This article is the tenth and final part of a multi-part series, where I have been looking into the world’s greenest buildings. It is based off the book of the same name by Yudelson and Meyer.

I found the book to be hugely inspirational when I read it, and it comes highly recommended form me. If this shortlist of my 10 favourites has whetted your appetite, I strongly recommend that you get yourself a copy. Despite being published in 2013, there is still a lot of good ideas and strategies to create sustainable buildings to be found inside.

Zero Energy Building, Building and Construction Authority

This week we will be looking at the aptly named Zero Energy Building, which is occupied by the Building and Construction Authority of Singapore.

This building stood out for its stunning focus on creating a zero energy building in the tropics and for the integration of a number of passive and active features to help make this possible.

Like other buildings that made it into the book, you only get results like this if sustainability is a primary focus at the outset. The occupier, the Singapore Building and Construction Authority is the government agency responsible for delivering on the nation’s 2030 green building targets. So it was important for their flagship development to have the strongest sustainability credentials possible.

It was the first net-zero energy building in Singapore and in terms of domestic certifications, it was awarded the Singapore Green Mark Platinum certification.

Three passive design strategies were used to minimise energy demand, these include minimizing heat transmittance into the building, bringing daylighting deep into the space and the use of natural ventilation techniques.

Gazing was also a primary focus, to reduce energy demand. Several types were used as the building was being used as a laboratory for technologies that were at the time extremely new. Sadly, years later, many new buildings are being designed and built without these technologies being added to them.

The multiple glazing technologies deployed on the Zero Energy building include: electrochromic glass, building integrated PV, double glazed units and clear double glazed units. There has been significant development in all of these areas recently and they are all deserving of a dedicated article in themselves.

Three daylighting techniques used include mirror ducts, light shelves and light pipes. These all serve to maximise the amount of natural light that is available within the building, so that less electricity is required for lighting.

These integrate nicely with the active features, which automatically adjust the lighting intensity according to daylighting levels. Additionally, smart lighting sensors throughout the building ensure that artificial lighting is only used in rooms when they are occupied.

The building comes equipped with 1,540 sq m of photovoltaic panels, which are mounted both to the roof and to the façade. Amazingly, these arrays generate 203,000 kWh per year, which thanks to the incredible efficiency of the building, is more electricity than the building consumes. This allows the building to feed excess electricity to the grid and is why this is a real zero energy building.

All of the active and passive techniques combined mean that the building is able to report an energy intensity of only 41 kWh/sq m. But when its domestic electricity production is taken into account, which is 45 kWh/sq m, we can see that the building in fact has an energy surplus with the grid.

What you need to know   

This article is the final part in a multi-part series where I have been picking out my favourite buildings from Yudelson and Meyer’s book The World’s Most Sustainable Buildings.

Today was the turn of looking at the Zero Energy Building in Singapore. Without intending to, I saved my favourite for last.

This building is remarkable for its incredibly low energy intensity and for its domestic energy production, allowing it to be self-sufficient. This is particularly remarkable in the tropics, where the high temperatures ordinarily result in high air conditioning loads and associated energy intensity.  

There is a lot that can be learned today in late 2020 from studying the Zero Energy Building in Singapore.

Thank you for reading,

By Barnaby Nash

Please share your thoughts in the comments section below, or reach out to me on social media. What do you think makes a building a sustainable building?

 Let’s stay connected

I can be reached on LinkedIn and on Twitter @FollowBarnaby

This article is the ninth part of a multi-part series looking into the world’s greenest buildings. It is based off the book of the same name by Yudelson and Meyer. The book came out in 2013, but I still think that a lot can be learnt from the examples contained within it.

As the image below demonstrates, there are some highly sustainable and architecturally stunning buildings in this shortlist, that can act as an inspiration for current and future developments.

School of Art, Design and Media, Nanyang Technological University

This week we will be looking at the School of Art, Design and Media building at Nanyang Technological University in Singapore.

This building stood out for its stunning incorporation into its surroundings, to such an extent that from some angles it is completely hidden.

Like other establishments in this shortlist, a primary driver behind the focus on sustainability was to inspire the students and employees who pass through the building during its lifecycle.

In terms of accreditations, the building received a Green Mark Platinum in Singapore’s national benchmark for sustainable buildings. This is the highest accreditation possible.

One of the guiding principles when designing the building was to create a “non-building building.” This led to the concept of hiding the building within the landscape and under green roofs in order to preserve the maximum amount of green space for the campus.

The green roof is the centrepiece, which the whole building was designed and built around. It is accessible by stairs and is illuminated after dark. During the day, it is so successful that it serves as a gathering space for students.

In terms of water efficiency, to keep the grass alive, it receives water from an irrigation system that is harvested from rainwater.

There are a number of other noteworthy sustainability features in this building. There is a high efficiency air conditioning system and there are motion sensors for lights, with high efficiency light fittings throughout. There is also a passive feature, whereby, the building is oriented with its long axis facades facing North and South to maximise solar gain.

All these features combine to allow the building to report an energy intensity of 134.8 kWh/sq m/year.

What you need to know   

This article is the ninth part in a multi-part series where I am picking out my favourite buildings from Yudelson and Meyer’s book The World’s Most Sustainable Buildings.

Today was the turn of looking at the School of Art, Design and Media building at Nanyang Technological University in Singapore.

This building stood out for its green roof, which is the best I have ever seen. There are also a number of other active and passive systems, that allow it to report an extremely low energy intensity. This is especially impressive for a building in the tropics, which would ordinarily have significant cooling costs.

Thank you for reading,

By Barnaby Nash

Please share your thoughts in the comments section below, or reach out to me on social media. What do you think makes a building a sustainable building?

 Let’s stay connected

I can be reached on LinkedIn and on Twitter @FollowBarnaby

This article is the eighth part of a multi-part series looking into the world’s greenest buildings. It is based off the book of the same name by Yudelson and Meyer. The book came out in 2013 and was based on buildings that had been created before that date and could provide a years’ worth of utility data. Despite this, there is still a lot that can be learned from these buildings and best practices in sustainable design that can be made standard practice.

Keio University Hiyoshi Campus Fourth Building, Yokahama

This week we will be looking at the Keio University Hiyoshi Campus Fourth Building in Yokahama, Japan.

This building stood out for its commitment to place making. Buildings have the opportunity of being a destination in themselves, but they also have the opportunity of uplifting and contributing to the enhancement of their surroundings.

I don’t know if the name got lost in translation, but it is a bit dull. Despite this, the building looks excellent and has a number of interesting sustainability features that allow it to produce superior performance.

Like a lot of the buildings on this shortlist, it was designed with an atrium. This is maintained with stack effect ventilation and wind-driven ventilation, which provides a continuous flow of air with minimal use of fossil fuels. In winter it is sufficient to close the skylight ventilation windows to maintain a comfortable temperature in the atrium.

During the course of the development, the project removed a 8m high retaining wall that previously divided the campus. Removing this created a significant open space that has benefited the town greatly.

The project created further space, which is open to the public and is lined with newly planted trees. When creating the boundary for this new area, demolition arisings from the building that was previously there was used in the new construction.

The building was also designed with vertical double louvers. These work to abate the late afternoon sun to prevent mechanical cooling of the building and also reduce noise and increase privacy for the academic institution.

The building is equipped with a whole host of water efficient features, that includes automatic faucets, low flow faucets and sensor systems. The building captures the rainwater from the large roof area and uses this for the toilets and urinals.

The building is also equipped with a heat recovery ventilation system, this reduces the outdoor air thermal load and contributes to its strong energy performance.

In terms of overall energy performance, all of the passive and technological features combine to allow the building to report an energy intensity of 158 kWh/sq m.

What you need to know   

This article is the eighth part in a multi-part series where I am picking out my favourite buildings from Yudelson and Meyer’s book The World’s Most Sustainable Buildings.

Today was the turn of looking at the Keio University Hiyoshi Campus Fourth Building in Yokahama, Japan.

This building has delivered a very strong environmental performance and contributed to the uplifting of its surroundings. Place making is a challenge that many developments struggle with, but this university buildings has managed to make a great success of this.

In terms of looks, I think that the building has a very striking look, that is appealing. There is a good combination of features that all contribute to its low energy intensity.

Thank you for reading,

By Barnaby Nash

Please share your thoughts in the comments section below, or reach out to me on social media. What do you think makes a building a sustainable building?

 Let’s stay connected

I can be reached on LinkedIn and on Twitter @FollowBarnaby

This article is the seventh part of a multi-part series looking into the world’s greenest buildings. It is based off the book of the same name by Yudelson and Meyer. I learned a lot from reading the book, there are a lot of best practices out there that have yet to become commonplace.

Eawag Forum Chriesbach, Dubendorf

This week we will be looking at the Eawag Forum Chriesbach building in Dubendorf in Switzerland.

This building stood out for its integrated design, where a number of complementary technologies were used to create a building with outstanding levels of performance.

The building is occupied by Eawag, which is the Swiss Federal Institute of Aquatic Science and Technology. Like most of the buildings on this shortlist, sustainability and wellbeing were front and centre in the decision making process when the building was being designed.

The corridors are 3 times as wide as normal corridors and were designed as spaces where collaboration and spontaneous conversations can take place.

One of the things that I found most eye catching about the building was its façade. Even though the building is box like in nature, this is more than compensated with by the stunning façade. This shimmering aqua façade changes in appearance depending on the light conditions. Various styles were tested and the one that was chosen was selected because it optimised daylighting and thermal gain. The louvers in the façade move to follow the sun during the day and can be set to allow more sunlight in in the winter and less in in summer.

Like quite a few buildings on the shortlist, the building uses an atrium to regulate temperatures and air flow within the building. In the winter, the building uses energy to heat the offices and other permanently used rooms, but not the circulation spaces in the buffer zone. The atrium is warmed by the sun and by the areas surrounding it with no added energy. In summer, the building is cooled using night flush ventilation.

In general, there are few areas within the building that require mechanical heating. The building was designed in such a way that solar and geothermal gains and internal heating loads such as people, lighting and computers provide enough warmth for most areas.

In terms of electricity, there is a solar PV system on the roof that provides one third of the building’s electricity use, excluding that used for the computer servers.

As the institute that occupies the building is concerned with matters to do with water, there was a desire to create a building that pioneered new techniques in water efficiency. This includes water free urinals, NoMix toilets to separate waste streams. This makes treatment easier for wastewater treatment plants. Rainwater is collected from the roof to reduce potable water demand, to such an extent that it is only required for the kitchen, water fountains and hand washing. Next to the building, there is a rain garden that stores rainwater that is collected from the green roof.

I had not heard of the term rain garden before, but it looks like a really interesting feature that can help to improve biodiversity and to manage rainwater runoff from hard surfaces. I found a really good article by Eawag the occupier of the building in question, which you can find here. I also found a very informative article by the RHS, which you can find here.

Overall, in terms of performance, all of the different solutions that we have looked into allow the building to rely on an energy intensity of 98 kWh/sq m, which is very impressive. Then in terms of water, the building relies on 152 l/sq m.

What you need to know   

This article is the seventh part in a multi-part series where I am picking out my favourite buildings from Yudelson and Meyer’s book The World’s Most Sustainable Buildings.

Today was the turn of looking at the Eawag Forum Chriesbach building in Dubendorf in Switzerland.

This building makes use of a range of technologies, some commonplace, some innovative, but integrates them to create a highly successful sustainable building.

In terms of architecture, I think It is very impressive to look at, the façade in particular is extremely eye catching.

Thank you for reading,

By Barnaby Nash

Please share your thoughts in the comments section below, or reach out to me on social media. What do you think makes a building a sustainable building?

 Let’s stay connected

I can be reached on LinkedIn and on Twitter @FollowBarnaby

This article is the sixth part of a multi-part series looking into the world’s greenest buildings. It is based off the book of the same name by Yudelson and Meyer. I thought the book was excellent, if you are interested in sustainable buildings, I would definitely recommend that you buy and read this book.

TNT Centre, Hoofddorp

This week we will be looking at the TNT Centre in Hoodfddorp, in the Netherlands.

This building stood out for the emphasis the owners placed on connectivity and energy positivity.

The scheme was recognized for its efforts, scoring Platinum in the LEED rating system and achieving a score of 1,005 in the Dutch GreenCalc+ system. It is worth pointing out that in this system buildings with a score of 750 or more achieve the highest energy label category A+++, showing that this is a highly sustainable building.

The building possesses a large atrium, which forms the central meeting space. It is oriented to allow daylight to penetrate the atrium. Within the atrium stepped terraces encourage building users to walk between floors rather than using the elevators.

The building is designed with a fully glazed north façade, whereas the south façade is half closed to prevent overheating in summer.

In terms of occupant wellbeing, smart blinds, zero emission materials and natural ventilation provide a pleasant indoor environment.

The energy system developed for this building stood out for being creative and highly effective. This is comprised of a long-term energy storage system, a biofuel combined heat and power plant and solar panels. The synchronised combination of these three technologies allows the building to be energy positive, distributing surplus heat to other buildings nearby.

This allows the building to report a very impressive energy intensity of 97.8 kWh/sq m.

What you need to know   

This article is the sixth part in a multi-part series where I am picking out my favourite buildings from Yudelson and Meyer’s book The World’s Most Sustainable Buildings.

Today was the turn of looking at the TNT Centre in Hoodfddorp, in the Netherlands.  

This building stood out for its great success in creating a workspace that connects its occupants and for creating a building that is energy positive, to the extent it has a surplus that it can supply to nearby buildings.

I also thought that the exterior and interior design was eye catching, proving that highly sustainable buildings can look good too.

Thank you for reading,

By Barnaby Nash

Please share your thoughts in the comments section below, or reach out to me on social media. What do you think makes a building a sustainable building?

 Let’s stay connected

I can be reached on LinkedIn and on Twitter @FollowBarnaby

This article is the fifth part of a multi-part series looking into the world’s greenest buildings. It is based off the book of the same name by Yudelson and Meyer. I thought the book was excellent and if you can get hold of a copy, it comes highly recommended from me.

Federal Environmental Agency, Dessau

This week we will be looking at the Federal Environmental Agency building in Dessau, Germany. For such an architecturally stunning building, it is a shame that it was not given a better name.

This building made the shortlist principally because of these architectural qualities, which include the main office wing being shaped like a snake shaped loop and a stunning façade. It was able to marry these qualities with good actions on sustainability.

One of the first features that stood out was the glazed sawtooth roof on the atrium. This helps to prevent heat loss from the offices in winter and assists with natural ventilation in the summer.

In addition, a 2,475 – sq-ft, 32-kWp PV system is integrated into the glazing of the sawtooth roof and provides sun protection and power for the building. An additional 4,757 sq ft of PV with 68 kWp of output was installed after the building had opened.

Other services on the roof include 2325 sq ft of vacuum-tube heat-pipe solar collectors, these help to cool parts of the building via an absorption chiller.

In terms of heating, the building is predominantly heated using a geothermal heat exchanger. This consists of 3 miles of underground pipes and was at one point the worlds largest geothermal heat exchanger. Further services include heat recovery equipment attached to the air intake and exhaust systems.

There is no air conditioning in the building, rather the building is cooled with natural ventilation with windows.  In the summer, the earth-to-air heat exchanger helps to supplement this and further cools the building.

The building experienced similar commissioning challenges with other high-performance buildings on this list. But once these were optimised, the building went on to achieve extremely high levels of performance.

The building recorded an energy performance in 2008 of 99.7 kWh / sq m, which is highly impressive for a large building with multiple uses.

What you need to know   

This article is the fifth part in a multi-part series where I am picking out my favourite buildings from Yudelson and Meyer’s book The World’s Most Sustainable Buildings.

Today was the turn of looking at the Federal Environment Agency building in Dessau, Germany.

This building stood out for its marrying of iconic architecture and energy efficiency.

Like other building owners on this list, as the environmental regulator in Germany, they likely felt under pressure to deliver a highly sustainable building that demonstrated their credentials. With this, they have achieved that goal.

Thank you for reading,

By Barnaby Nash

Please share your thoughts in the comments section below, or reach out to me on social media. What do you think makes a building a sustainable building?

 Let’s stay connected

I can be reached on LinkedIn and on Twitter @FollowBarnaby

This article is the fourth part of a multi-part series looking into the world’s greenest buildings. It is based off the book of the same name by Yudelson and Meyer. I thought the book was excellent and it comes highly recommended from me.

Johnson Controls Campus

Out of all the case studies in this book, this one jumped out for its commitment to accelerating sustainability across an entire campus of buildings. The results achieved across the portfolio stood out as being significant.

The Johnson Controls Campus is located in Glendale, Wisconsin. It is reportedly the site with the largest concentration of LEED Platinum buildings.

Similar to the other building owners in this series, Johnson Controls, because of the nature of their business felt under pressure to deliver a campus that pushed the boundaries of sustainable design and construction and with the Glendale campus they have done just that.

The first feature on the campus that jumped out at me was the geothermal system that is used for heating and cooling. Out of town campus facilities have an advantage over their city centre high-rise counterparts. The space that is available and the reduction of underground utility services and underground transportation services like subway lines and tube lines means that the design team can think bigger and implement solutions that would not be possible in a dense urban area.

The geothermal system that was used takes advantage of the earth’s constant temperature to heat or cool the water used by the HVAC equipment. To build this, they drilled 275 wells, which supplies water to the heat pumps and the chillers. Each well was about 100m deep and in total 54.5 km of plastic piping connects the wells to the indoor HVAC equipment. This system reduces winter heating costs by 29% versus a traditional gas boiler and reduces summer cooling costs by 23%.

The campus is also powered with two solar PV systems. There is a 1,452-panel array, which supplies 350 kw and 1,300 sq m of thin film PV cells generate 135 kw.

One of the most impressive features was the efficiency with which the campus supplies its lighting. The national average in the United States is 1.5 watts per sq ft, whereas the Johnson Controls Campus only consumes 0.45-0.65 watts per sq ft.

This was achieved with 70+ skylights that bring in natural light. There are also automatic adjusters on the window shades that vary to keep the building well lit with the least amount of artificial lighting.

All the building operating systems are tied into an intelligent BMS, which has more than 51,000 data points. This allows the temperature and lighting to be accurately monitored and controlled from a single point on the campus, with or without human intervention.

Some other features that I liked and that I thought were interesting include: green roofs on the buildings, low flow water fixtures, rainwater harvesting which is used to flush the toilets and a solar thermal system which supplies 30% of the hot water needs of two buildings.

A success point of the campus development, saw energy use fall by 21%, even though the amount of office space doubled. This allows the campus to rely on a normalised energy use of 255 kWh/sq m.

What you need to know   

This article is the fourth part in a multi-part series where I am picking out my favourite sustainable buildings from Yudelson and Meyer’s book The World’s Most Sustainable Buildings.

Today was the turn of looking at the Johnson Controls Campus in Glendale, Wisconsin.

I though it was impressive how sustainable initiatives were used across the campus to drive down energy and water use, while maintaining it as an attractive location to work.

As a company that produces technology for the built environment, they no doubt felt under pressure to create a campus that highlighted their sustainability credentials and with this, they have achieved that.

Thank you for reading,

By Barnaby Nash

Please share your thoughts in the comments section below, or reach out to me on social media. What do you think makes a building a sustainable building?

 Let’s stay connected

I can be reached on LinkedIn and on Twitter @FollowBarnaby

This article is the third part of a multi-part series looking into the world’s greenest buildings. It is based off the book of the same name by Yudelson and Meyer. I thought the book was really good and the last two parts have been well received.

Great River Energy Headquarters

Out of all the case studies in this book, this one jumped out for its commitment to generating energy on site. This is not surprising as the owner and occupant is an energy company.

The Great River Energy Building is located in Maple Grove Minnesota. It was commissioned by its owner Great River Energy, who are the second largest electricity supplier in Minnesota.

At the origins of the building there was an ambition to push the boundaries of sustainable design and construction. As an energy company, they wanted the new headquarters to be a showpiece of efficiency and to contribute to an evolution in green design.

 As the building was in an out of town location, the company negotiated a deal with the local transport authority to allow employees to park at the old office and get a bus to the new office. Out of town campuses allow a degree of space that can make on site renewable electricity generation possible. But can increase transport costs for employees, this solution resolved that.

The building comes equipped with some really impressive features to deliver on their energy efficiency ambitions.

One of these was daylighting. To maximise this, the building’s long axis runs east-west, orienting most of the glass to face the north and south, reducing solar gain on the east and west sides.

The need for artificial lighting is recued further by having narrow floor plates that allow daylight to reach the building’s core.

Further measures include atriums that bring light into the centre, walls are lower to facilitate more light reaching workstations and windowed interior walls bring in natural light from the perimeter. There is also a whole host of smart lighting technologies to further reduce electricity demand for lighting as well as high performance window coatings.

These all contribute to a 40% reduction in lighting energy demand.

One unique feature that the building has is a lake-source geothermal heating and cooling system, combined with underfloor displacement ventilation.

Interestingly, the lake is man made. The system works to extract heat from the building in summer and absorb warmth from the lake in the winter. The building has 70 heat pumps, which is the main mechanical system. Despite the conditions in Minnesota, the building does not have a chiller or a boiler.

The building also has an eye catching 200-kW wind turbine, combined with solar arrays, mounted both at ground and roof level, which together generate 6% of the building’s energy.

The building comes equipped with a highly intelligent building management system. This monitors lighting levels, temperature, CO2 concentrations, and occupancy levels and adjusts accordingly to minimise the amount of energy required. This contributes to the overall reduction in energy use of 40%.

The plumbing system uses rainwater harvesting and low flow fixtures to reduce water use by 74%. There is a 75,700L underground cistern that collects rainwater and snow melt for the building.  This water is then sanitised and use for toilets and urinals.

Post occupancy the building underwent a lengthy 2-year commissioning period to make the necessary adjustments and to understand the building’s performance under real life conditions.

The building was able to achieve the following energy performance. It has a total annual energy use of 3,086,814 kWh with an intensity of 200 kWh/sq m.

What you need to know   

This article is the third part in a multi-part series where I am picking out my favourite sustainable buildings from Yudelson and Meyer’s book The World’s Most Sustainable Buildings.

Today was the turn of looking at the Great River Energy Headquarters building in Maple Grove Minnesota.

This building stands out for its commitment to generating energy on site. The lake-source geothermal heating system and rainwater harvesting systems are also very innovative and effective.

As an out of town office building the looks are not as important as the footfall close to the building is not that high. That being said, I find the wind turbine and solar arrays eye catching and they more than make up for the box like nature of the building.

The building makes use of a number of sustainable design techniques to make real energy and carbon savings making it a highly sustainable building.

Thank you for reading,

By Barnaby Nash

Please share your thoughts in the comments section below, or reach out to me on social media. What do you think makes a building a sustainable building?

 Let’s stay connected

I can be reached on LinkedIn and on Twitter @FollowBarnaby