A new project proposed for Rotterdam will harness wind to create energy. The Dutch Windwheel will be a wind energy converter that also houses apartments, a hotel, and a roller coaster. According to Gizmag, the windmill was designed to serve not only as an energy icon, but also as a tourist attraction and residential building.
The Dutch Windwheel is a 571-foot structure has two wings. The larger outer ring will house 40 pods on rails that move around the ring and provide views of the city and surrounding port. The inner ring will house 72 apartments, a 160-room hotel on seven floors, a panoramic restaurant, and a viewing gallery.
Using a technology developed at Delft Technical University, the windmill generates energy by harnessing the movement of charged water droplets in the wind. Since there are no parts of the attraction that move, it's essentially silent and easier to maintain than traditional wind turbines. Additionally, the Dutch Windwheel uses photovoltaic thermal hybrid panels to contribute to the generation of electricity.
The project is being planned and developed by the Dutch Windwheel Corporation, a consortium of Rotterdam-based companies: BLOC , DoepelStrijkers, and Meysters. The group says the windwheel could draw around 1.5 million visitors per year.
Related Stories
| Sep 2, 2014
Extreme conversion: 17-story industrial silo to be converted to high-rise housing
As part of Copenhagen's effort to turn an industrial seaport into a bustling neighborhood, Danish architecture firm COBE was invited to convert a grain silo into a residential tower.
| Aug 26, 2014
Ranked: Top industrial sector AEC firms [2014 Giants 300 Report]
Stantec, Jacobs, and Turner top BD+C's rankings of the nation's largest industrial sector design and construction firms, as reported in the 2014 Giants 300 Report.
| Aug 6, 2014
25 projects win awards for design-build excellence
The 2014 Design-Build Project/Team Awards showcase design-build best practices and celebrate the achievements of owners and design-build teams in nine categories across the spectrum of horizontal and vertical construction.
| Aug 4, 2014
Facebook’s prefab data center concept aims to slash construction time in half
Less than a year after opening its ultra-green, hydropowered data center facility in Luleå, Sweden, Facebook is back at it in Mother Svea with yet another novel approach to data center design.
| Jul 28, 2014
Reconstruction market benefits from improving economy, new technology [2014 Giants 300 Report]
Following years of fairly lackluster demand for commercial property remodeling, reconstruction revenue is improving, according to the 2014 Giants 300 report.
| Jul 28, 2014
Reconstruction Sector Construction Firms [2014 Giants 300 Report]
Structure Tone, Turner, and Gilbane top Building Design+Construction's 2014 ranking of the largest reconstruction contractor and construction management firms in the U.S.
| Jul 28, 2014
Reconstruction Sector Engineering Firms [2014 Giants 300 Report]
Jacobs, URS, and Wiss, Janney, Elstner top Building Design+Construction's 2014 ranking of the largest reconstruction engineering and engineering/architecture firms in the U.S.
| Jul 28, 2014
Reconstruction Sector Architecture Firms [2014 Giants 300 Report]
Stantec, HDR, and HOK top Building Design+Construction's 2014 ranking of the largest reconstruction architecture and architecture/engineering firms in the U.S.
| Jul 27, 2014
Maturing ‘plug and play’ sector could take market share from AEC Giants [2014 Giants 300 Report]
The growth of modular and containerized data center solutions may eventually hinder the growth of traditional data center construction services.
| Jul 27, 2014
Top Data Center Construction Firms [2014 Giants 300 Report]
Holder, Turner, and DPR head Building Design+Construction's 2014 ranking of the largest data center contractors and construction management firms in the U.S.
