Inhabitat

Splendid! Not only are they willing to use “sustainable” sources (I’d be interested to know what sort of materials they’re considering) but the structure itself echoes the architectural designs I’ve been playing with in my undergrad independent research. I think the future of environmentally integrated architecture will focus heavily on a particular characteristic displayed elegantly in this tower – “Building Up!”. One intrinsic problem with American development is the determination to “Build Out”, to sprawl. Occupying vast regions of ground space requires the major reconstructive surgery of land and water ways, altering the native ecologic systems, and increases the costs of all transportation. By building up we bring ourselves closer to the potentials of wind and solar power, and by introducing bio-air filters (vegetation) to higher levels of altitude we can also have at least a minimal effect on CO2 emissions which otherwise work their way up to the atmosphere. There is so much potential for designs like this.
And this one is absolutely beautiful.
-Liz

I love the look of the building and that’s a really aesthetically appealing way to integrate wind turbines into a structure.

The irony kills me !

Ben, a group of responsible minded people are taking advantage of an opportunity to build an attractive and sustainable design.That’s a very good thing. It’s not the irony that will kill you but the cynicism.

Agree with John . . . cynicism is worse than irony. That said, I guess I don’t understand how a given building — any given building — can honestly be called sustainable. How do we know? We might say that it is frugal in its use of resources, for a building of its size and type, but we’d also have to asky why we need such a building. Not saying there isn’t an answer in this case, but we’d have to ask the question. My suspicion is that few endeavors could be harder to sustain over the really long haul than a major city of tall buildings in the desert. Certainly it’s more responsible to build a tall building in Dubai this way than in the way they’ve been mostly built of late. This much is true, and to be applauded.

And unless this building rotates too, there is no way the turbines can adapt to wind direction change. Unless winds are very stable and constant in Dubai, it is a very unefficient way of collecting wind energy.

And we all know about photovoltaic…. By the time you recover the energy spent just for building them, the tower will be demolished…!

Dubai is a truley amazing place with the building they have built and every year I am amazed by what they are doing.