Architecture and Home Design

This Sears Tower Renovation is designed by Adrian Smith + Gordon Gill Architecture, located in Chicago, United States
According to the U.S Department of State, buildings account for an estimated 36 percent of overall energy use, 65 percent of electricity consumption, 30 percent of all greenhouse gas emissions and 12 percent of water use in America. Green improvements to Sears Tower are aimed at reducing electricity use by 80% in just four years, equating to 68 million kilowatt hours or 150,000 barrels of oil per year. The architects firm responsible for the retro-design, Adrian Smith + Gordon Gill Architecture, has also designed a 50 storey highly sustainable tower to accompany Sears Tower on its south side which will draw power from the improved efficiency measures and work as a net-zero energy development.

Sears Tower’s Chicagoan neighbour, Merchandise Mart, was an earlier example of monumental eco retrofitting in America gaining LEED Silver and becoming the world’s greenest certified commercial building. As the world’s tallest tower for 24 years, the retrofitting of Sears Tower will be a significantly larger undertaking, with all 110 stories incorporated in the changes.

Improvements include removing all 16,000 single-pane windows and swapping with modern replacements, modernizing the tower’s 104 high speed elevators, harnessing renewable energy through turbine and solar technology, introducing green roofs to reduce storm water run-off and improve insulation as well as creating the world’s tallest vistas for tenants and upgrading facilities throughout to use more efficient technology.
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This New Contemporary Family House with Green Technology is designed by Eldridge Smerin.
This house is designed as a new contemporary family house to replace an existing bungalow on 400 square meters site. It’s situated in Ulcombe, Kent. The construction process was optimized as much as possible by prefabrication of many elements. Green technology was used as much as possible in a series of rectangular volumes on two levels around a screened courtyard. Cross laminated solid timber panels form these volumes and finished with panels of slatted timber and glazed. Timber panels also cover a lot of interior walls and have a waxed finish. Two levels of the house are linked by an open spiral staircase of plywood. There are also an indoor swimming pool and double garage on the site.

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Villa Holmenkollen, Wooden House by Reiulf Ramstad Arkitekter, located in Norway.
Villa Holmenkollen is builded on the hill near the Oslo, Norway. The house has total area of 370 square meters including garage and is designed by Reiulf Ramstad Arkitekter. It has quite simple rectangular shape and made of wooden panels and large floor-to-ceiling windows. Such shapes and materials make the house design contemporary and in the same time natural. The views through that windows are amazing. Forests, hills, lakes, everything could be seen while seating in the house’s warmness. All levels are connected by a three-story steel staircase that enhances the feeling of inhabiting the sky. Even though the house is situated at the outskirts of Oslo, the nature around make it worth to drive to work from there every day.

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Sunrise Residence by Stephen Jolson is an old factory renovated into beautiful and practical home combined with working studio. Working in such large space is the dream for many people and Stephen manage to implement it in his home. The factory is located in Grattan Gardens Community in Melbourne so it’s surrounded by very green environment. The home is spread on two floors connected by suspended steel staircase, designed as a soft ribbon that traces a path with built-in lighting. The kitchen, living room, playroom and laundry are situated on the first floor. At the second level is the master bedroom with private bath and walk-in wardrobe, kids room, storage room, bathroom and fitness area. Other part of the factory hosts a study of architecture and interior design, with a staff of 12 people.

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Designed by BURO II, located in Guangzhou, China.
The administration of the booming city of Guangzhou decided to develop a new administrative centre to the north of the downtown area, on the site of the old airport, at the edge of the historical landscape of the Baiyun Mountains. The new congress centre must function as the motor of this new urban process.

The Baiyun highway cuts the mountain park off from the new urban development. The old villages and the new buildings coexist in a chaotic urban conglomerate. Despite the current fragmentation of the site, it does have enormous qualities and potentials. The plot is located there where the historical dialog between the mountain and the city can be renewed within a contemporary society.