Pearl River Tower
Built: 2006-2009 Designed by: Skidmore, Owings & Merrill Type: Skyscraper Stories: 69 Maximum Height: 1,016 feet / 310 meters Guangzhou, China
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Description by Wayne Lorentz C an a skyscraper produce more energy than it consumes? That's what we'll find out when the Pearl River Tower is completed. It is designed to be one of the most environmentally friendly buildings in the world. Among its features are turbines that turn wind into energy for the HVAC system, solar collector for more power generation, a rainwater collection system, part of which is heated by the sun to provide hot water. The building is cooled, in part, through heat sinks and vertical vents. The turbines do more than generate electricity, though. The openings through which the wind flows help reduce the overall wind load on the skyscraper. Visually, the building is quite nice. It is a rounded slab divided into three roughly equal sections, with visible cross bracing on the narrow ends. A pleasing light blue glass blends well with the sky in optimum conditions, but considering the region's serious air pollution problems it remains to be seen how many days this building will get to show its stuff.

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Tdi
Monday, November 28th, 2011 @ 10:10pm
Rating: One star.
It's by far no energy producing skyscraper. Considering the energy wasted during the construction, we need to consider the energy amortization time, means the time spend until the energy earnings break even. This EAT will be far beyond the actual buildings lifetime in china. For low carbon and green buildings we need different concepts. I have been inside the building recently. All you know about building in china (Sick building syndrome, quick constucktion with not paying attention to detail and wasting of ressources during construction is just the surface. This building is just another concrete block in china. Regarding the design: can you imagine how it looks in reality in a dirty city, apart from the design pictures posted here?

xem
Monday, July 7th, 2008 @ 9:12am
Rating: Five stars.
i love this building 'cause i do think it is the best builing in canton city.maybe the best environment friendly system in the world. i love it very much,and i hope this builing can be completed next future

Agnieszka
Friday, July 6th, 2007 @ 6:48am
Rating: Five stars.
absolutely fantastic!brilliant design,light appearance,interesting wind issue solution

Jorge
Monday, April 2nd, 2007 @ 3:51am
Rating: Five stars.
I just passed the construction site today and they are doing hard work in there. It is a great idea for a complex city as Guangzhou.

Jesse
Wednesday, December 13th, 2006 @ 10:23am
Rating: Five stars.
I like it. The building is absolutely beautiful, the enviroment-friendly system once active on this building should provoke more usage in the near future. -Jesse, NY

Leticia
Tuesday, November 28th, 2006 @ 10:06pm
Rating: Five stars.
wow the building idea is so cooli hope they make houses that waytoo!I love nature so anything enviroment freindly sounds Excellent!!