Gippy!!!-

Saturday, July 14, 2007

This is one COOL building

With Singapore’s recent announcement that it plans to be a key player in the fast-growing clean energy industry, the green features built into the National Library Building that keep the temperatures inside as low as possible, will serve as a model for others as they has helped to keep the $203 million building’s energy costs down.

The building’s green features and unique design have caught the eye of architects, engineers and CEOs around the world. The “cool” features include the stacking effect, large overhangs on building exterior, motion-sensor taps, building painted white, light sensors, sky gardens and indoor gardens, automatic roller daylight-sensing blinds, light panels, pressure-sensor escalators and auto irrigation system.

The most impressive of these features is the daylight-sensing blinds. These are controlled by daylight sensors installed in the windows of the building. This keeps the building interior cool and saves on energy used to cool the building.

Having all these fascinating green features, I think that the National Library Building does deserves the Green Mark platinum award, which was awarded in the Building and Construction Authority (BCA) Awards 2005.

By receiving such an award, I believe that the building has what it takes to satisfy the four key areas of environmental performance such as energy and water efficiency, indoor environmental quality as well as the conservation of resources and materials.

With the growing concern of global warming, I guess that there is a need for more of such buildings as the green features do help to keep the energy usage down, thereby reducing the emission of carbon dioxide from the burning of fossil fuels for energy.

Commentary on The Straits Time article, “This is one COOL building”.

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