Features By Category

It includes that glass which is used as a structural material in buildings. Gone are the days when glass was mainly used in windows. Nowadays glass has wide applications. It can be used as an external architecture in facades,  windows, skylights, entrances, revolving doors and skywalks. As an interior glass architecture, it can be used in walls, floors, ceiling and staircases.

 Benefits of using glass in buildings:
• It allows light which makes smaller rooms look bigger.
• It is relatively inexpensive and fully recyclable.
• It adds beauty and enhances value of  your home.

The use of glass in architecture has increased because of innovations in glass like intelligent glass, solar control glass, fire resistant glass, laminated  glass, colored glass, textured glass, lacquered glass, design glass, glass blocks, etc.

The National Historic Landmark building that houses the Smithsonian American Art Museum and the Smithsonian National Portrait Gallery is one of the finest examples of Greek revival architecture in United States. The courtyard occupies the heart of building which was renovated by renowned architectural firm Foster + Partners. Foster + Partners worked closely with acclaimed landscape architect Kathryn Gustafson on the design of the interior which includes four of her signature water scrims. At 28,000 square feet, the courtyard is one of the largest public event spaces in Washington. This beautifully landscaped courtyard extends beyond its earthy nature as an interior space-climate controlled and comfortable all year around. The focus here is on the roof of the courtyard. The roof is completely clad in a white painted steel structure with a glass and aluminum exterior cladding system. It comprises of 864 panes of glass. The central dome marks the heart of the courtyard. The fluid form of the fully glazed roof canopy bathes the courtyard in natural light and its form complements the structure of old building. The roof acts as a climate modifier for sunlight, daylight and acoustics. During the day, the courtyard is used as an outside meeting space, while at night it is dramatically lit to create an events-space for the city, with a range of sound and light installations that can change the aspect of the building to suit different occasions
 

Sustainable architecture is the architectural design technique in which the reduction of environmental impact is main theme while constructing a building. The word sustainable means that “to maintain a balance of any process or state “. Similarly while constructing a building there are certain criteria to be full filed in order to obtain a health environment.

Environmental protection, economic and social development, in design, building, maintenance and occupation of buildings. These buildings are designed and constructed keeping in mind the environmental standards.

Sustainable buildings will help minimize energy requirements and help reduce water consumption, use materials like glass, wood etc, which are of low environmental impact e.g. low embodied energy and resource efficient, reduce wastage, conserve and enhance the natural environment and safeguard human health and well-being too.

While constructing a green home building, you must keep in mind certain factors:

Environmental factors: It is advisable to give due consideration to conservation and enhancement of the site ecology or biodiversity.
Look into how much energy is consumed: If suitable measures are taken to minimize energy consumption, high levels of insulation are adopted, it can help minimize energy consumption. Maximizing daylight and using energy efficient lighting and appliances can also help achieve the goals.

Transportation facilities: If the site of construction is nearby, it can help minimize the expenses. One should give due consideration to transport routes, proximity to amenities and places of work, space for home working also.
Water consumption: The quantity of water consumed, reusing rainwater, water efficient appliances, minimizing and attenuating surface water run-off to prevent flooding and pollution can all help save water.

Affordability: If it is proving very expensive, the cost of ownership can be minimized.
This can also help curb down the degradation of the environment to a large extent. The choices made now will influence the quality of life of the next generation. This can also enhance the look of the house. Sustainable building is not only eco friendly but also less expensive. Usage of natural, non-industrial materials, will also improve the energy equation when building.

Following certain green home building guidelines can help construct an environment friendly building. Apart from houses, architecture and design firms, construction and development, hospitality, and other service providers too have incorporated these guidelines. Such buildings are environment friendly. As compared to commercial sector, the residential sector has lagged behind.

Going in for such houses will help save a substantial amount of money too. Since, the products used for construction of houses are natural, they will be less expensive. You can make your contribution by opting for eco friendly houses. Looking online for information on construction of such houses can help get the required details about green home building. One can get all the required information about sustainable architecture and natural building.

 Source: Ezinearticles

Green architecture is architectural approach by which harmful impacts on air, water and our environment are reduced by using eco-friendly building materials.

Characteristics of Green architecture

•Energy efficient lighting
•Better Ventilation system to maintain heat and cool
•Alternate source of power by using solar energy
•Better usage of resources.

The Green building can be achieved by the following these steps
The first step is the Design for the glass building; it mainly focuses on taking advantage of the renewable resources.
• Allowing sunlight to flow through the passive and active solar photovoltaic options
• Use green roofs made of glass to reduce the heat.
• Installing high performance glass that will reduce the solar heat.

The next step in installation is the construction; it helps to identify the material and ensures sustainability. Some of the materials that are used are listed below.

• Solar control glass that keeps your rooms cool by reflecting unwanted solar heat and also allows natural light to flow in thus reducing energy bills.
• Recycled stone and metal and other products that are non-toxic, reusable, renewable, and/or recyclable.
• Rapidly renewable plant materials like bamboo and straw
• Use building materials from local sources to minimize energy use due to their transportation.

The next step is the construction and maintenances

Once the construction of done with the renewable raw materials, maintenance is very important part, since the building should sustainable and profitable.

Consider the idea of design concepts taking into account the increased usage of natural light and temperature control services–the more natural used, the less maintenance of and dependency on furnaces, air conditioners, and lighting systems you will have to worry about, as they will be used less. Sustainable development attempts to minimize greenhouse gases, reduce global warming, preserve environmental resources, and provide communities that allow people to reach their fullest potentials.

Reduce Waste

The wastage of water is greatly reduced at several levels by making the building with the green architecture.
• on site waste management, such as separating garbage, recycling and compost
• The green building reduces the usage of the electricity by using solar control glass for windows which allows the light to flow in naturally.
• converting wastewater to fertilizer via a biogas plant, and more
Ultimately, from diverting waste from landfills in the construction process, to designing efficiently to minimize waste during operation, to ensuring on-site maintenance chooses efficient products and processes, keeping green concepts in mind throughout all stages of building life cycle will contribute to waste reduction.

Guidelines to built Green Buildings

1. Use solar control glass window, shutters or screens that keep the rooms cool during summer.
2. As the northern side of your house receives the most sun, the roof overhang should be longer (at least 40 cm to 60 cm) in length. Windows will be shaded in summer when the sun is high, while allowing the sun’s rays through the windows in winter when the angle of the sun is low.
3. Plant trees on the south, east and/or west of your home to provide shade during summer.
4. A skylight in the roof allows natural light into the house on sunny days and eliminates the use of artificial lighting. Make sure that the sloping glass of the skylight faces north.
5. Floors made out of brick or concrete maintain comfortable temperatures in your house as they are good at absorbing heat during the day and releasing this slowly at night. These floors should not be covered with carpets as a concrete floor absorbs more heat than a floor covered by carpeting.
6. Ensure suitable ventilation for fresh air and cool breezes - rooms can be ventilated using airbricks, forced ventilation or by opening windows.
7. Install efficient heating, ventilating and air conditioning (HVAC) systems if required and ensure they are efficiently used. Be sure to shade the air conditioning unit outside with a tree.
8. Consider switching to green electricity. Green electricity is generated from renewable sources such as wind, solar and wave power.
9. Heat loss is ten times faster through glass windows than through insulated walls, so open the curtains during the day (let in the natural light and heat) and close them at night (keeps in the heat).
10. Install energy efficient light bulbs (CFLs) throughout the house. These are usually more expensive than conventional incandescent light bulbs, but have a much longer life-span and use far less electricity. They pay themselves back in a few months and are a very sound environmental choice.

Visit: Saint Gobain Glass India.

Olympia Tech Park, Chennai.

What is GreenBuilding?

A building which is constructed in order to promote the well being as well as reduce the negative impact on the environment through emphasis on life-cycle analysis is a Green Building.

This new integrated approach in design practices:

• Energy efficiency
• Pollution prevention
• Resource-efficient materials
• Improved indoor air quality
• Water conservation
• Waste minimization 

Why Focus on Sustainable Design?

The focus on sustainable design of green building would lead to many benefits such as

• Reduces the operating costs
• Improves human health
• Increases productivity
• Reduces liability
• Reduces overall impact on environment

By following the sustainable design while constructing the building, we avoid various impacts on the environmental such as depletion of natural resources, air and water pollution, solid and toxic wastes, deforestation global warming and other major negative impacts. Studies say that one-quarter of the entire world’s wood harvested are used for building and architectural purposes. It also proves that two-fifth of all material are used of the building constructions. So people around the world have understood the need of Green Buildings and the architect are coming up with new design of Green Building that helps and reduces the negative impacts on our environment.

ITC Green Center, Gurgaon

Wipro Technologies, Gurgaon.

Green building design criteria emphasizes the energy-efficient performance of fenestration materials and maximum use of natural daylight. Given this background, Glass is an indispensable material for green building. It has a wide range of functional benefits. Its transparency allows day-lighting of the interiors and integrates the interiors with the
exteriors. Studies have proven time and again that this substantially improves the productivity and health of the occupants of the building.

Glass is completely recyclable and non-toxic in nature. It satisfies all the ecological parameters of being the most sought after “green” building material in Green Buildings. Moreover it harmonizes a structure with its environment.

Glass has varied “Green” benefits of which, some of them are:

•Day-lighting - The use of glass brings in lot of light that helps in giving a high amount of natural day lighting instead of depending solely on artificial lighting thus reducing considerably electricity consumption.
•Blending interiors with exteriors (Views) - Glass facades give a spectacular view of the outside world from the cozy interiors.
•Recyclability - Glass being recyclable satisfies the important parameter of being a “Green” building material.
•Achieving energy efficiency - High performance glass helps in controlling the solar and thermal heat in the interiors and helps to maintain the temperature at its minimum best and in turn helps to tone down the air-conditioning expenses.
•Innovative application - Being very flexible building material glass helps to satisfy and capture an architect's Utmost imagination in its shape and form.
•Controls noise: Double glazed glass facades help in achieving a high degree of acoustic comfort by keeping away noise penetrating from the exteriors to the interiors thus ensuring a calmer atmosphere inside.
•Self Cleaning: The future belongs to self-cleaning glass which keeps itself clean on its own and brings out an ever sparkling effect.

Glass and LEED Rating

The Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design (LEED) Green Building Rating System, developed by the U.S. Green Building Council (USGBC), provides a suite of standards for environmentally sustainable construction. The LEED rating system for Green buildings has six major areas of which four have the potential to be tapped through
appropriate usage of High Performance Glass in design:

•Sustainable sites
•Water efficiency
•Energy and atmosphere
•Materials and resources
•Indoor environmental quality
•Innovation and design process

ENERGY & ATMOSPHERE (EA)
Optimize Energy Performance

The building facade, windows, doors, and skylights can be designed with high performance glass to meet the desired solar heat gain coefficient and U-value requirements. The use of glass can let in adequate daylight resulting in reduction of artificial lighting costs. A complete energy simulation for the building is possible nowadays and helps to
improve the energy performance of the design.

MATERIALS & RESOURCES (MR)
Regional Materials

The distance from the glass manufacturing/fabrication facility to the job site (within 500 miles radius) is a major factor in gaining points under the Regional Materials Credit.

INDOOR ENVIRONMENTAL QUALITY (EQ)
Daylight and Views

High Performance glass from various glass manufacturers helps to blend the twin actions of achieving desired levels of daylight and transparency to enable external views. The letting in of natural light helps cut down on the artificial lighting costs.

INNOVATION & DESIGN PROCESS (ID)
Innovation in Design

Glass addresses needs such as Acoustic Insulation, Self-cleaning etc apart from the prescribed requirements of Energy Efficiency, Recyclability and Day-lighting. High performance glass when used in Double Glazed panels or as Laminated units provide higher degree of Acoustic Insulation that ward off unwanted noise from the external atmosphere.

Thus the overall innovative use of High Performance Glass in a building can fetch upto 13% of the overall points in the LEED Rating system.

It is a document that specifies the energy performance requirements for all commercial buildings that are to be constructed in India. Buildings with electrical connected load of 500 kW or more and it is also applicable to all buildings with a conditioned floor area of 1,000 m2 (10,000 ft2) or greater are also covered by the ECBC. It was launched on 28 June 2007 by India’s Bureau of Energy Efficiency.

It was mandated by the Energy Conservation Act from 2001, by the Indian Government in September 2001.

It provides design norms to the following:

• Electrical System
• Water heating and pumping system
• Lighting and envelope system of a building.
• HVAC system that includes energy performance of chillers and distribution systems.
• Ventilating systems

This code does not apply to the following 

• Buildings that do not use either electricity or fossil fuel,
• Equipment and portions of building systems that use energy primarily for manufacturing processes
• Multi-family buildings of three or fewer stories above grade, and single-family buildings.

The Building which follow ECBC code are rated on 1- 5 star scale, with 5-Star labeled buildings being the most energy efficient. It is normally targeted three climatic zones for air-conditioned and non-air-conditioned office buildings:

         1. Warm and Humid
         2. Hot and Dry
         3. Composite

Energy Performance Index (EPI) in kWh / sq m/ year will be considered for rating the building. Bandwidths for Energy Performance Index for different climatic zones have been developed based on percentage air-conditioned space. For example a building in a composite climatic zone like New Delhi and having air conditioned area greater than 50% of their built up area, the bandwidths of EPI range between 190-90 kWh/sq m/year. Thus a building would get a 5-Star rating if its EPI falls below 90kWh/sq m/year and 1 Star if it is between 165-190 90kWh/sq m/year.

Similarly the same building in a warm and humid climatic zone like Chennai, the bandwidths of EPI range between 200-100 kWh/sq m/year and therefore it would get a 5-Star rating if its EPI is below 100 kWh/sq m/year and 1 Star if it is between 200-175 kWh/sq m/year.

Buildings having air conditioned area less than 50% of their built up area,in a in a composite climatic zone the bandwidths of EPI range between 80-40 kWh/sq m/year. Similarly the same building in a warm and humid climatic zone like Chennai, the bandwidths of EPI range between 85-45 kWh/sq m/year.
The Star rating Programme would provide public recognition to energy efficient buildings, and create a “demand side” pull for such buildings. Those buildings having a connected load of 500 kW and above would be considered for BEE star rating scheme.

EPI shall be kWh/sq.m/year in terms of purchased & generated electricity divided by built up area in sq.m. However the total electricity would not include electricity generated from on-site renewable sources such as solar photovoltaic etc.

The Bureau over the past 2 years, launched the Energy Conservation Building Code(ECBC) with the goal of specifying standards for new, large, efficient commercial buildings, as well as initiated a nationwide programme to upgrade the energy efficiency of existing government buildings through retrofitting, carried out by Energy Service Companies (ESCOs) in a performance Contracting mode.

30 St Mary Axe is the first environmentally sustainable skyscraper in London. It has been lovingly described as a lighthouse of 21st century architecture, and mocked as the "gherkin”. It was designed by Foster and Partners and constructed by Skanska. It has become not only an instantly recognizable landmark on London's skyline but an overnight icon of London itself.

 The building is stunning in appearance -- a festival of dark and light glass with spandrels

serving as streamers circling it like an Olympic dancer. The outside of the building consists of 24,000 square meters of glass arranged in diamond-shaped panes. Despite its overall curved glass shape, there is only one piece of curved glass on the building — the lens-shaped cap at the very top. At 180 m (590 ft), the building is the 6th tallest in London .On the 40th floor, which is the building's top level, is a bar for tenants and their guests featuring an unrivalled 360 degree view of London. An exclusive restaurant operates on the 39th floor, and private dining rooms on the 38th. The shape allows for the required quantity of office space to accommodate up to 4,000 workers without the lower levels overshadowing the surrounding buildings when viewed from street level, whilst the top tapers inwards in the manner of an organic set-back which does not eclipse the tower's shorter neighbors. The office areas consist of a double-glazed outer layer and a single-glazed inner screen, sandwiching a central ventilated cavity, containing

solar-control glass

. The cavities between the outer layer and inner screen act as a buffer, reducing the need for additional cooling and heating and are ventilated by exhaust air drawn from the offices. The lightwells, which penetrate deep into the tower's interior, reduce dependency on electric lighting and result in savings on electricity costs. The lightwells glazing comprises openable double-glazed panels and a high-performance coating which effectively reduces solar gain (

solar control glass

). The building will consume up to fifty percent less energy than a comparable high profile office tower.

A spectacular design from XPIRAL Architecture has sustainable features which made the house into news, Casa de los Pinos, the name of the house, which means House among the Pines; this house is situated in Mountain EI Esparragal, Murcia, Spain.
This House is built with the locally available materials to various parts of the house, like the timber is used built the pathways of the house. The walls are all built with glass which allows plenty of natural light, makes it a sustainable house. A grassy courtyard in the interior give the house a great look adding to it was the walls fashioned with the local Rocks. Major attraction of this house is its roof which folds over the home’s expansive windows. Again the trees that were removed during the construction were also replanted on the property. This house futuristic and sustainable design makes it icon among the locals.

Casa de los Pinos (House Among the Pines) proves that sustainable features need not play second fiddle to fashionable ones. This amazing modern house designed by XPIRAL Architecture sits high on a mountain in El Esparragal, Murcia, Spain, nestled among the pines for which it’s named. Enclosed in walls of glass, an interior grassy courtyard allows nature to permeate the design. Locally sourced building materials are used where possible, such as the rock fashioned into walls, and timber used to build the home’s pathways. And at the end of the day, the number of trees removed from the site was later replanted on the property. With sustainable design accounted for, the architects too took a modern, fashion-forward approach to the unique home, topping it with a futuristic roof which folds over to conceal the home’s expansive windows. Natural light floods interiors, illuminating modern, industrial details like exposed beams, concrete and the contemporary framed windows.XPIRAL via Inhabitat

  Source:Trendir.com

The American Institute of Architects selects top 10 Green projects every year. These projects should have to meet the sustainable features in all aspects. The following building has been selected as the top ten sustainable buildings.

1. Charles Hostler Student Center (VJAA) Beirut, Lebanon
2. Chartwell (EHDD Architecture) Seaside, CA
3. Gish Apartments (OJK Architecture and Planning) San Jose, CA
4. Great River Energy Headquarters (Perkins+Will) Maple Grove, MN
5. Jewish Reconstructionist Congregation (Ross Barney Architects) Evanston, IL
6. Portola Valley Town Center (Siegel & Strain Architects) Portola Valley, CA
7. Shangri La Botanical Gardens and Nature Center (Lake|Flato Architects) Orange, TX
8. Synergy at Dockside Green (Busby Perkins+Will Architects Co.) Victoria, BC
9. The Terry Thomas (Weber Thompson) Seattle, WA
10. World Headquarters for the International Fund for Animal Welfare (DesignLAB Architects) Yarmouthport, MA

These Green buildings were built with material that has a low impact on environment, the carbon emission and energy usage is low and each building has it own unique feature that is environmental friendly. The GRE – Great River Energy Headquarters is achieved energy efficiency through technologies that can be transferred to their customers in order to reduce the future demand for fossil fuel electricity generation. Jewish Reconstuctionist congregation has been awarded with Platinum certification from LEED – US Green Building Council. This building has solar power lights, storm water storage system in order to achieve energy efficiency. AIA honoured these projects at its National Convention and Design Exposition in San Francisco that was held from 30th to May 2nd

Source: AIA

S.R. Crown Hall is considered one of Mies van der Rohe’s greatest masterpieces. Widely regarded as one of the most architecturally significant buildings of the 20th Century, Crown Hall was completed in 1956. Upon its opening, Mies van der Rohe declared it "the clearest structure we have done, the best to express our philosophy,” Crown Hall is a straightforward expression of construction and materiality, which allows the structure to transcend into art. Its refinement and innovation place it among the most distinguished buildings of its age and define its importance in the history of architecture. Designed to house Illinois Institute of Technology's departments of architecture, planning, and design, the building's dramatic, structurally-expressive form resulted from the need to create an open interior space that could be flexibly adapted for changing needs and uses.

The two storeyed building is in a  pure rectangular form, 220' by 120' by 24 feet high. The building is slightly raised on a platform with a grand flight of stairs at the entrance. Basement level is used for workshops, offices, toilet rooms etc. The roof is suspended from the underside of four steel plate girders which in turn are carried by eight exterior steel columns. These columns are spaced 60 feet apart with the roof cantilevered 20 feet at each end. It is characterized by clearly articulated exposed steel frame construction .The steel frame is composed of  large sheets of glass of varying qualities of transparency, resulting in a light and delicate steel and glass façade. While the lower level consists of compartmentalized rooms, the high upper floor level, occupying almost 50% of the total area of the building, is dedicated to a single glass-enclosed architecture studio space. Mies called it a "universal space", intended to be entirely flexible in use. Natural ventilation is provided by louvers at floor level. The front and back of Crown Hall are identical.

1n I975, the building underwent a major renovation which replaced all the original glass and it was repainted. The next thirty years saw little real change, and virtually no maintenance. The result was an extensive deterioration to the glazing system and a need for a major renovation. The restoration was completed in the late summer of 2005. The renovated Crown Hall is a dazzling aesthetic object. Its fresh coat of heavy-duty industrial paint (a brand called Tnemec, cement spelled backward) makes it stand out like a man in a black tuxedo against the blue August sky. The building's new sheathing -- big upper-level windows and beneath them smaller pairs of translucent windows with a sandblasted inner layer correctly restores Crown's transparency. Inside are more pleasant surprises, from the buffed black terrazzo floor to the spray-painted white ceiling tiles. Laminated glass is used in windows. Interior wood partitions and storage lockers are refinished and resurfaced, and additional electrical and ethernet wiring are added to the main floor.

Awards
•Landmarks Preservation Council Of  Illinois – Richard H. Driehaus Foundation Preservation  Project of the Year, 2006
•AIA Chicago – Distinguished Building Award – Certificate of Merit, 2006
•City of  Chicago Commission on Landmarks -Preservation Excellence Award 2005

Burj Dubai is the centerpiece of the Gulf regions most prestigious urban development, entitled Downtown Dubai which features over 30,000 homes, including villas, luxury residential suits and serviced apartments; nine hotels such as Burj Dubai Lake Hotel & Serviced Apartments; the world's largest mall. Burj Dubai is the tallest man-made structure in world. It is designed by Adrian Smithdrian Smith who works with Skidmore, Owings and Merrill (SOM) which also designed Sears Tower in Chicago and World Trade Center in New York City. Burj Dubai is constructed by Samsung Engineering & Construction which also built the Petronas Twin Towers and the Taipei in a joint venture with Besix from Belgium and Arabtec from UAE.Turner is the Project Manager on the main construction contract. The interior is decorated by Giorgio Armani.The  total project cost is  $8.1 billion.

                                          
The  current height of the building is 818 m. It is scheduled to be completed in the end of 2009. It will set out new standards of living in today's world. The building sits on a concrete and steel podium with 192 piles descending to a depth of more than 50 meters. The exterior cladding with 2200 panels is of reflective glazing with aluminum and textured stainless steel spandrel panels to withstand Dubai's extreme summer temperatures. At peak cooling times it will require 10,000 tons of cooling per hour. Tower’s water system will supply an average of about 946,000lt of water per day. Electricity demand is estimated to be around 36MVA.It also encloses a condensate collection system which will provide about 15 million gallons of supplemental water per year. Elevators have 66 double deck cabs with a capacity of 21 persons, moving at the speed of 18m/s (40mph), making it the worlds fastest. It will be the first mega high rise in which certain elevators will be programmed to permit controlled evacuation for certain fire or security events. A total of 45,000 cubic meters of concrete are used in the foundations with a weight in excess of 110,000 tons. When completed, Burj Dubai's construction will have used 330,000 m³ of concrete and 39,000 tons of steel rebar, and construction will have taken 22 million man-hours. The consistency of the concrete used in the project is essential. It was difficult to create a concrete that could withstand both the thousands of tonnes bearing down on it and Persian Gulf temperatures that can reach 50 °C (122 °F). To overcome this problem, ice is added to the mixture and it is poured at night when it is cooler and the humidity is higher to avoid any cracks. They also possess a façade maintenance system.

The gigantic Burj Dubai will offer exclusive corporate offices, residential apartments, four lavish swimming pools, one cigar club, one observation deck, lounge, gym, library and several other amenities such as restaurants to enhance its aura. An Armani Hotel, the first of its kind, will occupy the first 37 floors. The next 68 floors will house 700 apartments. Offices occupy the rest of the tower, about 57 floors. Lobby and observation deck is housed in123rd and 124th floor.  The top of the building will contain a public observation deck and a private club above that.

Dubai will host the world’s first rotating skyscraper, designed by Italian’s Architect David Fisher, set to complete by 2010. It will rise 1380 feet into the air with 80 floors. The rotating floors will be made of prefabricated units that spin around a concrete core. By prefabricating the rotating units at least 10 per cent of normal construction costs will be saved.
 
Plans require the buildings to be self-powered by horizontal wind turbines that spin between each floor to generate electricity. Solar power will be provided by photovoltaic cells on the roof of each rotating floor, 15 per cent of which will be exposed to sunlight at any one time. Each turbine has the peak ability to produce around 0.2 megawatt hours of electricity. Given Dubai has an average of 4000 hours of wind annually, with an average wind speed of 16 km/h, the turbines are estimated to produce around 1,200,000 kilowatt-hours of energy per year. Four of the 48 turbines in the building will be enough to power the entire tower, leaving the other 44 to provide surplus energy back into Dubai's power grid.

Most of the floors will be controlled from the architect's laptop, so that they are synchronised to make undulating architectural forms. Each Floor will be a single apartment. Owners who buy an entire floor will be able to use voice activation controls to command it to rotate at will, so that they can change the shape according to the will. The spinning will not cause inhabitants permanent motion sickness because it will move very slowly. There will be office space, parking area and luxury hotels.

It is the first skyscraper, being created by the architect David Fisher. The second dynamic skyscraper will stand in Moscow, completion scheduled for 2010 followed by third in New York. The Moscow tower will have 70 floors and be 1,310 feet tall.

It has a unique construction process. Parts of Dubai’s skyscraper are being made in factories in Italy to then be shipped to Dubai. Most skyscrapers are built from the ground up, floor by floor but the spinning tower will be built in parallel stages. If one team of workers is developing the core, the other team will be busy  prefabricating each floor in segments. The advantages of this method are that it consumes lesser time, fewer workers need to be on site at a time in difficult and dangerous conditions and  each modular apartment can be easily customized.

It has an Associates restaurant with 300 seats and 40 seat private client dining room called the Client Advocate restaurant, 27 conference rooms and many video conference rooms. Next to this building stands another master piece of Norman Foster, 30 St. Mary Axe. Lloyd’s used to occupy the site of The Willis Building. During construction 77.6% of material from the demolition of the Lloyds building was recycled and crushed for use in the foundations. A fringe of shops, cafés and bars at its base together with linear seating and landscaping, combine to enhance the public realm.

Awards:

Best New Building in the City by Worshipful Company of Chartered Architects

Best New Skyscrapers of the year 2007 

                                                                             Ice Fall

A system in the roof preserves the rain water which is stored in a tank and used to water the plants in the building. This preserved water is also used for a three-storey water feature named "Icefall" built with thousands of glass panels and courses through the grand atrium inside the entrance which serves an environmental function by serving to humidify and chill the atrium lobby as necessary. Polyethylene tubing is embedded under the floor and filled with circulating water for cooling in the summer and heating in the winter. Interior walls are kept to a minimum in order to maximize penetration of natural light throughout the building. The glass that surrounds the exterior of building is a solar control glass. Special sensors are present in the rooms which switch off the lights and computers in the rooms whenever they are vacant. The building is naturally ventilated for up to three quarters of the year. Furniture used in the offices is formaldehyde free. Overall, the building has been designed to use 26% less energy than the minimum requirements for the NewYork city.

Awards:
• Emporis Skyscraper Award, 2006

• Runner-up for the Royal Institute of British Architects' Lubetkin Prize, 2007.

• British Construction Industry Award, 2007

• International Highrise Award, 2008

The John Hancock Tower (Hancock Place)  is located at 200 Clarendon St. in Boston’s Back Bay neighborhood. It was designed in the 1970s by architects I.M. Pei and Henry N Cobb. The tower is positioned right next to the Copley Square, a museum of great architecture that includes H. H. Richardson's famous Trinity Church . It is composed of 60 storeys and is parallelogram in shape. It is sheathed with reflective, blue coloured glass around 10,344 in number and is 241m in height. It was completed in 1976. Minimalism was the design principle behind the tower. Adjacent to the modern John Hancock Tower is the Old John Hancock Tower built in 1947.

The John Hancock Tower is composed of 1.6 million s/f offices (3 floors @ 47,000 s/f, 51 floors @ 30,200 s/f). It has a parking area for 1850 cars. Cafeteria can accommodate 1000 people at a time. Lounge has an area of 36000s/f and observation gallery on 60th floor is 29000s/f in area. It also has lobby and banking facilities. The area of tower is 2000, 000s/f.

The building experienced some engineering flaws. Most dangerous flaw was the falling off of entire 4'x11', 500 lb window panes from the building. The problem was due to large pressure differentials between the inside and outside air created by vortices shed off the sharp corners of the building on windy days.The glass panes were later replaced by a different heat-treated variety. During windy days the building's upper-floor occupants suffered from motion sickness. To stabilize the movement, a device called a tuned mass damper costing $3 million was installed on the 58th floor.Tuned mass damper includes two 300-ton weights.Each weight is a steel box filled with lead and rests on a steel plate which is covered with lubricant to allow free motion of the weight.  Weight is attached to the steel frame of the building by means of springs and shock absorbers. After September 11, 2001 terrorist attacks the observation deck was closed. Hancock Place was acquired by Broadway Partners in 2006 for $1.3 billion .As Broadway Partners were unable to pay the loan ,Hancock Place was sold on 31st March2009 for $660.6 million at a foreclosure auction in New York City by a partnership between Normandy Real Estate Partners and Five Mile CapitalPartners.

Awards:
•American Institute of Architects: National Honor Award, 1977
•Boston Society of Architects: Harleston Parker Medal, 1983
•It was added to the prestigious AIA 150 - America's Favorite Architecture list.

Via Moscow News, some images via SkyscraperCity (copyrights to Foster + Partners).

Sources: Archdaily.com, Arcspace.com

Source: Inhabitat.com, AIA, Worldarchitecturenews.com

Do you know the greatest architectural structures built so far of the past 1000 year? Most of you would answer it as seven wonder of the world and some other would say the 20th century skyscrapers but most of the greatest architectures were some obscure homes and temples. This article will take you a tour on the forgotten popular buildings.

St. Denis Church

St. Denis Church, Havertown, Pennsylvania is one among the forgotten architectural master piece. This church was built between 1137 and 1144 during which the builders began to practice a lace like structure in the buildings. This was one of the first large buildings to use this new vertical style, which is now known as Gothic. This building was commissioned by Abbot Suger of this church. Later many churches constructed were following this style.

Chartres Cathedral

The Chartres cathedral in France is actually the reconstruction of the original Romanesque Chartres Cathedral which was destroyed by fire. This one was constructed during 1205 to 1260 had followed the new Gothic style. The piers of the cathedral are curved and each of them was connected with an arch to a wall and extends to the ground or some other nearby piers. This cathedral is about 427 feet long and 112 feet high making it as biggest cathedral during its times.

The Forbidden City

The Forbidden City, Beijing, China one of the biggest place around the world was originally a imperial home of 24 emperors of the Ming and Qing dynasties who lived during 1368- 1911. The total area of this building is more than 720,000 square meters. This building is now preserved by the Chinese as Museum with more than million rare and valuable objects. The Forbidden City is also called as the Purple Forbidden City or Gugong Museum in Chinese.

The Louvre

The Louvre built during late 12th century by Philip II, this building is one of world’s well known masterpieces till date. During French revolution this was declared as museum. It was initially a fortress for the Louvre Palace. This museum consists of more than 35,000 rare objects which belong to 6th century B.C to the late 19th century.
In 1989 a Glass Pyramid was constructed at the entrance of the museum which was designed by Sino-American Architect – I.M Pei. This Pyramid construction went into several controversial during 1980’s and even the Dan Brown’s Best seller “The Da Vinci Code” has speculated some stories.



Palladio's Basilica, Italy

Once a town hall of Vicenza, the Basilica was reconstructed in to Gothic during 15th century by Italian Renaissance architect Andrea Palladio and hence named after him as Basilica Palladiana. The building’s construction began in 1549 and was completed in 1617 after the architect’s death. The architect has carefully designed to transform and cover the old Gothic façade building with marble columns and porticos. Palladio spent his entire life in this project but it was completed only 30 years after his death.
Centuries later, the rows of open arches on Palladio's Basilica inspired what came to be known as the Palladian window.



Taj Mahal, India

One of the world wonder, The Taj Mahal was built by Mughal emperor Shah Jahan in memory of his wife Mumtaz. It is believed that Taj Mahal was designed by the architect Ustad Ahmad Lahori, an Indian architect of Persian desecent Persian. The whole building is built with white marble. Taj Mahal located in Agra, India it attracts visitors from all over the world.



Monticello, Virginia, USA

Monticello designed by Thomas Jefferson is a home in Virginia. Jefferson put his imagination and skills to combine the European traditional Palladio style with the American domesticity. His actual plan was to make out a house that resembles Palladio’s Villa Rotunda. The Monticello has long horizontal wings, underground service rooms. In 1800 Jefferson added the dome to create a spectacular space and he called it “The Sky Room”.



The Eiffel Tower, Paris

Named after its designer, engineer and architect Gustave Eiffel, the Eiffel Tower is a man made masterpiece. It was built in 1889 to mark the memory of French revolution’s 100th anniversary. This tower was built fully with metal which was new trend that revolutionized the industries during late 1800. The Eiffel tower is the tallest building in Paris and it restrained “The Tallest building in the world” for nearly 40 years. This tower structure is open to the wind and allows the visitors to look over through the all part of the tower.



The Wainwright Building, St. Louis, Missouri

Louis Sullivan and Dankmar Adler redefined American architecture with the Wainwright Building in St. Louis, Missouri. Their design emphsized the underlying structure. Except for the large, deep windows, the first two stories are unornamented. Uninterrupted piers extend through the next seven stories. Intertwined ornaments and small round windows form the upper story. "Form follows function," Sullivan told the world.


Photos Copyright © Mary Ann Sullivan

Great Buildings of the 20th Century

It is the fact that the 20th century building served as a benchmark to the architectural industry. During the twentieth century, exciting new innovations in the world of architecture brought soaring skyscrapers and fresh new approaches to home design. So it is important to appreciate the 20th century buildings here as top pick for the last 1000 years.

Source:About.com

Apart from its identity as one of the older art colleges, the Maryland Institute College of Art (MICA) has always been known for its eclectic mix of buildings within its campus. The newest to join this mix is the new Gateway building - honoured by the American Institute ofArchitects (AIA Maryland) on Sept 9 with an Honour Award for Excellence in Design. The Gateway is a mixed-use residential building that opened in August 2008 at the MICA campus. It has been designed by Baltimore-based international architectural firm RTKL.

The drum-shaped residential wing consists of 63 apartments for students, each with ample living space, a kitchenette and bathrooms. A highly sophisticated façade comprises multi-colored and multi-purposed glasses. The interior landscape courtyard houses a lobby/gallery, theatre, career centre, café, student residence and artist studios. This wing includes single, two or three-bedroom apartments. Single-bedroom apartments have amenities such as custom-designed furnitures and homosote pinup walls along the perimeter to maximize the flooding of natural daylight.

All that glitters may not be gold, but all that is made of glass definitely glitters and can earn itself a Gold. The very best example of this seemingly unique phenomenon is 545 Madison Avenue in New York City.

Traditionally, the word ‘house’ referred merely to a structure meant to provide shelter. The focus of construction was solely on basic comfort and protection. Today, while these continue to be hygiene factors, a good residential building is expected to have some aesthetic value as well. Home owners want a dwelling whose appearance catches the eye. The use of glass in construction is sure to enhance the look of a building, and it is no wonder that Urban Glass House in NY, United States, has exploited this very property to achieve its stunning appearance.

Urban Glass House at 330, Spring Street in SoHo is a good-looking, mid-rise, residential condominium building, designed and named by the famous architect Philip Johnson (who died at the age of 98 in 2005) and his architectural partner Alan Ritchie. This was the last project worked on by Johnson, and arguably his most successful. A 12-storey glass house with 39 apartments and a penthouse unit, Urban Glass House was developed by Glass House Development LLC, a partnership of Abram Shnay, Charles Blaichman and Scott Sabbagh.   

The highlight of this condominium is its glass-walled exterior. With a high fenestration factor, the large square windows of the structure have five panes each, including zero-sightline, operable casements. Spandrel panels and columns cover the building’s concrete structure. The façade of this 12-storey glass box is decorated by setbacks providing private terraces for select apartments. This cubical building totally contains five small setback cutouts - on the 4^th, 9^th, 10^th and 12^th floors.

The penthouse unit has a 12-foot-high ceiling with a double-sided fireplace, while other apartments have 9-foot-9-inch-high ceilings. Palettes of black, gray, silver and matte and reflective surfaces are used for the interiors. Kitchens are equipped with stainless steel appliances and featured cabinets that have black linoleum doors and drawers along with stainless steel side panels and countertops. The lobby and elevators have also made liberal use of stainless steel.

Floor plans are designed to maximize space, heighten vistas and to enjoy spaciousness. White oak floors are laid out in a chevron pattern and large expanses of glass are used throughout the building.

High ceilings, floor-to-ceiling windows, glass showers and double sinks are some of the building’s special amenities. Each penthouse is a 4-bedroom, 4-bathroom wonder with a total of 4,266 sq ft of interior space, 1,579 sq ft of exterior space, and a 12-foot . The single bedroom apartments on the third floor have 35’8” X 18’5” of living space. These dwelling units cost anything between $1,650,000 and $3,200,000.

Urban Glass House is a truly “dazzling” example of modern architecture that makes ample use of glass to achieve the perfect balance of functionality and aesthetics.  

That all architectural structures are covered by solid opaque walls on all four sides to maintain privacy and security is a given. So, a home with walls of glass that offer a clear view of the inside is bound to create more than just a ripple, and 128 Werner Sobek does just that. This rather novel concept in residential architecture seems to have broken through all conventions and set a new - if not higher - standard in innovative construction.

R128 Werner Sobek is four-storey house, floating high on a hill overlooking the city of Stuttgart, Germany. Inside this curious creation, there are no doors, switches, interior walls or partitions and no closed rooms. But what takes the cake is that the home generates its own energy. The construction material used to create R128 is one hundred percent eco-friendly and recyclable.

R128 has a most attractive glass façade and is devoid of a basement. High quality triple-glazed glass with inert gas filling is in use. The use of a modular design, complete with glass panels and steel frames ensured easy assembly and disassembly of the construction. The insulated glass panels prevent overheating of the interior during summer and loss of energy and warmth during winter. The supporting steel frame comprises of 10 tons of steel.

The ceiling of the Werner Sobek glass house consists of prefabricated panels overlaid by plastic. Beneath the unscrewed floor, aluminium ceiling panels are affixed by clip connections. Lighting, heating and cooling systems are fitted into that layer and this acts as an acoustic absorber pattern.  

Sensor controlled doors have been installed on the upper and lower levels of the house. All appliances and environmental systems are also controlled by motion sensors and voice commands. The front door has a voice recognition feature which allows it to open automatically on a voice command. Water faucets in the bathrooms are regulated by sensors. Windows are controlled by touch screen technology.

Every floor has two folding windows each, which allow natural daylight and fresh air to enter the house. During summer, cool water running through the floor elements removes excess heat from the entire house with the help of a heat exchanger. Thus surplus energy is stored for use in winter. This ensures minimal energy consumption. 48 solar powered modules with a total capacity of 6.2 KW are installed on the rooftop, which are responsible for supplying all the power required by the pump system.

This green show-house is expected to go a long way in promoting energy-efficient architecture.
 

The latest addition to the green building brigade is the Hong Kong Science Park that has achieved aesthetic and functional brilliance by implementing attractive as well as energy-efficient façade glazing in the architecture of all buildings in the park.   

Top Features

A double-glazing curtain wall system with special glass combined with sunshades has been used in all buildings in Phase-1. Doing this has reduced the Overall Thermal Transfer Value (OTTV) to a mere 20 watts per sq. meter. The glass chosen has low thermal conductivity and high solar reflection (greater than 50 percent) together with high light transmission (of over 70 percent).

The façades are covered in a combination of aluminum panels, double glazed window units and integrated photovoltaic panels. Dark blue solar glass that harnesses solar energy and generate electricity makes up part of the façade. This solar glass is laced with Building Integrated Photo Voltaic (BIPV) cells that can be integrated seamlessly into an architectural structure.

A second façade is added in front of the curtain wall on the west-facing side. The cavity between the two façades has an upward passage for air, which carries away absorbed solar heat. It also soundproofs the interiors, so as to cut off the noise emanating from the Tolo Highway.

The roof panels consist of two layers, again to provide insulation from solar heat. Metallic roofing sheets covered with PV panels dot the roof.

In this way, the double-glazed curtain wall system and sun shading devices together with the metal roof provide thermal protection as well as acoustic forces.

Low-e coated windows permit natural light to come in whilst cutting off infrared radiation. Low-e coating has also been used in combination with a reflective coating to reduce transmission of visible light even further.  
 

The new office building of Dresdner Solarwatt AG surprises with a special inner façade.
With the new office building of Solarwatt AG Dresden has yet another architectural highlight: three apparently “floating” meeting rooms in plasterboard lightweight construction had to be integrated into the inner façade of the atrium in such a way that they are seen as suspended bodies from inside as well as from outside.

They are a regular source of astonishment for customers and visitors. The projections which have a large oval form and are finished in a radiant dark yellow can be seen at the Solarwatt location on Maria-Reich-Strasse, where solar modules have been developed and produced for more than 16 years.

On the ground floor of the building, two of the cells stand at an angle to each other and are used as meeting rooms. On the first floor, the third element accommodates the production management in an open-plan office. The overall structure resembles an "egg" from inside the building.
 

Source: saint gobain glass india

NanaWall Systems, the industry leader in opening glass walls, announces its newest product for architects and builders: NanaWall® SL70 with Triple Glazing, providing exceptional thermal performance for the harshest weather conditions. The NanaWall triple glazed SL70 system provides flexible solutions to architectural openings from three to thirty six feet wide using one to twelve panels.

In the image, you get a view of the Glacier Garden Restaurant Glass Pavillion featuring NanaWall System SL70 with Thermal Glazing.

The SL70 system was chosen for the glass pavilion at the Bavarian Zugspitzbahn Bergbahn, a ski resort in the Alps over 8,000 feet above sea level. The pavilion includes forty six panels of the SL70 including three folding glass door systems of six panels each, and seven folding glass window units with four panels each.

The architect chose the SL70 System because it met the client’s challenging specifications and testing requirements to provide: comfort despite temperature variations from -40° F (-40° C) to 60° F (+15° C), large opening walls that can withstand wind speeds of up to 125 miles per hour with the associated pressure and suction.

The NanaWall SL70 with Triple Glazing system has an NFRC certified U-value of .30 and a Solar Heat Gain Coefficient of .24. It meets Energy Star requirements for all areas of the US and areas A and B of Canada. It also provides high weather resistance and structural performance. For inswing and outswing models with a raised sill, independent testing indicates that there was no water leakage at 12 psf or 68 miles per hour. The NanaWall SL70 with Triple Glazing is available in more than 200 finishes as a floor-mounted system with more than 50 stacking configurations.

Source: Archithings.com

Visual Acoustics is a documentary that celebrates the life and career of Julius Shulman,
the world’s greatest architectural photographer, whose images brought modern architecture to the American mainstream. Shulman, who passed away this year, captured the work of nearly every major modern and progressive architect since the 1930s including Frank Lloyd Wright, Richard Neutra, John Lautner, and Frank Gehry.

Visual Acoustics explores the monumental career of the late architectural photographer, Julius Shulman, who passed away on July 15th, 2009. Populating his photos with human models and striking landscapes, Shulman combined the organic with the synthetic, melding nature with revolutionary urban design. The resulting images helped shape the careers of some of the greatest architects of the 20th Century.

Taking aesthetic cues from Shulman’s own sensual and nuanced photography, the film’s narrative (by Dustin Hoffman) is built from a blend of Shulman’s own images and in-depth interviews with architect Frank Gehry, designer Tom Ford, artist Ed Ruscha, actress Kelly Lynch, writer Mitch Glazer, publisher Benedikt Taschen, Academy Award-nominated cinematographer Dante Spinotti and a host of others. By offering unprecedented and exclusive access to his amazing photographic archive and day-to-day life, Shulman's dedicated involvement in the filming process was an incalculable benefit to the film.

Still active until his death at 98 years-old, Shulman took photography assignments and lecture invitations from around the world. While at home, holding court in his 1949 Raphael Soriano-designed home and studio, Shulman and his incomparable archive continued to bring to life a Los Angeles style that he helped to create; a style that has influenced the designers of today’s sleek global aesthetic.

In addition to remaining a respected and insightful voice within the architecture community, Shulman continued to be an outspoken and extremely vocal advocate of imbuing the urban 21st century with a sense of humanity and a balance with the natural world.

Release: 2009
Running Time: 84 minutes
Directed by Eric Bricker

Official Website: www.juliusshulmanfilm.com

Burj Khalifa nee Dubai has been bestowed the title of the tallest skyscraper in the world on 4th January 2010 amongst a blaze of fireworks. After being called “Burj Dubai” while under construction, this half-mile-high tower got rechristened as “Burj Khalifa”.

Burj now stands out prominently against the horizon. It is visible across dozens of miles of rolling sand dunes outside Dubai. From the air, the spire appears as an almost solitary, slender needle.

Renamed In Honour

The unexpected announcement of renaming this tapering metal-and-glass spire as Burj Khalifa was to honor the Abu Dhabi leader who is also president of the UAE. He rescued Dubai from last year’s financial crisis, during which Dubai collapsed by nearly half - the result of easy credit and overbuilding during a real estate bubble that has since burst. Riding to the rescue was Sheik Khalifa bin Zayed Al Nahyan, the ruler of oil-rich neighbor Abu Dhabi, which pumped tens of billions of dollars into Dubai last year as it struggled to pay enormous debts.

Highlights

This opening ceremony revealed the height of the skyscraper as 2,717 feet (828 meters) from the desert. But the number of floors in this building is still a well-guarded secret. Mohammed Alabbar, chairman of the tower's developer Emaar Properties, initially said it had "more than 200" stories, but he later backtracked to more than 165 inhabitable floors, given its tapered top. Promotional materials sent before the tower's opening claimed it had 160 stories.

The Burj is the centerpiece of a 500-acre development that officials hope will become a new central residential and commercial district in this sprawling and often disconnected city.

The $1.5 billion "vertical city" consists of luxury apartments and offices and a hotel designed by Giorgio Armani also plans to have the world's highest mosque (158th floor) and swimming pool (76th floor). An observation deck on the 124th floor opens to the public Tuesday, with adult tickets starting at 100 Dirham, or just over $27 apiece.

Safety Measures

The groundbreaking tower was designed by Chicago-based Skidmore, Owings & Merrill, which has a long track record in engineering some of the world's tallest buildings, including the Willis Tower.

Developers say they are confident about the safety of the tower, which is nearly twice the height of New York's Empire State Building.

Greg Sang, Emaar's director of projects, said the Burj Khalifa has "refuge floors" at 25 to 30-storey intervals that are more fire resistant and have separate air supplies in case of emergency. Its reinforced concrete structure, he said, makes it stronger than steel-frame skyscrapers. A plane won't be able to slice through the Burj like it did through the steel columns of the World Trade Center.

At their peak, some apartments in the Burj were selling for more than $1,900 per square foot, although they now can go for less than half that, said Heather Wipperman Amiji, chief executive of Dubai real estate consultancy Investment Boutique.

 

Abu Dhabi will be home to one of the world's great buildings - Capital Gate, an iconic and avant-garde building that blends the beauty of the wave with the power of technical advancement.

Abu Dhabi National Exhibitions Company (ADNEC) has revealed that glazing work on the iconic Capital Gate Tower, currently under construction next to Abu Dhabi National Exhibition Centre, is almost complete. This “Capital Gate” has been designed by the New York firm RMJM architects.

Capital Gate forms the focal point of Capital Centre, the business and residential micro city being developed by ADNEC around the thriving Abu Dhabi National Exhibition Centre. When fully complete, Capital Gate will feature the 5-star hotel - 'Hyatt at Capital Centre' besides playing host to some of the most exclusive office space in the UAE capital. The Capital Gate is a 160m-tall leaning tower in Abu Dhabi, UAE.

The architecture of the Capital Gate tower is dotted with monster glass panels. Monster glass panels for Abu Dhabi’s 'leaning tower' development have arrived on what the project team claims is the world’s biggest flat bed truck. The panels are for the Capital Gate building, which architect RMJM recently submitted for the Guinness Book of Records as the ‘world’s most inclined building’. It has a tilt of 18 degrees – over four times more than the Italy’s Leaning Tower of Pisa.

More than 12,500 individually shaped glass panels have been installed on Capital Gate's façade in a complex engineering feat which has taken ADNEC and its construction partners ten months to complete. In an intricate operation, 728custom-made glass panels have been used. Each pane of glass had to be a slightly different shape and fitted at a different angle due to the building's unique lean and its curved profile. The first two glazing panels are weighing approximately 5 tonnes each.

The tower's unique shape and character made the installation of the glazing particularly challenging for our engineers. It is a compliment to all involved that the installation took place during ADNEC's busiest year ever for exhibitions and events; yet, there was no disruption to the visitors or exhibitors.

The glass panes on Capital Gate make up more than 700 larger glass "diamonds," and were manufactured in the United Sates with the steel frames holding the glass precision-cut in Austria before being shipped to the UAE. ADNEC stored the glass panels away from the construction site and delivered them as needed, on enormous flatbed trucks. Once they reached the Capital Gate construction site they were meticulously placed into the correct position by on-site engineers.

The RMJM project team is using the glass to create a new kind of glazing system called ‘Cardinal C240’, which is anti-glare but also highly transparency. The glass used is a highly energy-efficient and low 'e' category glass. This glass has two silver coatings which minimise glare and maximise light transmission. The double glazed façade will allow natural daylight into the building while boosting energy efficiency and shielding users from harmful glare.

The use of this advanced variety of glass is a 'first' for the UAE. The 'pressure-plate' system that has been developed for the steel frame which holds each pane in place guarantees the water tightness of the façade and allows thinner panes of glass to be used, thereby reducing the weight of the glazing system.

The lean and curve of the building added considerable complexity to the glazing process. A few glass panes have deliberately been left out to ensure that adequate ventilation exists prior to the installation of the air conditioning.

Due to its unique shape, Capital Gate is being constructed on top of a concrete raft with a dense mesh of reinforced steel. The steel Diagrid sits above an extensive distribution of 490 piles that have been drilled 30m underground to accommodate the gravitational and wind loads. The angles and dimensions of the building facade have been meticulously designed to ensure that each individually shaped panel accurately defines the shape of this magnificent structure.

The consultant in charge of the green ratings for the new Assembly complex will request the Indian Green Building Council (IGBC) to expedite the process of review of the green aspects of the project.

This would make way for speedy completion of the green rating process and announce the LEED certification during the inauguration of the Assembly building on March 13. “If the IGBC accepts the request to expedite the rating process, it will be definitely possible to announce the rating on March 13,” said Deepa Sathiaram of En3 Sustainability Solutions, the green consultant of the project. “A few specifications to be used for construction of the green building have to be documented. It will be completed shortly,” she added. A few interior materials for the building are still in the process of procurement, she said.

The building is likely to be the largest governmental green building in India. Special glazing work on the Assembly building is part of the green measures. It has been registered for rating under the category of ‘LEED India for New Construction,’ which is a green building rating system that helps to guide and design high-performance commercial buildings which include offices, retail and service establishments, institutional buildings and buildings of four or more habitable stories.

Software simulations are being prepared for energy and lighting calculation and analysis, she said. Calculations pertaining to water consumption in the building, test reports and data sheets for materials used in the green building and drawings for site related items will be readied shortly, said Ms. Sathiaram. After a formal audit of the building by IGBC the LEED (Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design) green building certification would be awarded.

SOURCE : THEHINDU

In the first of its series of interviews with prominent personalities in the field of Architecture and Interior Design, Glazette brings to you - Architect K P Nagaraj at Bengaluru - upclose and personal.

Ar. Nagaraj shares his experiences right from when he passed out of the Goa College of Architecture, and then made Bangalore his home. He is instrumental in the architecture and planning of the Infosys Campus. In this interview, he shares provides insights on Glass in Architecture, green buildings and the increasing trends in sustainable designs.

Watch this clipping, and share your thoughts with us.

Dinesh Kabra presented to us this Residential Bungalow as a part of the Design Showcase 2010 that made it to the final lists because of its finest aesthetic sense and architectural splendour.

This traditional joint-family home is a sprawling 7200 sq.ft spacious and clean-lined home that reflects the true persona of the family. The design blends contemporary style with tradition. With seven bedrooms, multiple living areas, parking space for 5 cars, servant accommodation, and plenty of green spaces, the clients specifications were quite demanding, but the end result was a home of the hearts.

Click here to View the Designs.

Click here to view other Finalists and their works.

The Council of Architecture (COA) has been constituted by the Government of India under the provisions of the Architects Act, 1972, enacted by the Parliament of India, which came into force on 1st September, 1972. The Act provides for registration of architects, standards of education, recognized qualifications and standards of practice to be complied with by practicing architects.

Council of Architecture is a body corporate, having perpetual succession and a common seal, with power to acquire, hold and dispose of movable and immovable property, and to contract, and may by that name, use or be used.

The Council of Architecture is entrusted with the responsibility to regulate the education and practice of the profession throughout India, besides maintaining the register of architects. For this purpose, the Government of India has framed rules, and the Council itself has framed Regulations as provided for in the Architects Act, with the approval of Government of India.

The COA oversees the maintenance of the standards by way of conducting inspections through Committees of Experts. The COA is required to keep the Central Government informed of the standards being maintained by the institutions and is empowered to make recommendations to the Government of India with regard to recognition and de-recognition of a qualification.

The Head Office of the Council of Architecture is in Delhi at the Indian Habitat Centre. There are 135 institutions which impart architecture education in India for recognized qualifications. The standards of education being imparted in these institutions (constituent colleges/departments of universities, deemed universities, affiliated colleges/schools, IITs, NITs and autonomous institutions) is governed by Council of Architecture (Minimum Standards of Architectural Education) Regulations, 1983, which set forth the requirement of eligibility for admission, course duration, standards of staff & accommodation, course content, examination etc.

The skyline of Abu Dhabi, the capital city of the United Arab Emirates is dotted with elegant buildings and super-tall skyscrapers that play the roles of corporate & commercial facilities, business towers, hotels, residences and so on. Yas Hotel recently made it to the list of among the most eye-catching architectural structures in Abu Dhabi by its differentially designed towers with glass on their exteriors.

The Yas Hotel is one of the main features of the ambitious 36-billion-dollar Yas Marina development and accompanying Formula 1 raceway circuit in Abu Dhabi. Yas Hotel is a 85,000-sqm complex of breath-taking structures, underneath the glass-and-steel garment of which, it offers visitors 500 rooms and a five-star array of facilities and amenities – eight restaurants, four bars, lavish recreational facilities including an 18-hole golf course and a 143-berth marina, and access to nearby attractions like the Ferrari World Theme Park.

 Glass Panels

Yas Hotel consists of two conjoined 12-storey towers forming a T-intersection. These two towers are linked by a bridge over a racetrack and are covered in glass. A canopy made of a 217-meter expanse of sweeping, curvilinear forms constructed of steel and 5,800 pivoting diamond-shaped glass panels support the towers and bridge.

Grid shell

A ‘Grid-Shell’ visually connects and fuses the entire complex together while producing optical effects and spectral reflections that play against the surrounding sky, sea and desert landscape. The architecture as a whole “performs” as both an environmentally receptive solution as well as a visual spectacle.

During the daytime, the grid shell functions as an adjustable windscreen, assisting in thermal and ventilation control through its controlled reflectivity, along with offering a distinct biomorphic scaly texture. During the night, it converts the hotel into a massive light source and assumes a different kind of biomorphic form, akin to the graceful forms of luminescent jellyfish.

This project can claim global leadership in two respects: It is the first building ever constructed across a Formula 1 racetrack, and is reportedly the world's largest LED project to date. Between these two milestones, the auto races will probably grab more immediate attention, but the exterior is the Yas Hotel's truly revolutionary element.

Source: www.dezeen.com

It was a rather bright day and Architect Rohan Parikh was in the mood. Heading Green Initiatives at Infosys could hardly be a piece of cake. Yet, when we landed at the sprawling Infosys campus in Bangalore that sunny morning, we caught Ar. Parikh in good spirits, albeit anxious to finish his scheduled session with us with minimum delay.

“Let’s go out and shoot”, he said, obviously wanting to take in a piece of the cheerful day.  We were, of course, more than happy to oblige.

High performance buildings were clearly the focus of all of Ar. Parikh’s initiatives, an end which was achieved by the use of renewable energy. “Energy saved is energy gained,” he said matter-of-factly. In view of the changing global climate, resource constraints and exploding population, he believes that buildings which can bring in a 10X improvement in the energy scarcity situation are the order of the day.

Glass was clearly one of Ar. Parikh’s favourite building materials. “Thanks to glass, architects can now not just make buildings look great, but also spend less time and effort in proportioning them”. He added that the intelligent use of glass was paramount, by ensuring that the glass used was of the high-performance category, which let in daylight but not heat.

If he likes glass, we like him. Ar. Rohan Parikh made for himself that day, a special place as Glazette’s blue-eyed boy. Or, should we say, glassy-eyed boy.

This summer, Glazette brings to you a 7-part series on “So You Wannabe an Architect.” Watch this space for seven audio-visual illustrations on how you can self-tutor to be an architect.

In Part-I, Architect Doug Patt starts with telling us who an architect really is, or what he/she does. As per Patt, an architect is a Designer, an Inventor and a Translator.

Watch the video to find out how.

This is the first part of the 7-part series.

He’s so busy with his latest project Chandra Mall in Virugambakkam, Chennai, that he promises a few minutes squeezed into a very tight schedule to talk about glass. “For the students of architecture,” he agrees.

Chandar Sitaraman is a busy man with 25 years of experience under his belt. He’s seen it all – from the brick and mortar of yore to the latest in green technology. And he’s fascinated by glass. “Glass gives a transparent and expansive look,” he says. The linear expansion on volume that glass gives the illusion of, is by far its biggest asset. As for aesthetics, who wouldn’t want to be able to be one with nature inside their workplace. “It creates a fresh environment for people who work 8 to 10 hours a day. It reduces mental fatigue,” he argues.

Aesthetics aside, Mr Sitaraman believes glass is a boon as it helps cut down heat and has the ability to control light. High performance glass is available which can become transparent or opaque when small electrical impulses course through it. This can help control the light that enters the room. Glass can help reduce radiation, helping offices and homes cut down on power bills. “Cooling a hot surface is a redundant exercise, glass helps conserve that energy,” he says. Though glass is a bit expensive, he believes it’s an investment worth making as the cost can be recovered in 3 to 5 years by the savings on energy costs.

Mr Sitaraman has a word of advice for students of architecture. “Study climatology of the area you’re building in,” he says. “The direction the building is facing will help determine the direction of radiation.” This knowledge will help the architect decide the U-value and thereby determine whether to give the glass a soft or hard coating in order to get the best energy efficiency.

Why should glass be used in green buildings? “Because,” says Mr Sitaraman, “according to the green building norms, 0.75 to 1 watt per square foot is the acceptable lighting load. So it helps to have openable windows or surfaces for natural light.” This will add points on the building’s Leed evaluation. Usage of double glazed glass with a cavity in between also cuts out sound, giving audio privacy to occupants.

Mr Sitaraman says high performance glass has worked wonders for him. He has also used self-cleaning glass, which is coated with Teflon so the dust won’t stick to the surface. One shower of rain and the entire building is clean again. No costs involved in cleaning the exteriors, he signs off.
 

Part-II is here! Continuing with the 7-part series on “So You Wannabe an Architect”, Glazette brings to you the next part, where Ar. Doug Patt talks about four key elements that good architecture represents - Form, Story, Music and Inspiration.

This is a conclusion Patt draws from various quotes on architecture by eminent people in the fields of literature, art, and theology. He also cites examples of glorious architecture that represent these four elements in their manifestation.

Watch the video to see and hear it all.

Project: Cognizant IT Park, MEPZ, Tambaram

Few architects try to use symbolism in their buildings, especially symbols that are relevant to the people who’re going to live in or work in that building. R Nagalingam is one such architect who believes symbols are important – because people should identify with their workspace. “We wanted to do something unique with the build-form,” says Nagalingam.

“Since it is an IT park, we came up with the concept of using the binary code as the windows.” So now zeros and ones bring light into the building much as they do in the IT industry. But there’s more symbolism to be uncovered. “The 1st, 5th and 7th rows of the windows on the second building are in red,” he points to the front wall of the building under construction. “These represent C, T & S in the binary code,” he grins. Nagalingam decided to use punched-in windows in the construction. “During the daytime all the glass on these windows are shaded because they’re set into the wall. This brings in light and cuts out the heat,” he says.

Nagalingam wants to apply for a Leed Silver Rating for the IT Park once it’s complete. So energy efficiency and abiding by the ECBC norms becomes very important. Hence the use of high performance double insulated glass, which cuts out heat and noise. “The glass we used is of 6 mm thickness, with 12 mm air gap and another glass of 6 mm thickness,” he says. “Blue-green colour gives the maximum efficiency, so we chose that. It has high visible transmission ratio so people working in the building can see the outdoors clearly. Daylight is very important nowadays because studies have shown that productivity increases if workers are exposed to daylight,” he says. Only glass allows that. High performance glass also helps reduce the load on the air conditioning system because it cuts out the heat. To this glass façade, he added sunshades in the form of aluminium louvers, which shade the glass and help cut out glare inside the building.

Nagalingam has some tips for would-be architects. First check the visible transmittance of the glass, that is how much light is entering the building. “Next, look at solar factor,” he says. “Solar factor is a measure of the amount of heat from the sun that enters the building.” This will help decide the U-value of the glass to be used in the building. “India is a tropical country and ECBC norms stipulate that solar factor should be between 0.2 to 0.25. Visible transmittance can be between 40-60%. U-value should be 2 to 2.5 watts per metre squared degree Kelvin,” he says.

On green buildings, he says the World Green Building Council and the Indian Green Building Council, both say recyclable materials should be used in buildings. “Glass helps get points on that because 10-20% of recyclable content is used in the making of glass. Also nowadays waste glass is being put into the glass manufacturing process, so glass is now 100% recyclable,” he adds. Green building norms also stipulate that regional materials must be used. So materials should be procured from within 500 miles from the project site.

“We chose Saint Gobain glass because their factory is only 50-60 kms away from the project site, so we managed to get some points on that as well,” he smiles.
Nagalingam says it is important to use glass intelligently as the misuse of glass could produce glare inside the building. “But if used properly,” he says, “glass is a terrific material with a huge number of advantages.”
 

When the Taj Mahal was built, it was widely recognized as a marvel in architecture not only for its aesthetic brilliance and exclusivity, but also for the fact that it was built in an era when elementary resources like land, labour, capital, materials, technology and even skills & expertise were hard to come by. Given that today, these resources are available not exactly a dime a dozen but with far less effort, a good-looking building might not always evoke more than a few words of appreciation. So what is it that architecture needs to incorporate within its foundation, to stand out today?

Ask ITC. The Royal Gardenia in Bangalore is the first green luxury hotel in the city, and among the few in the country, that delivers the best in 'Responsible Luxury' and giving back more to the environment. As per a self-description, the ethos of ITC Royal Gardenia is "Forward to Green, Back to Nature". 'Forward to Green' highlights the practice of eco-friendly measures such as Energy Efficiency, Zero Solid Waste management, Green Banqueting and more. ‘Back to Nature’ is indicative of how the hotel is one with Mother Nature.

Among several other ‘green’ aspects of the hotel, there is an Atrium Lobby that is illuminated by natural lighting and cooled by none other than one of the strongest forces of Nature – the Wind! With its vertical hanging gardens, the Atrium Lobby leads to the Central Court. Here, amidst verdant gardens and recycled water fountains stands the gracious multi-column Lotus Pavilion, inspired by Tipu Sultan's palace at Srirangapatna – adding to the hotel, a touch of Indian heritage for absorption by the globe trotter.

Royal Gardenia offers 292 large and well equipped rooms, including 13 suites and the largest presidential suite in India. The room interiors manifest different layers of life forms offered by nature, and each floor follows this theme using pleasing colours, motifs and textures. Through these unique offerings, ITC Royal Gardenia tenders a memorable experience of responsible indulgence to its guests, complementing a city known for it's lush gardens and verdant foliage, albeit in the recent past.

Images Courtesy: ITC WelcomeGroup Website

 

Delhi was just starting to get warm, and the drive to Ar. Goonmeet Chauhan’s office in Vasant Kunj was largely devoid of traffic. The well-maintained, welcoming entrance to the building seemed to be indicative of the mindset of its occupants.

Sure enough, Ar. Goonmeet Chauhan turned out to be an extremely warm and approachable person. That we took the liberty of setting up the conference room for the shoot without his permission, an act which evoked an approving smile and nod, proved us right.

After an initial informal discussion over tea, Ar. Chauhan was ready to shoot. After talking about how he started two architecture firms, TCS and DFI along with fellow architects some years ago, Ar. Chauhan started to talk about his projects and the use of glass in them.

Among their notable projects in the retail space is Select City Walk Mall in South Delhi. Spread over 1.3 million sq feet, this mall has used glass extensively in its interiors - at shop fronts through the use of seamless glass for visibility to the outdoors, and also in the atrium skylight for optimum daylighting.

Talking of residential multi-story buildings, Ar. Chauhan emphasized the right choice of glass for glazing purposes, and giving people homes that let the external landscape flow in. In the IT space, Cyberwalk in Manesar stood out as one DFI’s most prestigious projects, being a LEED Gold rated structure.

Ar. Chauhan concluded superbly by drawing an architectural diagram on a sheet of white opaque glass from Saint-Gobain that covered one entire wall of the conference room. “To have a large wall like this to draw on is every architect’s dream come true”, he said with a twinkle in his eye.

Video Part 2

Glass is good, glass is green, glass is modern architecture, said Ar. Goonmeet Chauhan. We couldn’t agree more.

Ar. Nishit Gupta described DFA consultants as a group of architects that was into designing a whole gamut of buildings, right from IT parks and housing structures to commercial projects, and even small residences and interiors. Being in the field of architecture for the last 20 years, Ar. Gupta spoke with great ease and expertise on the subject.

The Advent IT Park in Noida was his dream project, covering 1 million sq ft, spamming 15 floors, and being a LEED’s Gold rated building. With the help of a wall hanging of an architect’s impression the building, Ar. Gupta described it as akin to a ship. Apparently the orientation of Advent was such that to use glass, they had to work hard on the façade, wanting to have it completely glazed. The glass pieces used on it are trapezoidal and not rectangular, he elaborated. A lot of ceramic glass had also been used, in addition to high performance glasses.

Ar. Gupta felt that architectural glass today is highly reliable as a sustainable material, it being able to cut off heat while letting daylight in. Through the use of the right kind of glass in different areas, one could achieve visibility from one or the other side, innovations in design and construction, and so on, he mused.

That day, Ar. Gupta, just like Ar. Goonmeet Chauhan, Ar. Rohan Parikh and several others, helped us renew our love for glass as a building material.

In Part III of this series, Architect Doug Patt takes us through Architecture as Education. As per him, architecture is an amazingly complex field and an incredible education in itself, and that there’s a lot that goes into any building and how the architect should know their way around every inch. Patt quotes  Plutarch, a Greek historian and writer, Mark Twain, the famous writer, and several others on their opinions on the art and science that is architecture.

In conclusion, Patt says that what one learns as an architect is almost seamless - it’s probably about philosophy, sociology, psychology, material science, engineering, mathematics, history, construction; and in the end making something out of nothing.

He is a big fan of glass and tries his best to use the material in most of his designs. With 6 years of experience under his belt, Anand Raj finds its aesthetics soothing and appealing. “I try to convince clients to use glass in residential buildings as well, not just in offices. I try to provide shade to the glass so that heat is cut out and the indoors remain cool,” says Anand.

“Also now with improved technology, high performance glass is available which can cut out the heat without requiring shading. This also reduces the load on the HVACs in the building as the interior remains cool. Double-glazed glass and other reflective glass save about 80-85% of energy costs,” he says. “Yes, high performance glass is expensive initially. But if you see 5-10 years down the line, it’s definitely worth the initial cost. Because you save on energy costs, you save on maintenance. Glass is very easy to maintain and requires no frequent painting or white-washing,” says Anand.

That’s not the only reason Anand loves glass. “Using glass as the envelope helps reduce the time taken to construct the building. Also people working or living surrounded by glass walls feel one with nature,” he says. “If there’s opaque material separating people in a workplace, they feel like they’re in no man’s island and productivity becomes less.”

Glass is also as strong as any other building material. Anand also feels that it is human nature to treat glass carefully and so constructions made of glass will automatically be treated with more care by the people living and working in them.

Sankar Iyer tries his best to squeeze in glass into every one of his designs, even if it’s a small coffee table. That’s because he loves the material and admires the aesthetic value it brings with it. Apart from that, he swears by its eco-friendly nature. “Glass can help save on power costs. In malls and other corporate buildings, ECBC norms impose certain limits on artificial lighting. We can get only so much light from LEDs. Glass opens up the building to natural light and helps architects design buildings according to ECBC norms,” he grins. “With this you can save at least 15-20% on power bills.”

Sound-proof glass is another favourite of his clients, says Anand. “People work hard nowadays and want to sleep in complete silence without traffic noise interfering with their rest. We can use double-glazed glass with an air gap in between 2 sheets of glass for sound-proofing rooms,” he says.

High performance glass needs to be custom-made. An architect needs to design and measure the glass requirements accurately before the glass manufacturer can make it according to the specifications. Once that is done, it takes very little time for the construction to come up, says Anand. “A construction that takes 100 days to complete can be constructed within 80 days if the envelope used is glass.”

Glass is tough and more or less as strong as metal, says Anand. “Clients are often scared of using glass in their buildings because they feel it will break easily,” he laughs. “That’s not true at all. Glass can be made as tough as any other material. And of course its beauty is unmatched,” signs off Anand.

After a 3-year stint as a green building consultant in the US, Dhruv Futnani knew his heart lay in Chennai. So back he flew, and is ecstatic in his home town now. “I spent a couple of years managing the Delhi head-office of Spectral,” he says. “But I’m really glad I’m back home now.”

As a green building consultant, Dhruv is constantly having to research building materials and review them as green norms the world over slowly tighten. Glass is one such material that he says, if used right, can yield to the architect’s wildest dreams while making the construction eco-friendly. “For example, high performance glass can be used in the east and west-facing sides of a building because these bear the brunt of the sunlight and heat during the day. The high performance glass will cut down on the heat and allow only light in, so that the interiors can remain cool. On the north and south-facing sides, the architect can use normal glass as there won’t be so much heat on these sides. This is one way we can use glass in an intelligent manner and save some money for the client,” he says.

For hot climes like Chennai, it is best to balance the U-value and shading co-efficient of glass to attain the desired effect. The higher these values, the less light is allowed inside the building. “Architects can make use of advanced technology in the form of computer simulation of the lighting. A computer program tells you exactly how much light and heat will enter the building and with the help of this you can decide what kind of glass you need to use,” he says. Glass manufacturing has improved by leaps and bounds, says Dhruv. Glass with low reflectivity is now available and this can be used in the exteriors of a building so that it doesn’t create a mirror effect.

On the Leed rating system, Dhruv clarifies a point of contention. “Recycle content refers to the amount of recycled material used to make the glass,” he argues. “Most people interpret it as glass being recyclable. Yes, glass is 100% recyclable, but the recycle content in the glass is 15-18%. No type of glass is 100% recycled,” he smiles. He is a big proponent of the ECBC norms and believes that these will only help us construct better, greener and cleaner buildings.

SAANA, a Tokyo-based architectural firm, is owned by architects Kazuyo Sejima and Ryue Nishizawa. They have won the Pritzker – the highest honour in the world of Architecture & Design.

Let us see how SAANA has used glass in creating the extraordinary designs that won them the Pritzker.

1.    Reinventing coexistence with glass

The 21st Century Museum of Contemporary Art, Kanazawa

The 21st Century Museum of Contemporary Art is located in the center of Kanazawa, one of the nation’s historical centers, on the north coast of Japan. The building contains community gathering spaces, a library, lecture hall, children's workshop, as well as museum spaces. The variously proportioned rooms placed inside the circular building - the model based on a chain of islands or an urban space - signify the centers that generate values originating in the maldistribution of decentrism and polycentrism, and in remote regions.

A walk inside along the curved glass of the exterior facade smoothly unfolds a 360 degree panorama of the site. Four fully glazed internal courtyards, each unique in its character, provide ample daylight to the center and a fluent border between public zone and museum zone. The scattered location of the galleries provides transparency with views from the periphery into the center and vistas through the entire depth of the building. The transparent corridors encourage “coexistence” in which individuals remain autonomous while sharing personal space with others.

Gallery spaces are of various proportions and light conditions - from bright daylight through glass ceilings, with a black-out possibility, to spaces with no natural light source. Their height ranges from 4 meters to 12 meters. The design that allows the visitor to decide on the route through the museum, combined with the flexible gallery rooms that can adapt to every type of media, guarantees the trans-border diversity of the programs that will be held in the space. The intention behind all of these elements is to stimulate the visitor’s emerging awareness.

Specificity to each gallery space is a benefit of the building concept and has been fully explored. The museum can be entered at many places and explored from all directions. Visitors can walk completely around the building inside the glass perimeter. The 21st Century Museum of Contemporary Art has central exhibition spaces surrounded by areas for municipal services such as a library, a workshop for children, and a conference room. There are four inner courtyards enclosed by glass, and many of the rooms have skylights to provide diffused natural light.

Site area: 26,000 square meters
Building area: 9,500 m2
Total Floor area: 17,300 square meters
Completed: 2004

Client: The City of Kanazawa
Archtitect: SANAA
Structural engineer: SSC/ Sasaki Structural consultants
Mechanical engineer: ES Associates
Electrical engineer: P.T.Morimura & Assoc., LTD
Landscape: SANAA
Furniture: SANAA

The 21st Century Museum of Contemporary Art

2. The Glass box- The Christian Dior Building , Omotesando
   
The Dior building is a showcase for Dior's designs, a fairly straightforward trapezoid box in Tokyo's center of fashion, Omotesando Avenue. While the box itself is unexciting - though modulated by some variety in floor height, articulated by the bands around the building - the building's showpiece is its skin. The clean, square, outer skin of clear glass covers a second skin inside, of translucent acrylic. This gives the external facade the gentlest of hints at what is inside (while revealing nothing), and provides a glowing blank canvas for seasonal additions.

Designed by experimental Japanese architect duo Kazuyo Sejima and Ryue Nishizawa, known collectively as SANAA, the building is a pristine white box with sharp edges and occupies the entire trapezoidal site.

Couture dress, the ultimate beauty in fashion, is the main source of inspiration for this new creation. Standing at 30 m tall, it seems to be like an eight-storey high building with a dramatic double-skin façade of transparent flat glass on the outside and softly curved, white translucent acrylic panels on the inside, reminiscent of the drape of a dress. White stripes are printed on the acrylic walls so that the building's appearance changes beautifully depending on the light during the day and the level of penetration of lighting at night. A few white horizontal aluminium bands further break the continuous volume into several unequal segments. This slender white box speaks of an elegant femininity that enables it to stand out effortlessly along the star-studded street. Not revealing entirely what is behind the white drapes, it exudes an air of mystery that invites one to step into the luxury world of Dior and explore.

Internally, a different world awaits revelation. Instead of the eight floors of boutique space perceived earlier from the street, there is only one basement floor and five above-ground levels. The basement and the first three floors are devoted to the various retail lines under the Dior umbrella; there is one multi-purpose event space on the fourth floor and a rooftop garden above. The reason for this apparent misrepresentation of floors is the enlargement of mechanical space from the minimum requirement of 1.5 m to greater heights that befit the overall façade composition. Instead of hiding them, SANNA expressed and skilfully incorporated them to create a slender volume that built right to the maximum allowable height. The legibility of spaces is aided by the varying degree of transparency whereby the mechanical spaces are the most opaque.

The interior of the building might be eclectic, but the thermoformed acrylic drapes manages to manifest a coherent image that symbolises Dior's femininity and arouses one's imagination at the same time. When looking towards the cityscape from inside, one seems to be in a fairyland engulfed by this cloud of fuzzy whiteness.

The Christian Dior Building

3. Interconnected transparency - The Toledo Museum of Art Glass Pavilion

The annex to the Toledo Museum of Art is both an exhibition space for the museum’s glass collection, and a glass making facility. Conceived as a single one-storey volume penetrated by courtyards with sightlines through layers of transparent walls, the visitors experience will always involve the surrounding greenery. Individually, each space is enclosed in clear glass, resulting in cavity walls that act as buffer zones between different climates; museum exhibition spaces, the glass making hot-shop, and the outdoors.

The plan is derived from a grid of various rectilinear shapes reflecting programmatic adjacencies; with room-to-room connections achieved using curving glass surfaces. Glass is wrapping the spaces forming continuous elevations, uninterrupted by corners. The visitor flows with the form through a series of interconnected bubbles.

The Toledo Museum of Art glass pavilion showcases glass artworks and glass-making studios. Architects Kazuyo Sejima and Ryue Nishizawa of the Tokyo-based architecture firm SANAA chose to design the building primarily out of glass. Except for opaque walls enclosing toilets, plumbing, roof drains, elevators, and diagonal bracing, all exterior and interior walls are made of curved glass.

Completed in 2006, the glass pavilion in Toledo, Ohio (USA) is an annex across the street from the Toledo Museum of Art. The pavilion was the first US building by SANAA, who also designed the 2007 New Museum of Contemporary Art in New York, a pile of offset boxes. That project also features a partially glass exterior, although a metal mesh façade gives the building a more solid look. The Toledo project lies in a park, next to a century-old grove of trees. SANAA avoided cutting any of them. The glass walls of the single-story building give museum-goers a sense of connection to the trees.

Structural components

Except for delicate steel columns, the building structure is hidden above the ceiling. One interior volume also contains a solid plate steel wall that provides lateral bracing. The light roof rests on these structural members, so the glass walls bear no load, and the roof appears to float.  The façade features two parallel glass walls with a gap between them. And this aspect continues throughout the interior. In a typical building, one wall divides two spaces. But in this museum, any two galleries have two walls of curving glass between them. A cavity of nearly 1m lies between the layers of glass. The size of the gap varies, because the walls curve in irregular ways for the sake of variety.

Daylighting

Using glass on this scale introduces a host of benefits and challenges. In most museums, sun control is essential, because ultraviolet light quickly fades paintings and fabrics. But when exhibited artworks are made of glass, the rules change. A slightly reflective Verosol curtain inside the exterior wall contains aluminium particles that reflect heat, light and UV light out of the building.

After an extensive daylight analysis, SANAA created three internal courtyards. The purpose was to reduce glare, which generally comes about when there's a high degree of light contrast. The courtyards reduce glare by bringing daylight to the middle of the building. The cavities between the layers of glass act as invisible insulation in both exterior and interior walls. That is, they collect any heat that penetrates the glass. The air temperature in the cavity remains somewhere between that of the exterior and interior temperature.

The glass ovens generate considerable heat. In the summer, fans pull heat out of the building. And in the winter, heat from the ovens enters the cavity and warms the rest of the building. Noise bounces off hard surfaces such as glass. The acoustic plaster ceiling absorbs some of this noise. A movable interior curtain (used to make interior spaces bigger or smaller) also helps to deaden the noise. The finished building does have some reflections, but they help create a pleasant, nuanced experience. The reflections and varying light conditions filter the view through the building, making the glass transparent at times and reflective at others.

The installed glass is quite strong and poses little danger of shattering. The exterior glass is 2.5cm thick. When the design team tested a full-scale mock-up by throwing rocks and bricks at it, the glass walls survived.

Location: Toledo, Ohio, USA
Client: Toledo Museum of Art
Architect: Kazuyo Sejima + Ryue Nishizawa / SANAA
Team: Toshi Oki, Takayuki Hasegawa, Keiko Uchiyama, Mizuki Imamura, Tetsuo Kondo, Junya Ishigami
Built area: 7,000sqm
Site area: 20,000sqm
Opening: 2006
Structure: Guy Nordenson & Associates / SAPS
Glass consultant: Front Inc
Lighting: Arup / Kilt Planning
Photos: Iwan Baan

The Toledo Museum of Art Glass Pavilion

4.The glass Design - Zollverein School of Management and Design,Essen

The Zollverein School of Management & Design will be the first new building on the historical coal-mining Zollverein site; declared a World Heritage Site by UNESCO in 2001. The design, a cuboid structural shell, picks up the basic functional and effective idea used by the original Zollverein architects Schupp and Kremmer.

The oversized cube, which measures 35 meters by 35 meters and is 35 meters high, reflects the dimensions of the Zollverein mine. The seemingly coincidental organization of the openings, windows in three different sizes, creates an unusual interaction with the surroundings and the interior. The building has four floors with ceilings of varying height as well as a roof garden. The idea of stacking open floor plans was developed in compliance with the demands made by the various functions. A multi-level presentation hall, exhibition and foyer areas for public use, and a café, are located on the ground floor. The Design Studios on the second floor will be a production level, home to the creative workplaces. The library is on the third floor together with open, glazed seminar rooms as well as several separate, quiet workplaces along the north-east facade. The fourth floor is the office level, with working areas of various sizes and characters, divided by glass walls. Windows in the exterior walls and appropriately distributed lighting will guarantee daylight and visual connections for all workplaces.

The garden on the roof can also be used on a temporary basis, and will serve above all as a viewing platform over the Zollverein World Heritage Center. The Zollverein School will act as a bridge between teaching, research, and practical implementation in relation to the planned Design Park as the Zollverein grows and prospers as a design location.

Total area: app. 5,000 square meters
Construction start: March 2005

Client: Zollverein School
Architects: SANAA
Project architect: Nicole Berganski
Associate architects: Böll & Krabel
Masterplan: Rem Koolhaas OMA
Landscape: Agence Ter

Zollverein School of Management and Design

5. New Musem of Contemporary Art, New York 

Architects Kazuyo Sejima and Ryue Nishizawa of the Tokyo firm SANAA have designed the seven above-ground floors as a stack of displaced boxes, each one shifted off-centre from the level immediately below or above. The boxes don't step back in a consistent Empire State Building sort of way but rather in an irregular sculptural fashion. The attention-getting exterior differs markedly from the neutral interior. With the exception of electric-green elevator interiors and bright cherry blossom tile mosaics in the lower-level restrooms, the museum features polished grey concrete floors and white walls, as well as exposed diagonal structural members. Ducts, sprinklers, and fireproofing material are also quite visible.

SANAA designed the interior to be inviting but straightforward, so the architecture would not overwhelm or compete with the art. Furthermore, the architects chose to expose the innards of the building in order to match the honesty of the Bowery's workaday businesses. At the lobby level, the workings of the museum are particularly apparent. From the outside, one can see the entire ground floor through a pane of glass that stands nearly 15ft tall and stretches the width of the site. This glassy wall even affords behind-the-scenes views of the loading area. The luminous feeling continues inside the entranceway, with a soaring glass wall that separates the 1,525ft² main space from a 1,120ft² gallery illuminated by skylights. Glass partially encloses an interior stairway leading from the lobby down to the cellar level.

Meanwhile, the mushy exterior motif also continues inside. A serpentine screen of metal mesh separates the museum store from the lobby. And a floating screen of metal mesh softens the largely visible functions of the ceiling, filtering light from a grid of fluorescent tubes.

New Musuem of Contemporary Art

6. Naoshima Ferry Terminal, Naoshima

The Naoshima Ferry Terminal is set on a small island in the Inland Sea of Japan. The terminal area is sheltered by a large roof measuring approximately 39,000 square feet. Glass walls enclose the waiting area, cafe, and visitors’ center.  Architects Kazuyo Sejima and Ryue Nishizawa began the project in 2003. The Naoshima Ferry Terminal was completed in 2006.

Naoshima Ferry Terminal

SOURCE: www.glassisgreen.com

The National Building Code (NBC) is a national instrument that will guide the regulations for construction activity in the country. The code encompasses all the aspects vital for safe and orderly building development. The building that does not satisfy the requirements put forward by the NBC or violates it is bound to suffer penalty, cancellation of sanction or demolition.

Basic Requirements

Lift

A building at a height of more than 13 metres is to have a lift that starts from the ground floor, and have a minimum capacity of six persons. On the basis of detailed calculations (based on the relevant provisions of National Building Code) the number of lifts can be variable.

Fire Safety or Fire Protection

In the case of apartment buildings exceeding three storeys above ground level, a certificate of approval from the Director of Fire Force or an officer authorized by him should be obtained before issue of the building permit. All other requirements in respect of fire protection shall conform to Part IV, Fire Protection National Building Code of India.

Every floor of any kind of residential accommodation exceeding 150 sq. meters of floor area with a capacity of more than 20 persons should posses at least two doorways, as remote as practicable from each other. At least one staircase should be provided as a fire exit as defined by the National Building Code

The detailed plan showing the arrangement of pipe lines, booster pumps and water-tanks at various levels should be submitted for approval of the concerned authority along with the plans and sections of the buildings. Every building standing at a height of more than 25 metres is to be provided with diesel generators which can be utilized in case of power failure.

Foundation & Structural Design

All materials and workmanship should be of good quality conforming generally to accepted standards of Bureau of Indian Standard specification & codes as included in National Building Code of India. All materials and workmanship shall be of good quality conforming generally to accepted standards of Bureau of Indian Standard specification & codes as included in National Building Code of India. No building or part of a building shall be constructed or reconstructed or no addition or alteration shall be made to any existing building in the intervening spaces between the building and any overhead electric supply line.

The height of the handrail in the staircase should not be less than 90cms and if balusters are provided, no gap in the balusters should be more than 10cms wide. Every slab or balcony overlooking any exterior or interior open space which are 2 meters or more below should be provided with parapet walls or guard rails of height not less than 1.20 meters and such guard rails shall be firmly fixed to the walls.

Plumbing Services

A plumbing or sanitation code is a set of rules and regulations imposed by cities or counties. Anyone doing work on drinking water and sewer or toilet facilities systems are responsible to make the work in a specific, safe manner to avoid accidents and spread of disease. Water conservation and the health aspects of plumbing have become important in the construction sector now.

Plumbing has to be attuned to the general design of the building. Many technical aspects such as water pressure, venting and concepts of wet and dry areas in toilets have to be looked into in any structure. Recently, the International Association of Plumbing and Mechanical Officials (IAPMO) developed a Plumbing Code for India. The Indian Plumbing Association (IPA), country’s apex body of plumbing professionals, has launched ‘Uniform Plumbing Code’ (UPC).The World Plumbing Council’s uniform plumbing code was mended as per Indian needs and created the code for India.

Lightning Protection

Locations, surrounded partially or fully by unbroken metallic surfaces or nets do not allow lightning to penetrate to the interior and hence a person is safe inside. Lightning prefers to strike the tallest of all objects in the location of strike. Also it prefers metal objects. The larger the metal more is the preference.

Avoid using metallic pipes to fix lamps on terrace of buildings. Also for drying clothes on the terrace, iron poles with metallic or plastic wires are used. The Lightning Conductor which is also known as Lightning Rod or Air Terminal is one of the best known forms of shielding device and has been in use in protecting buildings and facilities where protection is mandatory.

The protective value of Inside buildings is better when at least some unbroken vertical metallic conductors exist, such as rain gutters with down-pipes, water mains, rails for elevators, vertical metal strips, steel braces or reinforcement, electrical installations and wires, etc. Electrical and electronic equipments can be protected to a considerable extent from damage by installing a Lightning Arrestor.

Building Services

The planning, design and installation of electrical installations, air-conditioning and heating work shall be carried out in accordance with part VIII Building Service Section 2 – Electrical installations, Section 3 Air conditioning and Heating of National Building Code of India. The planning, design including the number of lifts, type of lifts, capacity of lifts, depending on occupancy of building, population on each floor and height of building.

Other Building Requirements

National Building Code regulates building construction & building use in order to protect the health, safety & welfare of the occupant. In order to learn which codes are being used and how they will affect you and your construction project, contact your local building inspection department, developers and concerned Authorities. Other building requirements are as follows.

• Every room that intended for human habitation shall abut on an interior or exterior open space or to a veranda open to such interior or exterior open space.
• Every interior, exterior or air space, unless the later is a street, shall be maintained for the benefit of such building exclusively and shall be entirely within the owner’s own premises.
• Every person who intends to erect, re-erect or make alternation in any place in a building or demolish any building shall give notice in writing to the concerned Authority of his intention in the prescribed form and such notice shall be accompanied by plans and statements in sufficient copies.
• No Objection Certificate (NOC) from Fire Service, Pollution Control Board, Electrical safety department, Water Supply and Sewage Department and other concerned department.
• No land shall be used as a site for the construction of building if the Competent Authority considers that the site is unsanitary or that it is dangerous to construct a building on it.
• Building should be safe for occupant and it is important to inspect when your site is getting marked for dimensions. Inspect construction after every two feet progress.

The building will be inspected by concern authorities and you will get completion certificate for your apartment or building. Issuing of Completion Certificate will ensure that the owner has constructed the building as per approved plan. Without the occupancy certificate, it is difficult to get the electricity, water and sanitary connection. The NBC 2005, formulated by the Bureau of Indian Standards, spells out new regulations for adoption by infrastructure departments, municipal administrators, public bodies and private agencies.

Rain water harvesting system and solar water heater are mandatory for newly constructed building in some states. National Building Code will soon be updated with energy saving methods in construction methods. In order to learn which codes are being used and how they will affect you, contact developers and concerned Authorities in your locality for construction of building or apartment. Deviation from approved plan or violation of National Building Code (NBC) will lead to charge penalty, cancellation of approvals or demolition of property.

The Queensland Regional Architecture Awards for 2010 will be given away in June this year by the Queensland Chapter of the Australian Institute of Architects (AIA). Outstanding architecture projects submitted by members of the Institute this year were judged on different parameters and honoured.

Descriptions of some of the nominations follow.

UQ Rural Building

The Rural Clinical School building of the School of Medicine in Toowoomba won the Regional Commendation at the 2010 Darling Downs Regional Architecture Awards. This building was designed by Arkhefield architects at a cost of $4.2 million. The highlight of this clinical centre is its unique design structure.

The facility boasts of a state-of-the-art teaching and learning space for up to 80 students, a dedicated Clinical Skills Laboratory, advanced audiovisual equipment, a 24-hour computer lab and a Lectopia education recording system.

This Rural clinic building makes use of concrete walls, copper soffits, and timber doors complemented by large expanses of glass. The jewel in the crown of the design is its sustainable aspects such as self-supporting glass walls, solar energy for winter heating and a smart air-conditioning system to independently service different sections of the facility.

Lady Elliot Island Eco Resort Hybrid Solar Power Station

The Lady Elliot Island Eco Resort Hybrid Solar Power Station was designed by Peddle Thorp Architects and will be the largest Off Grid Power System in Queensland funded under the Government program. This hybrid off-grid power station offsets the electricity needs of the resort whilst reducing carbon emission, noise and reliance on fossil fuel.

The Hybrid Power Station consists of 130 square meters of Solar Panels, Battery Banks with 48 cells, Inverters, and a brand new generator that is a third of the size of current units. Initial reduction in fuel consumption and emissions is estimated to be approximately 40% and the proposed system is expandable, allowing for additional solar panels or wind generators to be added over time, thus further reducing reliance on fossil fuels.

Marcus Beach House

Marcus Beach House received 2010 Sunshine Coast Regional Architecture Award. This house - designed by Bark Design Architects - enjoys a natural, coastal setting, providing its occupants a chance to be one with the landscape and surrounding environment.

Windows and doors of the Marcus beach house are positioned in a way that they capture the prevailing breezes; and an overhanging roof protects the house from direct sunlight. Artificial lighting is kept to a minimum owing to appropriate glazing. The roof over the Master Bedroom pavilion rises to the north providing a band of high level, operable, clerestory glazing that captures daylight and allows warm air to escape, setting up an effective ‘stack effect’ natural cooling process. This eliminated the need for air conditioning.

Maleny House

Maleny house is designed by spark Architects in the sunshine coast hinterland. This house is also one of the architectures to own the 2010 Sunshine Coast Regional Architecture Award as Marcus Beach House. Expansive decking, terraces and large amounts of glass – extending to the skillion roof in places – open the internal spaces to the outdoors, creating a sense of a house without walls.

The Maleny house makes use of recycled hardwood from 60-year-old telegraph poles. The house’s old concrete rainwater tank has also been put to good use, incorporated into the landscaping; now forming a terrace for an oversized chessboard. The presence of 5 additional water tanks allows storage of up to 120,000 litres of rainwater.

Energy and consumption have also been addressed with a ‘butterfly’ roof capturing winter sun – and allowing for a number of solar panels – and polished concrete floors in the extension providing thermal mass. Herb and vegetable gardens have also been developed, aiding the owners in self-sufficiency.

Report of Workshop on
NATIONAL BUILDING CODE OF INDIA 2005
jointly organized by BIS and  IE(I) at Ghaziabad on 15 May 2010
 

As a part of the series of workshops being organized by the Bureau of Indian Standards (BIS) for implementation and dissemination of information about the National Building Code of  India 2005, a Workshop on NBC 2005 (21st in the series) was organized jointly by BIS and the Institution of Engineers (India), Ghaziabad Local Centre on 15 May 2010 at Ghaziabad.

   
The Workshop was inaugurated by Shri Narendra Kumar Chaudhary, Vice Chairman, Ghaziabad Development Authority who informed that the revised NBC 2005 is a state-of-the-art document catering to the requirements for safe and sustainable development of our cities and towns.  He mentioned that there is an ever increasing pressure on housing requirements in the cities due to continued urbanization. Under the situation, it is particularly important to follow the provisions of NBC 2005 for orderly development so that creation of slum-like situation is awaited. He informed that, considering the number of important improvements made in the revised NBC,  GDA has taken necessary steps to adopt the same in their building byelaws.  He spoke about Govt’s resolve to transform Ghaziabad and other cities of Uttar Pradesh into modern cities and example of safe and sustainable development. He assured that the revised Building Code - NBC 2005 would be effectively implemented and enforced in the city of Ghaziabad at the earliest.  He advised the professionals and the builders of the city to abide by the sound provisions of the Code in all sincerity for ensuring safe, economical and efficient construction.  Shri A.K. Saini, Scientist & Head (Civil Engg), BIS in his Key-Note Address informed about the background leading to revision of the Code as NBC 2005.  He explained about the major points of revision considered in the exercise of Code and important new areas covered therein including those relating to energy conservation, sustainability, rural and hilly areas, new approach to address fire and structural safety and developments in building and plumbing services.  He explained how NBC serves as model code and a single reference document for adoption by the land and building development authorities, govt and private construction agencies and the building professionals. He also dwelled on the extensive efforts made by BIS for awareness and effective implementation of the Code by all the stakeholders.  In this regard, the efforts made by BIS by approaching the Central Government, all the State Governments, Housing Finance Institutions, Academic Institutions, etc for the purpose were also informed. He advised all the participants to make full use of the interactive technical sessions of the Workshop.

Earlier, Shri R.K. Bansal, Chairman, IE(I) Ghaziabad Local Centre, extended a warm welcome to the dignitaries, speakers and the delegates.  He informed about the activities of IE(I) Ghaziabad Local Centre and the efforts made by BIS and IE(I) in organizing the Workshop.  Shri Manoj Mittal, Convener of the Workshop while giving the programme objectives mentioned that the revised NBC 2005 in view of its vast coverage of all relevant issues right from building planning till maintenance and energy efficiency, sustainable development and disaster management, has brought paradigm shift in the construction scenario which is presently seeing an unprecedented scale of building construction.  Therefore, it is important that such a valuable Code be implemented in all sincerity. He emphasized on the need for effective implementation of the Code to bring quality culture in construction activities in the State and spoke about relevance of the Code to the city of Ghaziabad.  He explained the background for organizing the Workshop and felt that the same would be of immense value to the local authorities framing building bye-laws and the building professional like architects, engineers, structural engineers and town planners alike in understanding and implementing the Code.  

Shri S.S. Jain, Chairman, Inderprastha Engineering College admiring the comprehensive contents of the Code mentioned that, for safety of structures it is imperative that the provisions of the Code should be adhered in all sincerity.  He however, emphasized that the provisions on low income housing enshrined in the Code were particularly important so that the fruits of technological developments could be percolated down to the lowest strata of the society in meeting their vast requirement of housing. He spoke about the commitment of the Inderprastha Engineering College in giving due cognizance to NBC 2005 in their civil engineering curriculum.  

Shri Sanjay Pant, Director, BIS gave the framework of the latest revised Code brought out under the leadership of Padmashri Dr. H.C. Visvesvaraya, Chairman, NBC technical committee of BIS. Briefly informing about the genesis of the Code in 1970 at the instance of Planning Commission and subsequent revisions thereof, Shri Pant brought out the important dimension of actual implementation of revised NBC 2005 so that all the improvements and technological developments as reflected in the Code could percolate down to common masses. He suggested following a multi-pronged strategy involving adoption of the revised Code by the local authorities, adoption by Govt construction departments, implementation by private construction agencies, copious use by building professionals, inclusion in engineering and architecture curricula, and organizing a nation-wide awareness and implementation campaign.    He brought out as to how best our aim of safe and sustainable habitat could be achieved through proper direction and how NBC 2005 could be effectively utilized for the purpose.

Shri Anil Garg, Chief Engineer, GDA and Shri G.S. Goyal, Chief Architect, GDA also shared the dais.  Also, Shri S.C. Gaur, Town Planner, GDA took this opportunity to inform about the initiatives taken by GDA in adopting NBC 2005 and informed that bye-laws 2008 of U.P. incorporated provisions of NBC 2005. Shri A. Saurikhia, Hony Secretary & Organizing Secretary of the Workshop presented a hearty vote of thanks to the dignitaries, speakers, delegates, sponsors and the electronic and print media.

In the Technical Sessions, the various speakers presented details about different parts and sections of the Code and particularly explained the important modifications made in this revision. Shri Sanjay Pant, Director, BIS and Member-Secretary, BIS technical committee on NBC, in the first technical session, gave an overview of NBC 2005 including the application and philosophy of 26 chapters covered under 11 parts and section/subsections thereunder.  It was explained that NBC 2005 contained latest provisions for planning, design and construction of all types of buildings particularly the techno-legal mechanism for safety against natural and man-made disasters such as earthquake and fire.  It is now for the state authorities such as town and country planning department, development authorities, municipal corporations, other local bodies and fire authorities to implement this Code by revising and revamping the concerned Act and local building byelaws to bring the same in line with NBC 2005.  The same thereafter also requires effective implementation.  Bringing home the point that it is not the disaster but the badly planned, designed and constructed buildings that kill people, it was explained how the Code could be effectively utilized at state level by the authorities and Govt and private construction agencies to help erect safe buildings and protect life and property of our citizens particularly in the event of a natural calamity.  He also dwelled on the further review and revision being taken by BIS particularly relating to the chapter on Fire & Life Safety and a new chapter being introduced on Sustainability. 

Shri V. Suresh, Vice-Chairman of NBC Committee & former CMD, HUDCO explained the provisions on administration, development control rules and general building requirements covered in the Code which form the main part of the local building byelaws, and explained in detail the implementation aspects of overall provisions of NBC 2005 by the state authorities.  He explained the current trend of urbanization in the country and the need for following the provisions of the Building Code for ensuring safe and orderly development of our burgeoning cities.  He highlighted as to how the Code caters to the requirements of all geographical situations; socio-economic classes including the weaker/low income / marginalized/ disadvantaged apart from middle and high income groups; and serves as a tool for regulating the building activity as a part of techno-legal and techno-financial regime.        

Shri S.K. Dheri, Convener of the NBC Panel on Fire Protection and a well known expert in fire safety explained how the codal provisions could be utilized to plan, design and construct buildings which are safe in the event of fire by appropriately implementing the provisions on fire prevention, life safety and fire protection measures given in the Code.  He said, these are particularly important for cities like Ghaziabad, where malls, multiplexes and high rise buildings are coming up. He explained about various lessons learnt in the major incidences of fire taken place in different parts of the country.

Shri Jose Kurian, Convener of the NBC Panel on Masonry and Chairman of BIS Committee on Cement and Concrete and an expert in structural design including earthquake resistant design, gave a detailed presentation on structural design of buildings for safety against various loads, forces and effects including the natural disasters like earthquake. He also highlighted various dos and don’ts and good practices for safe design and construction of buildings and explained illustratively the provisions of the Code.  He advised the structural engineers to meticulously take care of the very practical guidelines and the provisions given in the Code.       

Shri Sandeep Goel, Member of the NBC Panel on Plumbing Services, explained in detail the provisions on water supply, drainage, sanitation, solid waste management and gas supply given in the revised Code.  He discussed the various modifications made and basis thereof in the revised Code including those relating to important aspects of recycle and reuse of waste water, rain water harvesting and efficient use of water in general.  During all technical sessions, lot of interactive discussions were held with the participants and their queries were resolved.

In the Concluding Session, it was emphasized that it is essential to implement the provisions of NBC 2005 in letter and spirit so that the technological developments percolate down to poorest of the poor. The necessity of educational utilization of NBC 2005 and other Indian Standards in Engineering and educational curriculum was also emphasized. The importance of dissemination of information and implementation efforts for the Building Code through the effective network available with the IE(I) throughout the country was stressed upon. 

Shri Sanjay Pant, Director, BIS gave the Report of the Workshop and thanked all for the success of the event.  He emphasized on adopting the structured approach enshrined in NBC 2005 for safe and orderly development of our villages, towns and cities.  As the Code contains all the essential provisions for safe design and construction of building in rural as well as the urban areas, the workshop strongly recommended for its effective implementation in the State of Uttar Pradesh.  The delegates thanked BIS and IE(I) for arranging such a comprehensive exercise of dissemination of information about the revised Building Code.

To view the Recommendations report, please login with your username and password below. New Users, register for free to access this report.

Dubai is the unofficial capital of the world of great architecture; be it towering commercial buildings, luxury resorts or multi-storeyed hotels and condominiums, there is no dearth of awe-striking buildings in Dubai. The hot, desert-like climate and terrain in Dubai is offset rather pleasantly by some of the world’s coolest constructions!

The Cloud

The Cloud Resort in Dubai resembles a cloud floating 300 meters above the ground, with slanting support beams that look like sheets of rain. A cloud if often construed as a place or an element where extreme imagination manifests itself. The Resort named after this very element is one of a series of Gulf region projects created by Nadim Karam - a Lebanese architect. It is a horizontal structure on an elevated platform - an antithesis to the sum of skyscrapers spread over the region. The Cloud appears to be a combination of a skyscraper and an island.

The Cloud isn’t just about beauty, imagination and luxury. Standing in the air, covering 20000m2 of landscape-in-the-sky, The Cloud comprises a lake, gardens, rotating bridges, spiralling walkways and terraces, an auditorium and sky-sports platform. The Cloud is approached on ground level from an esplanade with a pool reflecting a forest of inclined columns, and reaching up to the huge, translucent floating island. Access to the Cloud is gained through a few non-inclined tubular shafts, which double up as structural support.

IPad Tower

Omniyat Properties is all set to construct a 23-story luxury tower inspired by none other than Apple's iPod. Slated to be built in Business Bay, the "iPad residential tower" was scheduled to house more than 200 homes and office, and was "designed by Hong Kong-based architects James Law Cybertecture International." The high-rise will sit atop a docking station angled at six degrees to give the exact look of an iPod.

Upon completion, this tower will reach a height of 800+ meters. It is estimated as worth 3 billion Dirhams ($ 800 million) – the cost of its construction. The exterior is strikingly similar to a piece of circuit board, and the interior is reminiscent of the Jetsons on steroids. The ground floor will be filled with shops restaurants, and it will include an iClub with an aerobics section, lap pool, and Media Jacuzzi.

For a person of his stature, Dr. Panigrahi was more than just humble and down-to-earth. He was approachable and of a jolly disposition; quite an interviewer’s delight.

Earning Carbon Credits in the Green Building sector is the focus of Carbon Minus India (CMI), New Delhi - of which Dr. Panigrahi is Director General. Broadly, the CMI is a body engaged in stabilizing the overall climate of the Earth.

Dr. Panigrahi talked of the criticality of five major points to be kept in mind while creating a building. These were achievement of energy efficiency, water efficiency, the use of green building material, correct building orientation and good landscaping. A builder must be able to get back at least one-fourth to one-third of his investment by earning carbon credits.

While there was no dearth of energy-efficient building materials and equipment, it is imperative that one chooses the right mix and quality of these all-important components of a building, said Dr. Panigrahi. He then spoke with great optimism about glass, much to our delight.

If the right type of glass is used in the right manner in a building, a significant amount of greenhouse gas emission can be reduced, apart from saving the earth from global warming and earning carbon credits, he said.

Watch the video to know more about earning carbon credits and the use of glass to aid this end.

Also follows is a profile of Dr. Panigrahi.

Dr. Srikanta K Panigrahi has obtained his formal degree in Civil Engineering and then received other degrees in Environment Planning, Management & Business Administration from credible Universities of India and abroad including Technical University of Dresden (TUD), Germany and School of Planning & Architecture, New Delhi. He was also an UNEP/ UNESCO Fellow, where he delivered Guest Lectures in five prestigious Universities of Europe at Humburg, Dresden, Prag, Vienna and Zurich.

He has worked for several Organizations of national and international importance, especially with Government of India and the United Nations. In fact, He was the Member-Secretary of a prestigious Working Group at Planning Commission, to prepare the historic “National Action Plan for Operationalising Clean Development Mechanism (CDM) in India“, under the Kyoto Protocol, in the instances of Indian Prime Minister’s Office (PMO). Moreover, he has been representing the country in the Climate Change Negotiations of non-Annex (Developing) Countries in Conference of Parties (COPs), where he specializes on “Climate Change & Development Issues”.

Dr Panigrahi is known as "Chief Architect of Indian Carbon Market "; who was instrumental to initiate Kyoto in India, the entire UNFCCC CoP Process, Climate Change Negotiations and DNA formation and subsequently as it's Member to implement the National Action Plan, which he formulated and Operationalized CDM and it is only because if his personal pursuance and Leadership initiatives; India was first starter of CDM, among developing World and could emerge as Global CDM Leader.

Dr Panigrahi is also awarded National Science Popularisation Award from hon’able Prime Minister of India in 2004-05; for his extraordinary contribution and commitment to popularize Science among common mass, who is working in the areas of Environment Protection, Energy Conservation and Sustainable Development for last more than 21 years.

Creating new cultural and social environment by designing space in a new and dynamic way.

I am very innovative, enthusiast and creative person.

I have designed and executed several Residetial, Residential cum Commercial complexes, Malls, School with International standard, Students hostel, Small-Medium Industrial Complexes.

TODAY’S ARCHITECTS and CLIENTS Architect is not only a combination of art and science but it should be the combination of Art, Science, Scale, Balance, Luxury, Aesthetic, Creativity, Style, Function and Privacy. Architect is like a poet who thinks and speaks in terms of construction. The true work of the Architect is to organize, intergrades and glorify utility. Good planning, sound construction and pleasing appearance are the principle of architect.

Architects are born, God gifted and not made.

People these days spend in millions on their structure but unfortunately our mostly Architects are not capable to fulfill the satisfaction of the users, except few. We Indians are the generation of Architects who have created world class structures just few centuries ago. The history represent the creativity of them even today but their generation have not a fraction of that sense to create aesthetic, luxury, comfort, style, pleasant and symmetry in their architecture where as you have full support of science , art, advanced modern technology and materials, except few.

If you survey today’s structures it is very sad that many Architects have failed to provide for what they are. The structures are lack of pleasing, privacy, function, rydham, comfort, proportion. scale, balance, Harmon, and aesthetic scenes. The design look like a freehand drawing without the principle, proportion and lack of basic demands of mankind. Under the name of Modern architect they are serving you a Modern Art which is beyond the imagination of a common man.

Architecture is not just line work, it is full of vision.
Sense , demands, comfort, pleasant, luxury, style and status. Today most structures are function less, quality less and without privacy. Many users have to travel through the rooms disturbing the privacy of the others. Sometimes even through the kitchen too. Stairs and steps are not comfortable to users. The kitchen is not planned considering the human factors where as a lady have to spend major time in kitchen in uncomfortable condition. The toilets are congested in dimension and lack of facilities which is uncomfortable to users. Were as its purpose itself is for relax and comfort. All these elements are inconvenience and stress producing to the users and Architects making the user’s task difficult instead of comfort.

Beauty in the structure can be achieved in economically by applying aesthetic sense and combination of proper materials, quality finishes and classical effects, as an artist can change the picture by drawing a single line or dot at the proper place. To days Architects are so lucky, they have a tools of Auto Cad and Internet to come in touch with the world. Architect should not be commercial only. They should work for fame, beauty and comfort of mankind. I am not talking about the individual Architect only but like big organizations like Cidco, Hudco and the Government departments which have lack of pleasing, engineering, proper design and far away from quality concept. Structures are from lack of knowledge and experience by the designer.

There is no beauty concept in their design and lack of amenities. Not only buildings and gardens but roads, bridges, dams, hospitals, stadiums should be pleasing and beauty. Any structure whether private or Government should be look like engineered and aesthetically pleasant. To provide pleasant, economical design and space utilization is the responsibility of professional Architect and not the client. Of course client wants elegant and better design than others.

Many times clients have no faith in Architect, so they destroy their structure by consulting their unprofessional friends, relatives. In such a situation clients should consult only professionals, just to avoid loss of millions and patient. Many client use the Architect for permission purpose only and relied on experience masons/contractors who cause them huge loss. Of course Architect is a better option than mason. Don’t compromise in reducing the cost of project by avoiding the supervising architect for the execution of project too. I think in America and developed countries, the clients may get their design cross check by appointing other Architects and get their project executed under the professional supervising authority only. It does not mean that they have no faith in their first architect but they may believe that the 2nd opinions always better option and a Architect is a human being and can commit the mistake which will cause them panic and loss and they have to pay for that.

America and developed countries are so developed because they used professionals in their project from initial to last. And not compromise in initial investment, hence they are so developed and produced beautiful, elegant structures.

I may not be a perfect designer but I strive for comfort, luxury, style, function, privacy, economy and status. As I came close to different national people and their style in foreign countries for 20 years, I always work for comfort, pleasant, style, luxury of mankind and fame. I have a great experience of classical luxury structures and combinations of classical with modern feature base on European and American style.