Wondering which is the world’s largest green building? Academy of Sciences Museum is the largest LEED Platinum rated building in the world as well as the most sustainable museum building in the world. It is situated in San Francisco’s Golden Gate Park.

The designers highlighted the re-usage of the materials in the building while applying for the LEED certification. They reused the seahorse railing and the original tiles at the alligator swamp exhibit. The biggest challenge for the designer was to optimize the natural light from the 200 of roof skylights into living rainforest and coral reef.

The designer redesigned the Aquariums which a twice as big as the original and it uses less water because of filtration and recycling systems that purify water piped in from the Pacific Ocean. The nitrate wastes are purified by natural systems, ensuring that aquarium water can be recycled and reused. In order to achieve LEED certification for the Aquariums they used 50% recycled content for the aquarium’s concrete.

The designers call it as the green roof, yes it is green exactly, it is not just a green roof but a living roof. This roof is fully covered with 1.7 million native plants. Architect Renzo Piano designed the roof as homage to the hills of San Francisco. The highlight in this is how the plants are kept without sliding off the hills. Designer Rana Creek along with Mr.Piano used some 50,000 porous, biodegradable trays called BioTray®, which they made from tree sap and coconut husks as containers for the vegetation to keep the little green plants in place.

Apart from the natural habitat created by the roof, it also reduces the Urban Heat Island Effect, and bringing down the building’s temperature almost 10 degrees. The cistern system in the roof will able to capture 90-98 percent of rainwater, which will be about 3.5 million gallons of rainwater per year.

The planetarium, the Africa Hall, Aquariums, and of course the albino crocodile will turn your head towards them apart from the building itself. This building is surely a eco friendly and sustainable.

Source: Greenbuildingelements.com