He gave a few wonderful examples of how sharing databases around the world connects information and leads us to greater understanding of all things on a global scale. The explosion of databases available online since that speech has been rather noticeable, even when simply browsing nonchalantly on the web. Most of these databases utilize the wiki system, including one known as the Green Building Brain a project of the Open vGreen Building Society.

The Green Building Brain is a free to use and add to online database, designed to showcase green building practises, resources, planning tools and more. It is currently still in a beta version, at greenbuildingbrain.org. According to its agenda the goal of the site is to provide green builders, and enthusiasts alike with a place to store and share “an evolving repository of green building knowledge.” The primary piece of the interface is going to be the World Green Building Map.

There will be a large variety of Web 2.0 features including, RSS feeds, tagging, and forums within the interface.

Though in the beta version the content is primarily case studies of green buildings. The hope is that the site will expand to include information on construction methods, codes and standards, products, new technologies, and funding and incentives. Since the project is entirely open-sourced, the founders are constantly looking for more information and people to help push the project forward.

The primary groups running the project are Vancouver Design Nerds a non-profit society of designers and artists, and Recollective, a green building and sustainable community consulting company in Vancouver, Canada. However, there is always appreciation of anyone who wants to contribute.

We are still living in the information age, and with the breakthrough of the internet we have access to vast sources of information, but it is often still difficult to filter through and find credible sources. Utilizing contributions from professionals and showcasing only the most outstanding projects, the Green Building Brain has proven its credibility.

The Green Building Brain is an incredible project that can hopefully allow everyone to find information about Green Building projects that are close to their own home. Sharing databases of information that are built by people across the globe is the future of the information age.

Perhaps in the future, those who understand climate shifts and environmental factors can collaborate with the Green Building Brain, and showcase the ideal places to build certain types of green buildings. Meteorologists could collaborate sharing information on sun rising, and setting times, to maximize solar use. Geologists can assist with databases on rock types that act as the best thermal mass. The possibilities are endless. Our future, is without question a collaborative one.

www.greenbuildingbrain.org

Kitchens, living rooms, bedrooms, recreational rooms, and bathrooms all being in closed quarters require more heat to maintain a comfortable temperature, or in the case of summer -  more cooling. You can see how much effort it takes to keep a house at an average temperature.

Geothermal 101

(from guest blogger Matt Lantz)

But in the polluted atmosphere of Guangzhou  City, which rests in southern China, a new 71 story tower is to be constructed. This claims to be the most energy efficient building in the world.

It is being built in a curve that faces the prevailing winds and at that has been shaped specifically to increase the wind speed and funnel it into incoming turbine ports in the side of the building. The turbines will be located on the mechanical floors of the building, which the Chinese Government stated are to be used as emergency muster floors, which leaves all usable office space intact. The American architects of the building – SOM – claim that the building will be able to create as much energy as it uses.

Many buildings are still being erected with few green features often used as extras, and not included in the primary design stages. In this new Green Tower the cooling system will be using water, rather than large and wasteful heating ducts. The water flows through concrete beams and cool air ominously floats down to the employees through water radiators in the ceiling. By utilizing this design and function SOM said it was able fit in five extra stories of usable office space at little extra cost.

There is considerable use of photovoltaic technology on the frontages of the building. Currently due to cost, they did not cover the building in energy-generating glass, but still made gains where possible. There is also a double glazed wall, that channels hot air upwards towards the mechanical floors. There it’s harnessed for dehumidification.

Given these features amidst some others the building ought to be able to make money within five years according to SOM and the owners. Though SOM says it would have been able to add more self generating power to the building, there are no facilities that allow self-generated power to be fed back into the grid in Guangzhou.

The director of SOM’s East Asia office Ame Englehart said, “This building is so radical it could have only been commissioned in China. The owners are very self-confident and have been prepared to push the design as far as it will go.” Though the design is site specific and cannot be replicated, it does use systems that could likely be utilized in other areas.

To think of one is a building in Elmira, Canada my hometown. The site of Geothermal heating company NextEnergy. It’s commercial building maintains energy consumption levels of 1/15th of a comparable fossil fuel installation. All energy consumption and production can be monitored and modified in real time. The building eliminates the emissions equivalent of 70 cars, making it a 0 emissions building at 25,000 sq. ft.

Though I’m sure we would all like to see more and more of these buildings that incorporate energy-efficiency in the primary stages of the design, it doesn’t seem to be growing at the pace we would like to all see. Construction is a slow to grow industry. And though the recession has shown considerable advances in technology in terms of solar power, and energy consumption, there are massive upfront costs to energy friendly buildings that turn investors and owners away. The key is to spread the word of the long term benefits and paybacks of these energy friendly buildings. Let’s hope that this Pearl stands as a diamond in the rough, and lets investors see the light.

*Information provided by the BBC

Image courtesy of wikipedia.org