1.

THE GHERKIN in London

The Architectural Form:

• The shape of the tower is influenced by the physical environment of the city.
• The smooth flow of wind around the building was one of the main
considerations.
• Flexibly serviced, high specification ‘user-friendly’ column free office spaces
with maximum primary space adjacent to natural light
• Good physical and visual interconnectivity between floors.
• Reduced energy consumption by use of natural ventilation whenever suitable,
low façade heat gain and smart building control systems
How Sustainability Achieved:
• The tower is aerodynamically designed
to reduce wind load on the structure,
whilst the lower part tapers so that wind
wraps around the tower.

• The six fingers of accommodation on

each floor, configured with light wells in
between, maximize daylight penetration.

• The façade design with advance glazing technologies, ventilated cavities and
blinds, provides up to 85% solar protection.

• Gas is the main fuel used hence it will only generate half the carbon emission.

• Overall energy serving is up to 50%.

The elements of the façade:
• Openable glass screen.

• Perforated aluminum louvers (inter-

nal sun-screen).

• A column casing of aluminum.

• Façade frame of extruded alumi-

num.

2. BLOOMBERG HEADQUARTERS Office in London:

The Building Concept:
Bloomberg’s new European HQ,
which is located in the heart of the
city of London, has been rated the
world’s most sustainable office
building.
The building was given a score of
98.5 per cent against its criteria – the
highest that has been achieved so far
by a major office development. It is
designed to use 73 per cent less water
and 35 per cent less energy than a
standard office building.

How Sustainability Achieved:

 Integrated Ceiling Panels: bespoke inte-
grated ceiling panels combine heating,
cooling, lighting and acoustic functions
in an innovative petal-leaf design. The
system, which incorporates 500,000
LED lights, uses 40% less energy than a
typical fluorescent office lighting sys-
tem.
 Water Conservation: rainwater from the
roof, cooling tower blow-off water, and
grey water sources, like basins and
showers, is captured, treated and recy-
cled to serve vacuum flush toilets. These
use net zero mains water for flushing.
Overall, water conservation systems will
save 25 million liters of water each year,
enough to fill ten Olympic swimming
pools.
 Natural Ventilation: when ambient weather
conditions are temperate, the building’s
distinctive bronze blades can open and
close, allowing the building to operate in a
“breathable” natural ventilation mode. Re-
ducing dependency on mechanical ventila-
tion and cooling equipment significantly
reduces energy consumption.
 Smart Airflow: smart CO2 sensing controls allow air to be distributed ac-
cording to the approximate number of people occupying each zone of the
building at any given time. The ability to dynamically adjust airflow in re-
sponse to occupancy hours and patterns is expected to save 600-750 MWhr
of power per annum, reducing CO2 emissions by approximately 300 metric
tons each year.

3. New German Parliament, Reichstag

Foster design for the new

German Parliament features
a huge glass dome rising out
of the historical shell of the
Reichstag. The structure
works ecologically, reflect-
ing natural light deep into
the heart of the chambers.
The dome is also part of the
natural ventilation for the building. It is powered by a renewable source of en-
ergy. A funnel consisting of 360 pans of mirror glass that allows light to pene-
trate is installed on the dome for this purpose. He decided to use thick walls as a
counter balancing reservoir for heat in winter and cold in summer. The ultra-
modern façade ensured minimum energy losses through the large windows and
the roof. The present building ranks, "as a genuine model of sustainability and
renewable energy."
Transparency and accessibility of the democratic progress:
The public should be able to witness the activities of the lo-
cal authority. This is realised through a spiral walkway run-
ning through the dome, above the parliament. The building
should have a transparent appearance to its surroundings to
symbolise the transparency of the democratic progress. Sus-
tainable design approach to reach this, the dome and the en-
trance are mainly made out of glass.
How Sustainability Achieved:
 The building should demonstrate the potential of a
sustainable, non-polluting public building.
 Ventilation should combine minimum heat loss and power usage while
creating an excellent interior climate.
 The building is mechanically ventilated through the glass dome.
 The building combines several sustainable energy resources. Cooling and
heating is accounted for through geothermal heating/cooling. A vegetable
oil plant provides for electricity. In detail, the ele-
ments of which the climate system is comprised are:
1: Geothermal heating warm aquiver
2: Heat pump
3: Heating
4: Cool aquiver
5: Combined heat and power plant
6: Refined vegetable oil plant
7: Electrical power.
 The glass dome should transport light into the build-
ing.
 The sunlight comes through the glass dome hits the
cone and is then distributed into the building
4. Greater London Authority Building
Foster reconciled his work with nature
within the compass of one office building.
It is an attempt to bring the park into the
office space with light as a building me-
dium. It is an ecological tower with an in-
ternal atrium spiraling around the ellipsoi-
dal form. In this project, Foster insisted on
the fact that the visible aspects of the
building should be informed by its internal
concept. He is appealing for an architec-
ture based on an indisputable quality. The building’s orientation and form have
been designed to save energy.
It is model of democracy and sustainability; it is an energy effi-
cient and a user-friendly building:
 Heat absorption machines convert un-
wanted and excess heat into cooling
agents
 Unnecessary heat in summer is ther-
mally stored deep in the underground
for future retrieval during winter

 Natural ventilation is a priority, and the

roof structure is an important part of the
extracting thermal system. A revolving shield
allows natural light to be channeled into the
main atrium without any solar gain.
 The outstanding feature of this structure is its
sweeping curved glass façade, which allowed
the creation of a smooth external skin. Careful
calculations of sun angles and rays with the us-
age of concrete mass to cool the building; re-
sulted in a pleasant internal temperature.
 More than half of the total site area is given over
to public space, including two large piazzas.
  Daylight is reflected into this space by the ceiling’s pattern of
concentric ellipses of mirror-polished stainless steel
 Its shape is derived from a geometrically modified sphere, a
form which contains the greatest volume with the least surface
area.
 The glazed facade of the assembly chamber faces north to mini-
mize the amount of direct sunlight falling on it and so minimiz-
ing the solar gain
 The building leans back towards the
south, where the floor-plates step inwards
to provide natural shading for the offices
beneath
 The building has a highly integrated sys-
tem of environmental controls to mini-
mize its energy use. The perimeter office
spaces can be naturally ventilated by
opening vents positioned below the win-
dows.
 The building’s cooling system utilizes
cold ground water pumped up via bore-
holes from the water table that passes
through chilled beams in the ceilings,
avoiding the need for noisy chillers on the roof.
⁕ Analysis indicates that, as a result of the combination of these en-
ergy saving devices, the annual energy consumption for the building’s
mechanical systems will be approximately a quarter of a typical air-
conditioned office building. Advanced computer modeling techniques
and innovative construction techniques have been employed to
achieve the geometry. Each of the glazing panels is unique in shape
and size.
5. Willis Faber and Dumas Headquarters, Ipswich, United
Kingdom
 The country headquarters for
insurance company Willis
Faber & Dumas challenged
accepted thinking about the
office building while
maintaining a sense of
continuity within its urban
setting. Innovations such as
the use of escalators in a three-
storey structure, and the social dimension offered by its swimming pool,
roof-top restaurant and garden, were all conceived in a spirit of
democratising the workplace and encouraging a greater sense of
community. Externally, the building reinforces rather than confronts the
urban grain. Low-rise, with a free-form plan, it responds to the scale of
surrounding buildings, while its facade curves in response to the irregular
medieval street pattern,
flowing to the edges of its
site like a pancake in a pan.
The sheath-like, glass
curtain wall, which was
developed with the glazing
manufacturer Pilkington,
pushed the technology of
the day to its very limits.
 The solar-tinted glazing panels, each 2 metres square, are connected by
means of corner patch fittings, then silicon jointed, forming a three-
storey-high curtain, which is suspended
from a clamping strip at roof level.
 A discreet system of internal glass fins
at each floor level provides the necessary
wind bracing. By day the glass appears
almost black and reflects an eclectic,
fragmented collage of Ipswich's old
buildings; while by night it dissolves
dramatically to reveal the activity within.
Conceived before the oil crises of the
 mid-1970s, and heated by natural gas, Willis Faber was a pioneering
example of energy conscious design, its deep plan and insulating grass
roof ensuring extremely good overall thermal performance.
 Recognising these innovations, over the years the building has attracted
almost as many awards for energy efficiency as it has for its architecture.
The project also pioneered the use of raised office floors, anticipating the
revolution in information technology; so much so, that when Willis Faber
introduced computerisation it was able to do so with minimal disruption -
unlike most of its rivals, who were forced to move to new buildings.
Paradoxically,
⁕ although it was designed for flexibility, the building now has Grade 1 listed
status: an honour that means it cannot be changed.
NO, NAME ID BUILDING NAME
1 Rewan Ayman ElQabany 19015675 The Gherkin in London
2 Rana Gamal AbdElaziz 19015668 Bloomberg Headquarters
3 Rewan Mohamed Mansour 19015681 New German Parliament
4 Sohaila Mohamed 19015810 Greater London Authority Building
Mahmoud
5 Ranim Gamal Elgebaly 19015671 Willis Faber and Dumas Headquar-
ter