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The Lighthouse i Dubai. "Low Carbon commercial tower". Skyskrapa med mindre ekologiskt fotavtryck, Atkins som gör Dubaiskrapor på löpande band, har tagit fram en konceptdesign:


Den 400 meter och 66 våningar höga skyskrapan är tänkt att krönas av tre stycken vindturbiner med 25 meters diameter.

"In setting a new benchmark for Dubai, the 400-metre luxury office tower aspires to be a low carbon commercial building which aims to reduce its total energy consumption by up to 65% and water consumption by up to 40%. This will be achieved through the use of passive solar architecture, many low energy, low water engineering solutions, recovery strategies for both energy and water and building integrated renewables – including large scale wind turbines and photovoltaics.

During the development of the design Atkins will map and manage the embodied energy content of the building and select materials from sustainable sources, so that impact on global resources is controlled. Already this is leading designers to consider a steel frame solution for this structure.

Additionally, features such as floorplates interconnected by micro-atria and the inclusion of inter connecting vertical gardens are being actively considered to enhance the social aspects of this building."

Mycket holabalo om ekologiskt hållbara skyskrapor nu. Ofta består det ekologiska just i några vindturbiner på toppen och solceller, medan tornet som helhet fortfarande har ett omfattande ekologiskt fotavtryck. Som BLDGBLOG invänder:

"A high-rise that off-sets some of its power use through the installation of rooftop wind turbines is great: it looks cool, magazine readers go crazy for it, and the building's future tenants save loads of money on electricity bills. But once you factor in these savings, something like the new Castle House eco-skyscraper still ends up being a net drain on the system.

It's not good for the environment; it's just not as bad as it could have been. [...]
I remain radically unconvinced that a "green" skyscraper is better than no skyscraper at all – and yet green skyscraper enthusiasts are out high-fiving each other as if their own positive energy is enough to counteract carbon emissions from the global steel industry."

[Via Treehugger]

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Tillståndet

Manifest by Zaha Hadid

Augustinumret av Icon, 50 manifest av 50 arkitekter/kontor/designers/debattörer. Bred blandning av folk, rakt ur tiden, en kontrollmätning av tillståndet för arkitektur, design, samhälle och narcissism.

Förtjänstfullt kort hållna, i ansträngningsjusterad citatlängd som bloggposter medan middagen väntar. En del tillkomna på en höft, en del skrivna av kommittéer, andra sammanfattningar av utmejslade yrkesfilosofier.

Passar förstås Rem Koolhaas perfekt, som använder sin plats för en hyllning till Europa, och en prognos:

"The Eurasian giants, India and China, wait benevolently until we are ready to start the post-Atlantic era together. Then the distribution of oil can be arranged between the ones who are benefiting directly from it. The desert will no longer need to be pumped out for American SUVs."

Peter Eisenman (hem):

"In staging the appearance of reality as spectacle, media induces passivity. The more passive the audience, the more necessary spectacular imagery becomes. It is a vicious cycle in which architecture today is more than ever implicated. In such a context, today’s subject, now rendered passive, is truly in danger of losing the capacity for close reading."

Peter Saville (hem):

"Creativity has become part of the business of social manipulation. The cultural adventure has been consumed by business. Making things better is a moral issue, but morality and business don’t go together – business is, if not immoral, then amoral"

Jasper Morrison (hem):

"Design, which used to be almost unknown as a profession, has become a major source of pollution."

Steven Holl:

"At the beginning of the 21st century, architecture can be the most effective instrument for reconstructing the relations between our species and the earth."

Geoff Manaugh (hem):

"The suburbs are architecture; bonded warehouses are architecture; slums are architecture; NASA's lunar base plans are architecture - as are the space stations in orbit about us. Stop limiting the conversation."

Med flera.