Taiwan’s Eco Arc — Green Architecture In Action

Posted: March 25th, 2012 | Author: | Filed under: Green Initiatives, Green Technology | Tags: , , , , , , | No Comments »

TAIWAN’S ECO ARC MAKES A STUNNING STATEMENT ABOUT RECYCLING IN TODAY’S WORLD.

Arthur Huang. Young, smart, and committed to building a better world.

While we tend to think of the Chinese culture as something very old and traditional, the young Chinese architects of Taiwan are anything but. Recently one of these young architects, Arthur Huang, was profiled on an episode of the Megastructures on the National Geographic Channel. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Arthur_Huang

His idea was to build the world’s lightest eco friendly building, mainly of something called polli-bricks, injection moulded bottles made entirely of recycled plastic drink containers. The commission, for the Far Eastern Group, was to build a completely sustainable and completely deconstructable building that would initially be used as a pavilion for the 2010 Taipei International Expo. The Building would then be taken down and reconstructed in various locations around the world and would serve as a shining example of sustainability and recycling, not to mention Chinese architectural innovation.

Impressive Specs

The ECOArks walls, painstakingly assembled from injection moulded recycled drink bottles.

The 130 metre long and 26 metre high building itself is a true architectural wonder. Nicknamed the EcoARK and composed of 1.5 million polli-bricks, bonded together, by a small amount of silicon into 3 metre square panels, the building was engineered to withstand large earthquakes and typhoons. It is also designed to be self -heating and cooling, using the power of both the sun and the wind in innovative ways.

The pavilion includes an amphitheatre, museum space and a screen of falling water collected during rainy periods for air conditioning. The clear plastic containers in the wall allow natural light to flood the cavernous interior.

Douglas Hsu, Chairman of the Far Eastern Group is quoted as saying ,“EcoARK is the world’s lightest, movable, breathable environmental miracle,”

Today’s Technology Builds A Modern Classic 

The story of the design and construction of this unique building is an incredible example of how, with today’s technology, recycling can play a major role in building and home construction. And the raw materials available to anyone wishing to build with them are abundantly available from the recyclable plastics, wood and metals that are all around us.

To view a series of videos on EcoARK
http://natgeotv.com/ca/megastructures-eco-ark/videos/construction