Green Tower Does Away with Hallways
by Mairi Beautyman, Berlin, Germany on 02.12.08
Jean Nouvel's vision of a green future doesn't include hallways. The big-name French architect and designer has a skinny and controversial $400-million, 45-story luxury condo tower on the boards for Los Angeles, and the design allows elevators to access condos directly.
If built, the tower is expected to land LEED certification from the U.S. Green Building Council, thanks to its thin design and pedestrian access (the latter is much debated).
With dimensions at 600 feet tall, 325 feet wide 50 foot deep, the daylight pours in, says Nouvel, who calls it a "green blade." Residents will be able to keep lights off during the day and benefit from natural ventilation.
Terraces will be on each floor and units will have private gardens. A 40,000-square- foot garden will be planted at the base of the building.
"Each residence is designed as a home in the sky surrounded by an abundance of plants and flowers but with no visual limits to the spectacular views of the city, mountains and ocean," Nouvel says. We wonder what they have planned for emergency access. ::The Los Angeles Times via ::YahooNews Also see Nouvel's ::Quai Branly Museum in Paris More on towers ::Green Tower Criticized as Phallic ::Bill McDonough's Tower of Tomorrow ::Hearst Tower Leed Certified in “Gold”
Images courtesy of The Los Angeles Times
50 foot deep? That's reaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaally thin for such a tall building. Won't it, like fall over when someone breaks wind?
i don't really know much about physics, so i could be wrong here, but - LA has lots of quakes, right? and a short, squat shape would be more secure than a tall, thin tower during a quake? i can't imagine i'd even feel safe visiting someone in that.
As long as the structural engineers do their job the building shouldn't fall down given the proper seismic response spectra. California has the most stringent structural requirements of all the states.
Stairs would be compulsory on most (not to say all buildings) for emergency evacuation purposes. But, putting, safety issues aside, how GREEN is actually forcing people to take the elevator rather than the stairs?
Moreover, hallways, and all other internal common areas require minimal heating, and lighting can be also minimised using motion/night sensors...
Why luxury condos? Isn't that all sort of played out?
And wouldn't 600 ft tall put it right at the thickest of the smog of LA - still #1 in air pollution? I wouldn't think pumping water up 600 ft would be very green.
Actually...Short and squat is the worst for earthquake design because of the short deflection period which leads to more vigorous and violent shaking. A tall thin building will sway and absorb te energy rather than be rattled apart.
the la times gives the prospective price of such ultra luxury condos: millions +...
who cares about such buildings?
a fantastic house
stop worrying about the earthquakes, that's what moment frames are for. Basically a building can be designed to either hold steady during a quake (that's your short, squat building), or to flex a little and sway with it so that nothing actually breaks (that's your tall skinny building). It's been done for years and years, so don't worry.
I like the no-hallways approach: it's been done in NY for a long time with fine results, and this way you fit more living space per floor instead of the hallways taking up 10-15% of it.
The idea of removing hallways is all about efficiency. Reduced square footage of built and conditioned space reduces energy loads and embodied energy.
Without a doubt in my mind there will be emergency egress stairs which will probably be used for going up as well as down, but let's face it, they will be used never. There have been great advances in elevator design and engineering and they have become very efficient, even regenerating electricity on descent instead of breaking.
But the bigger issue no one has commented on yet is the excess of lifestyle that leads to excessively sized and built homes and offices. Reduce!
Very interesting!!!
People in wheelchairs can't take the stairs guys.
I wonder how much energy is used in controlling the elevators?
Hey cool as the lighting aspect is, a huge glass building equates to a lot of sun. in one of the hottest regions in the nation you would think that conditioning the building would be very very inefficent.