A solar-powered safari lodge in the Botswana desert in southern Africa, built from repurposed boardwalk boards. An underground apartment anchored by ceiling beams made from plastic bottles and construction earth. A carbon-neutral furniture factory that doubles as a 1 km public park.
These are just some of the latest design-driven buildings that are reimagining sustainable architecture, according to Architectural Digest (AD).
In the face of the climate crisis, the magazine’s international edition presents a series of innovative projects that offer solutions to high carbon emissions, energy consumption and waste of building materials.
“Sustainability as a concept has become a bit too catchy,” AD Global Editorial Director Amy Astley wrote via email.
“We at AD use the word to convey strategies that prioritize longevity, whether looking at a building, a community or our planet, and we go to great lengths to shed light on the ways in which a project strives to be sustainable.”
Among the featured buildings is the Reggio School, an educational facility in Madrid that managed to reduce its use of materials by 48% after Spanish architect Andrés Jaque adopted the structure’s exposed mechanical systems and bare interior walls.
Outside, 80% of the school’s façade is covered with cork — a natural material that favors biodiversity. “The irregular surface of the cork projection was designed to allow the accumulation of organic matter. The building will eventually become the habitat of countless forms of microbiological fungi, plant and animal life”, reads a note from the Jaque architecture office.
“The building will live like a constant transformation,” added Maite Sebastia, head of editorial content for AD in Spain, via email.
Designed by renowned architect Bjarke Ingels, Plus, a new factory from Norwegian furniture brand Vestre, became the first industrial building to receive an “Excellent” rating in Breeam (Building Research Establishment Environmental Assessment Method).
The Breeam measurement system ranks the environmental performance of buildings; according to Ingels, the plant releases 50% less greenhouse gases than comparable facilities.
With an almost ecclesiastical plan, the four wings of the building extend into a 1 km public park designed to attract employees and visitors to enjoy nature. “You can make the world cleaner and fun at the same time,” Ingels told AD.
And a public swimming pool in Lagos, Nigeria has also been hailed as a major urban regeneration project.
First built in 1928 with funding from physician and philanthropist John Randle, the Art Deco facility had been empty since the 1970s. headquartered in Lagos, and is due to reopen this summer as the new John Randle Center for Yoruba Culture & History.
“It’s an impossible task to capture the latest sustainability news in a single article,” AD director of global resources Sam Cochran wrote in an email.
“The bottom line, ultimately, is that every decision we make, and in particular every decision about the built environment, has an impact. But knowing that trade-offs are inevitable, how can we do better?”
Source: CNN Brasil
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