Green Giant

Architecture firm SOM's very green Pearl River Tower, planned for Guangzhou, China, is described in both Super Tall and Green  (Metropolis, August 2006) and SOM's skyscraper innovation has moved to China (Architect Record, 07.06).  Included among its sustainable features are:

• An underfloor radiant cooling system that passively circulates air within the building's interior
• A sculpted building form that channels wind into turbine-driven electrical generators located on two of the building's mechanical floors
• A double-wall curtainwall system that preconditions fresh outside air and directs exhaust air to mechanical floors where excess heat is captured and reused
• Fuel cells located on-site that produce electricity more efficiently than that available from the public grid; Waste heat from the fuel cells is also recycled into the building's heating and cooling systems.
• A condensate reclamation system to reduce HVAC system water consumption

The 1000-ft tall building is scheduled for completion in Fall 2009. According to Metropolis Magazine, the building is designed to be the world's first "zero-energy supertall building in the world," though this claim is not fully explained.