2.5-acre native living roof part of smart building design

It's one of the most expansive and one of the most complex living roofs ever designed- the 197,000-square-foot rooftop is home to 1.7 million native plants-, but the crown on architect Renzo Piano's California Academy of Sciences is more than simply a home for native plant species. It's also an integral part of the smart building design. Up here there are weather stations that report on wind, rain and temperature changes to a central computer. This feedback is used to open and shut the roof's skylights to create automated passive ventilation. In other words, this smart system means the building doesn't need air conditioning.
Original story here: http://faircompanies.com/videos/view/25-acre-native-living-roof-part-smart-bu...

Category:

Howto & Style

Tags:

• green museum
• california academy of sciences
• CA academy of sciences
• green building
• LEED platinum
• renzo piano
• green roof
• living roof
• biomimicry
• native plants
• native landscaping
• daylighting
• passive cooling
• smart building
• urban heat island
• stormwater runoff
• san francisco
• san francisco museum
• science museum
• architecture
• green architecture
• green architect

[lankey32]

Great Ideas ! I would really like to see more of the interior structure.

[kirstendirksen]

@lankey32 I actually filmed the inside, but I put it up as a separate video. I just posted it as a "video response" here. It's called "World's greenest museum: Renzo Piano's CA Academy of Sciences".

[delindsay90210]

The ironic part about this "technology" is it has existed in human building for thousands of years. It's only recently (the past 1-200 years) that human kind went away from this design and into modern stick built super inefficient buildings because of forced air ventilation or "HVAC" (one of the worst inventions of modern society) and "cheap" energy, i.e. coal. I'm glad to see it's resurfacing on a large scale, even if it's one building at a time.

[thatguyoverthere101]

The neighborhood kids used to laugh at me for having weeds on my roof and being to lazy to take care of it. Guess whose laughing now.

[TheVotiveRegent]

@Tompayealive its not "fucking stupid" he said a number of examples that caught my attention (im 14 so dont think im old) like he said, the living roof radiats cool air (unlike normal roofa which radiate hot air.) if this was done in a big city, then the air temputer of the city will be lower, thus the need for A/C would decrease, and money is being saved. then people apend that money which interns boost the economy. thats why its not "fucking stupid" actually your "fucking stupid" for not list

[MbrCpn2037]

This reminds me of the Teletubbies. =) It's a wonderful idea.

[delindsay90210]

@Robbob9933 One ALWAYS has to build a structure to suit the climate/zone one lives in. This example shows a mild climate sustainable building. Thermal mass + Solar orienteering + Geothermal space conditioning + Natural lighting = VASTLY superior living space over stick built modern buildings any day.

[chelseab203]

Ive been there. It's really nice.

[thatguyoverthere101]

@Sapphoria

Oh shit that was you. Message me when your ready to clean your blood off my driveway. Don't you touch my weed i mean weeds again. 

[firebt2]

Cool

[Airsoftmaster415]

That's really cool!

[JordansOnMyFeet831]

But won't the roof become too heavy and cave in?

[Sapphoria]

@thatguyoverthere101 I used to laugh at your roof, too, but then I took an arrow to the knee.