GreenClips.160 01.31.01 INNOVATIVE AUSTRIAN APARTMENT TOWER SOARS AND SLANTS Wolf Prix and Helmut Swiczinsky, principals of Coop Himmelblau, have designed a 25-story concrete-frame apartment tower that may be Vienna's most significant "green" building. The dramatically sloped facades of the SEG building serve as part of a simple, but effective, passive climate-control system. The tower's leaning profile lends variety to the footprints of individual apartments, and is angled in plan to take advantage of prevailing wind currents and the path of the sun. On the southwest facade, balconies are fitted with windows that can be opened manually, extending Vienna's outdoor season into the winter for the apartments. On the adjacent south-facing side of the building, the architects cantilevered balconies within a leaning, all-glass 14-story "climate lobby" fitted with computer-controlled louvers. Internally the structure behaves like a lung. The climate lobby, an air exchange box on the roof, and an elevator shaft work together to circulate warm and cool air in summer and winter. The louvered wall effectively forms a chimney that exhausts up through a vent at the top of the space. The rising hot air draws cool air through a vent off an elevator shaft. As on the southwest facade, the louvered wall acts to condition the air that forms a protective environmental blanket around the main structure. Architecture, Jan 01, p 44, by Joseph Giovannini. [More: http://www.coop-himmelblau.at] UK ARCHITECTS FIRST TO RECEIVE ISO 14001 CERTIFICATION UK architecture firm Nicholas Grimshaw & Partners has adapted the international ISO 14001 environmental management standard, usually used by industry, to control the environmental impacts of all of its new buildings. The firm claims to be the first major architectural practice to have gained ISO 14001 certification after adapting the standard to fit the building design process. The firm's system ensures that measures to control environmental impacts are considered at each design stage. Environmental impacts are divided into seven categories: humans; flora and fauna; water; landscape; local communities; cultural features; and air and atmosphere, which includes issues like embodied energy, transport and energy in use. The system assigns a score from minus 1 to plus 2 for 12 separate areas, giving a building an overall score of up to 24 points. "I'm sure it could be very useful for other firms," says Grimshaw's Michael Pawlyn, "it encourages an all round, structured approach. There is a tendency to think that if you have included natural ventilation and a few photovoltaic panels then you have done it, but it's become clear that there is so much more to it than that." The system also provides an auditable record of when and how sustainability issues were addressed. [For more information email: communications@ngrimshaw.co.uk.] Building Design, 12 Jan 01, p 8, by Matt Weaver. LANDSCAPE ARCHITECTS EXPERIMENT WITH CAST-OFF MATERIALS Richard Griffin and Clifton Egger, a landscape design team in Jackson, Mississippi, exult in the use of cast-off material in gardens across the South, including a demonstration garden they designed for Mississippi's agricultural museum. Its main purpose was to highlight "tough plants" (those that perform well without pesticides or supplemental water) along with recycled materials. Retaining walls that double as seating are made from concrete rubble from a torn-up sidewalk. Flower beds are lined with upended wine bottles and triple rows of used license plates donated by the county tax collector. A path is paved with slag, a byproduct of a local steel mill. Slag has a similar particle size to crushed granite but packs down more level and sets up almost like concrete. Other recycled materials include tire planters, a loveseat cut from an old claw-foot bathtub, and a large, antique cooking kettle used as a reflective water feature. Most of the garden's plants were "rescued" by volunteer master gardeners from old home demolition sites. All are planted in soil amended with composted manure from the local zoo and mulched with shredded Christmas trees. "It's not that we are deliberately trying to work recycled material into our designs," Griffin says of his team's projects. "We're just trying to find more cost-effective solutions to help make a working landscape affordable." Landscape Architecture, Jan 01, p 30, by Felder Rushing. Building-integrated photovoltaics GAINING GROUND Building-integrated photovoltaics (BIPV), which can replace more traditional building elements while also producing electricity, are now available for most building envelope surfaces. For example, architects can specify photovoltaic shingles, metal standing-seam or exterior insulation systems for the roof. Solar-collecting spandrels, insulated glass units, and sunshade elements are available for curtain-wall systems. And glazing that produces electricity while allowing transparency can be ordered for skylights. BIPV products fall into one of two categories: crystalline and thin-film. The sunlight-to-electricity conversion rate ranges from 11 to 15 percent for crystalline products; and 5.5 to 7.5 percent for amorphous silicon, a thin-film product that has been available for about 15 years. Newer thin-film technologies promise slightly higher efficiencies than amorphous silicon. The average cost for a reasonably sized order of 20 kW (peak) standard factory modules is about $6.25 to $6.50/watt or $71 to $78/square foot for crystalline products; and $5.50/watt or $28/square foot for amorphous silicon. When calculating payback, BIPV proponents recommend considering variables such as the potential reduction in construction costs when BIPV components replace other building products. The federal government offers two incentives to use BIPV products: a 10 percent investment tax credit and a five-year accelerated depreciation. And some states will pay some or all of the BIPV costs. Architectural Record, Jan 01, by Nancy B. Solomon. [Full text: http://www.archrecord.com/CONTEDUC/ARTICLES/01_01_1.asp] . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . GreenClips is free of charge thanks to individual members and these sponsors: COLLINS & AIKMAN FLOORING We choose not to just make carpet but to also make a difference. http://www.powerbond.com ENVIRONDESIGN5 www.environdesign.com. EnvironDesign5, set for April 25 to 27 in Atlanta, GA, is the premier conference showcasing all that is revolutionary about placing environmental stewardship front and center into mainstream America. 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