also house a hotel accommodating up to 1,000 guests, a hospital, retail space, offices, five schools, six basketball courts,10 tennis courts,17 helipads and 104 high-speed elevators. The total capacity of the building is 30,000 people. To ensure earthquake resistance up to 9.0 on the Richter Scale, the project will use 270,000 tons of steel, which is to be factory-assembled using sustainable building technology. The tower will be built from recycled and non-VOC materials. Four-layered glass and 6 in. of insulation will be used for the tower’s windows, contributing to energy efficiency and keeping the building’s temperature constant at 68°F to 81°F. Sky City's filtered indoor air will be up to 20 times cleaner than the air outside, and all lighting will be LED.
11. Seoul, South Korea: Gwanggyo City Centre
This self-sufficient city, to be constructed south of Seoul, will be an urban cluster of hill-like structures in which up to 77,000 people will live and work. The goal of the center, designed by the Rotterdam, Netherlands, architecture firm MVRDV, is to create a sense of community and eliminate dependence on public transportation. The buildings will be constructed of concentric ringed floors decreasing in size the higher they go, and will be hung with boxed gardens to be maintained by an internal irrigation system utilizing excess water. The gardens, in turn, will improve ventilation by providing air filtration, reducing energy usage through evaporative cooling and reducing water usage by eliminating the need for an independent source of irrigation.
10. Shanghai, China: Soho Hailun Plaza
This 426.5-ft. office tower overlooking five smaller retail/office buildings, has been under construction since November 2012, and will open in 2016. Construction began in November 2012. The plaza is sited at the intersection of two metro lines and has been designed by UNstudio—an architecture firm with offices in Amsterdam, Shanghai and Hong Kong—according to the flow of commuters from the subway station into the city. Each building is covered with a multi-faceted skin cladding, which acts as both shading screens and windows, increasing the buildings’ energy efficiency and allowing their look to change throughout the course of the day. Greenery tops the buildings as well as surrounds them, and a six-floor basement holds retail and entertainment space.
9. St. Petersburg, Russia: Lakhta Center (formerly Okhta Tower)
This large, mixed-use non-residential construction project was originally planned to be built near the center of St. Petersburg and initially called Gazprom City and later Okhta Center. After a public debate over the project's impact on the city's architectural integrity and its numerous violations of city laws, the project was moved west of Lake Lakhta, to Primorsky, an outer suburb of St. Petersburg. Lakhta Center, which will house the headquarters of Gazprom Neft and Gazprom Group, will include St. Petersburg's first super-tall skyscraper, a scientific and educational complex, a hotel, residences, a sports stadium, leisure facilities and an outdoor amphitheater. Eco-friendly features include a smart, double-skin façade providing heat insulation and sensors which enable the buildings to maintain an optimal temperature. Lakhta Center is implemented as a pilot project of an integrated development of the area and the construction of a sustainable district for life and work. The center's 1,519-ft. main tower is expected to be the tallest building in Russia and Europe. Its main tower is being designed by Russian architectural and engineering companies Gorpoekt and ViPS.
The complex is estimated to cost $2.56 billion and is expected to employ a few thousand workers.
8. London: The Organic Skyscraper
If architects Karine Chartier and Thomas Corbasson of VS-A Group have their way, a building will someday, literally, grow in London. The Parisian design duo has proposed an organic skyscraper that will incorporate the waste produced by its occupants, growing taller as more paper and glass needed for construction is discarded. Sound a bit far out? The project, dubbed the Organic Skyscraper, earned a special mention in this year’s international Skyscrapers and SuperSkyscrapers competition. The building will have prefabricated hollow tube framing attached to its exterior, supporting power generators, minimizing windload and allowing components to be added to the building. Recycling plants will top the building, producing useable material out of recyclables brought up by elevator from collection areas on the ground floor.
7. Wuhan, China: Wuhan Greenland Center
This 2,087-ft.,125-story skyscraper, designed by Adrian Smith + Gordon Gill Architects, is currently under construction.The tower, to house the headquarters of the Greenland Group, is expected to open in 2017, and is set to be China's third-tallest building, the world's fourth tallest, and the world’s first tall building that will actually remove air pollution from the sky. The tower will feature thermal chimneys to improve its natural ventilation, solar power, rainwater harvesting systems and wind turbines. Its119 stories will total 984,251 sq. ft. of floor space to include offices, luxury apartments and condominiums, a five-star hotel and a private club on the penthouse level. Its uniquely streamlined form combines three key shaping concepts—a tapered body, softly rounded corners and a domed top—to reduce wind resistance and vortex action. The building’s extremely efficient aerodynamic performance will allow for a minimal amount of structural material to be used. The tower rises from a tripod-shaped base, and its three curved glass corners taper upward, culminating in a dome with an arched tip. Its curtain walls, which enclose a composite concrete core with steel framing, feature openings that will assist in venting wind pressure against the tower as well as house window-cleaning systems and air intake and exhaust systems.
6. Tokyo: XSeed 4000
Taisei Construction Corp. planned this city-in-the-sky that would dwarf Japan's Mt. Fuji in the mid-1990s. Not surprisingly, it hasn't been built, and probably never will, but it nonetheless got the firm the attention it was seeking and has certainly inspired other designers of "greenscrapers" to make the previously unimaginable possible. The tower would have measured 13,123 ft., or 2 miles high, with 800 floors, and was meant to house 1 million people.
5. Wuhan, China: Phoenix Towers
These two buildings, currently under design by Chetwoods Architects and HuaYan Group, are to represent the male and female dualistic aspects of Chinese culture, and will be built on 17 acres on an island in a lake. The taller tower, Feng, will contain 100 stories of residential units, offices and retail stores. The slightly shorter Huang tower will feature the world's tallest garden at its top.The buildings will be made of steel with concrete cores and buttresses and covered with photovoltaic panels. Besides solar power, the towers' technologies will include wind, thermal, biomass boilers and hydrogen fuel cells.
4. Dubai: Burj al Taqa (Energy Tower)
Currently under construction, this tower utilizes a system of wind thermals and solar panels to generate 100 percent of its power. The main wind turbine is roof-mounted and 197 ft. tall. The plan for this 1,056-ft. building, which contains 68 stories, was approved in 2007, and its architect, Eckhard Gerber, is currently designing a zero-emissions office building for Riyadh in Saudi Arabia. Burj al Taqa's cylindrical shape is designed to minimize exposure to the sun. A giant, rotating Solar Shield covers one-sixth of the tower's circumference from the ground to the roof, and moves throughout the day. An artificial island of solar panels within view of the tower covers 182,986 sq. ft. Inside the building, which is to be constructed from vacuum glazed glass, reduces heat absorption and reduces the need for air conditioning. Natural light is reflected throughout the building from mirrors on the roof. A double-skin facade protects the shield and clears stale air from within the building. Water is pumped via round tubes attached to the underside of ceiling slabs on each floor to regulate the indoor temperature. Many of these systems have not yet been tested, so this tower will have to prove its sustainability over time.
3. Dubai: Lighthouse Tower
This 1,312-ft. tower will have a total construction area of 459,317 sq. ft. and is set to become a working prototype for low-carbon towers and sustainable developments. The building, under design with the Atkins Group, has the goal of reducing total energy consumption by 65 percent and water consumption by 40 percent. The design makes use of passive solar architecture and low-water engineering solutions, including recovery systems. Energy generation will be via three 225-kilowatt wind turbines, each 95 ft. in diameter. All materials will be from sustainable sources, and a steel frame is likely to be used. Floor plates will be interconnected by micro-atria and interconnected vertical gardens are being considered to provide space for socializing.
2. Atlanta: Aquarius Tower
If the aptly named Aquarius Tower, a luxury residential building planned back in 2007, ever gets built in Atlanta, it will harness wind energy via a five-floor wind tunnel designed to house 60 turbines and provide space-age, multi-floor parking, robotically storing and retrieving cars on command. At the top of the building, designed to resemble a billowing sail by Tuscany Corp., would be fitted with solar panels, and together, the solar and wind power systems would meet half of the tower's energy needs. Recycled materials and thermally efficient products would be used throughout the building.
1. Vancouver: Historic Exchange Building Tower
In 2013, the City of Vancouver approved plans for a tower that promises to be among the greenest skyscrapers in Canada, as well as bring new life to a historic building. The Exchange is a 31-story tower that is to be built on top of and alongside the 11-story Old Stock Exchange, which was built in 1929. The entire project is seeking to become Canada's first to achieve LEED Platinum certification for heritage conversion. Energy-saving technologies include shading louvres incorporated into the facade, a high-efficiency hydronic heating/cooling system, solar thermal panels for hot water, a stormwater rentention/reuse system and indoor landscaped sky gardens. All in all, the building should use 50 percent less energy than others in its class. Costing about $200 million, it is expected to be completed in 2017.
