14 DAY TRIAL // A futuristic green tower project has been entered by a Belgian architect into the Taichung Gateway City competition in Taiwan, with great chances of becoming a reality.
If so, it will cost the Taichung City Government some TWD 6,588,000,000 (about $222M at the current exchange rate) with the estimated date of completion set (EDC) for December 2016.
The concept of the tower is the development of a vertical landscape in the continuity of the park, like a green double ogive Arch, keeping the perspective views clear between the main districts.
Titled ‘Bionic Arch’, Vincent Callebaut’s project comes in the form of a sustainable tower, which would include sightseeing and recreational features, as well as a telecommunication base. Moreover, in order to offer visitors a panoramic view, the observatory would be placed higher than the Dadu Mountain.
An environmental quality monitoring station will be set up for use by related researchers and an R&D base will develop new sustainable energy sources suitable for the Shuinan area.
The tower would be placed at the heart of the Taichung Gateway Park, and would comprise sky gardens, vertically-located green platforms and eco friendly living areas that facilitate a natural interaction between nature and people living in the building.
In fact, the eco-friendly tower answers over nine major requirements for a green building defined by law in the country (planting green, water conservation, daily energy efficiency, carbon dioxide reduction, waste reduction, water resource, wastewater and garbage improvements, protection of biodiversity, and the refinement of the interior environment).
Its creator says the design is based on the integration of all the renewable technologies with a crystalline glass skin made of heat insulation solar glass and photovoltaic cells, and featuring three vertically superposed wind turbines. What’s more, the energetic results are capable of assuring not only the self-functioning of the tower but also the nocturnal lighting of the Gateway Park.
