Paris-based Vincent Callebaut Architecture has come up with a plan for a mixed-use complex located in Cairo that combines vegetation and structure to communicate Egypt's inclination toward progressive architecture, designboom reports. The proposal's main purpose is to raise awareness of sustainable architecture designed to combat global warming.
The roof is solar, and shades green rooftop terraces and sky villas. This conserves energy otherwise needed for cooling, as do the solar panels and heating tubes on the roof.
Nine stories of housing contain 1,000 residential units, all within a series of rectangular volumes situated around a central boulevard, according to designboom. Four stories of underground parking, a supermarket, office space, and three levels of retail space are also included in the complex.
The retail areas will be fronted by a transparent curtain wall punctuated by green walls to indicate the main entrances towards the shopping mall. The roof of the whole development is set as a big community garden comprised of an area of orchards, infinity swimming pools, and sports facilities.
The scheme includes eight specific sustainability features:
1. Windcatchers
2. A passive geothermal cooling system
3. Solar photovoltaic cells, which cover all the solar roof and the west and east facades
4. Solar heater tubes, located on the roof above each core
5. Wind turbines, integrated along the axial spine at both ends of the promenade
6. Roof food gardens cover the whole complex, improving the thermal inertia of the roof
7. Living walls
8. The use of recyclable and/or recycled furniture.
Check out more renderings below, courtesy of Vincent Callebaut Architecture.
Related Stories
| Jun 16, 2014
6 U.S. cities at the forefront of innovation districts
A new Brookings Institution study records the emergence of “competitive places that are also cool spaces.”
| Jun 13, 2014
Gilbane Building Company names new president and chief operating officer
Gilbane Building company hires new president and COO
| Jun 13, 2014
First look: BIG's spiraling museum for watchmaker Audemars Piguet
The glass-and-steel pavilion's spiral structure acts as a storytelling device for the company's history.
| Jun 13, 2014
Grocery stores, restaurants make neighborhoods most desirable [infographic]
John Burns Real Estate Consulting ranks the top 25 housing amenities by generation, based on feedback from more than 20,000 home shoppers.
| Jun 12, 2014
Zaha Hadid's 'gravity defying' Issam Fares Institute opens in Beirut
The design builds upon the institute’s mission as a catalyst and connector between AUB, researchers and the global community.
| Jun 12, 2014
Tod Williams Billie Tsien Architects' design selected for new UCSC facility
The planned site is a natural landscape among redwood trees with views over Monterey Bay, a site that the architects have called “one of the most beautiful they have ever worked on.”
| Jun 12, 2014
Austrian university develops 'inflatable' concrete dome method
Constructing a concrete dome is a costly process, but this may change soon. A team from the Vienna University of Technology has developed a method that allows concrete domes to form with the use of air and steel cables instead of expensive, timber supporting structures.
| Jun 11, 2014
David Adjaye’s housing project in Sugar Hill nears completion
A new development in New York's historic Sugar Hill district nears completion, designed to be an icon for the neighborhood's rich history.
| Jun 11, 2014
Bill signing signals approval to revitalize New Orleans’ convention center corridor
A plan to revitalize New Orleans' Convention Center moves forward after Louisiana governor signs bill.
| Jun 11, 2014
5 ways Herman Miller's new office concept rethinks the traditional workplace
Today's technologies allow us to work anywhere. So why come to an office at all? Herman Miller has an answer.