Glenn Katz
One innovative feature I am interested in incorporating in the design of my exhibition center is green roofs and vertical gardens. These have many positive benefits on making the building more sustainable by helping regulate the buildings temperature. The plants absorb sunlight and help reduce the urban heat island effect. They also catch people’s attention and represent what can be done with building design in terms of pushing the limits to aim for sustainability. Another positive impact is their ability to create an ecosystem and bring in pollinators and birds. Also, these gardens absorb excess rainwater to prevent flooding. In order to ensure the gardens will thrive without the need of excess water, native plants that naturally thrive in the environment will be planted to ensure it will flourish without much maintenance. The roof will also have a rain catcher system to reuse water for things like toilets.
Another goal I have is to design a building that is as close to zero net energy as possible. To achieve this I plan to use a similar heating and cooling system to the Ministry of Environment and Forest in India. It has an atriums to create cross and stack ventilation and keep the air flowing through the building. It also has trees inside to regulate the temperature. It also uses geothermal technology to cool water to cool the building. This building is one of the few zero net energy buildings in the world. The atriums will also bring in fresh air and help maintain a healthy indoor environment in terms of air quality.
Another innovative idea I want to think of incorporating is the use of turbines on my building to generate more clean energy. These along with solar panels will hopefully generate enough energy for my building. Also to limit energy consumption I plan to keep the building relatively narrow to allow sunlight to shine throughout the majority of the building. This along with the atrium will hopefully bring in enough natural light that I will not need as much artificial light during the day. I will also ensure to use adequate shading on all the windows to not bring in unnecessary direct light and heat the building, but instead the light will be reflected into the space. Other ideas I had were the possibility of using mass timber to reduce greenhouse gas emissions of the construction aspect as well.