Eco-friendly Stadium Opens in Taiwan
Building the Green Economy, Quipu Economic Forum, Renewable Resources, Zero-combustion paradigm :: Comments (0)
21 May 2009 :: by staff
The new stadium built for the World Games 2009, located in Taiwan’s Kaohsiung City, is being hailed as a landmark example of environmentally friendly building design. The stadium is rimmed with a partial canope roof that trails off into the surrounding promenade and is clad in 8,844 solar-voltaic panels, to generate electricity. The solar complex on the stadium’s roof can generate 1.14 million kWh per year, enough to provide power for the games and events at the stadium, as well as to re-sell surplus power back to the electrical grid.
The application of solar power in such a structural way, and on such a large scale, is being described as “unprecedented” on the island of Taiwan. The design was created by Toyo Ito, and the construction process required 2 years to complete. The building was constructed with 100% re-usable materials, all locally sourced in Taiwan (reducing the ecological impact of transport and the incidence of fossil fuel combustion in the overall sourcing and construction process).
The complex also includes a “green zone” with other features designed to provide an ecologically more responsible built environment. There are bike paths and parklands with green vegetation, as well as an ecological pond, meant to contribute to the resilience of the structured parks that make up the complex, sourcing a low-intensity local ecosystem so that not all nutrients need to be imported or maintained by artificial means. The building marks an important new established standard in green building.
- More at the World Games 2009 website
