Friday, 2nd June 2023
<To guardian.ng
Search

‘Living tower’ in Singapore stays cool with plant-covered facade

By AFP
05 September 2021   |   10:06 am
A layer of green foliage blankets a red tower in the heart of Singapore's business district, a feature that helps keeps the building cool as the densely-populated tropical city battles rising temperatures. The Oasia Hotel Downtown, in the heart of Singapore's business district, was designed to stay cool with the help of more than 20 species of creeping plants growing on its bright red aluminum facade. Its facade is 10 to 20 degrees Celsius cooler compared to nearby buildings, according to architecture firm WOHA, which designed the building. The 27-story structure houses over ten times the amount of greenery found on the site before its construction, and its large open terraces allow natural ventilation and lighting and reduce energy use. In an effort to reduce emissions, Singapore aims to green 80 percent of its buildings by 2030. Buildings account for over 20 percent of the city-state's carbon emissions.

Related

30 Jan 2021
Singapore has moved a step closer to a driverless public transport network with the launch of a new trial of self-driving buses. Orderly and high-tech, the Asian city-state has become a testbed for self-driving vehicles and has developed home-grown technology while inviting foreign companies to trial their own.
13 Feb 2021
After the pandemic torpedoed his chance to work at a Michelin-starred New York restaurant, Lim Wei Keat returned to his roots by becoming a Singapore street food chef cooking local fare. The 25-year-old is among a small but growing number of young Singaporean street food vendors, or "hawkers", fuelling hopes that a new generation will preserve the city-state's culinary traditions.
27 Feb 2021
Singaporean Sue-Anne Chng used to wear a different outfit on all 15 days of the Lunar New Year, when it is customary to don new clothes to symbolise a fresh start. But this year she will wear second-hand items exchanged for her old clothes at a store catering to people concerned about the impact of fast fashion on the environment. Several swapping initiatives, from permanent shops to pop-up events, have appeared in the affluent city-state in a bid to encourage consumers to make the most of what is already in their closets.
19 Apr 2021
The buyer of a $69 million digital artwork in the form of "non-fungible tokens" (NFTs) says he felt a "soul connection" with the artist as both men started as relative amateurs in their field but found success after years of hard work. Singapore based Vignesh Sundaresan, also known as MetaKovan, defends the price he paid for the collage of 5,000 pieces of art created on consecutive days, which has transformed its creator, real name Mike Winkelmann, into the third-most valuable living artist.
26 Jun 2021
A Singaporean woman was sentenced to 30 years for starving, assaulting and eventually killing her domestic worker. The judge said the case was "among the worst types of culpable homicide."
24 Jun 2021
Otters at Oregon Zoo enjoy an ice bath as the temperature in Portland reached 35°C on Monday. The mercury is expected to rise as high as 42°C during the week. "Set the A/C to ottermatic," the zoo cheekily posted on its Facebook page.
11 Jul 2021
Five centuries after Goans began making feni -- a pungent, fermented liquor not for the faint-hearted -- a new crop of distillers is hoping to take the spirit global. But first, they have to convince other Indians to drink it.
17 Jul 2021
India’s poor seek ways to keep cool under the scorching sun in desert city Sri Ganganagar where -- as in many parts of India -- people struggle to find respite from a warming planet.
11 Aug 2021
Giant pumps whir deep underground at a plant in Singapore that helps transform sewage into water so clean it is fit for human consumption.
18 Aug 2021
A panda bred via artificial insemination has been born in Singapore's zoo, the first cub to be born in the city-state. Jia Jia, the zoo's 12-year-old female giant panda, gave birth to the cub after she was artificially inseminated with frozen semen from 13-year-old Kai Kai.
5 Sep 2021
A layer of green foliage blankets a red tower in the heart of Singapore's business district, a feature that helps keeps the building cool as the densely-populated tropical city battles rising temperatures. The Oasia Hotel Downtown, in the heart of Singapore's business district, was designed to stay cool with the help of more than 20 species of creeping plants growing on its bright red aluminum facade. Its facade is 10 to 20 degrees Celsius cooler compared to nearby buildings, according to architecture firm WOHA, which designed the building. The 27-story structure houses over ten times the amount of greenery found on the site before its construction, and its large open terraces allow natural ventilation and lighting and reduce energy use. In an effort to reduce emissions, Singapore aims to green 80 percent of its buildings by 2030. Buildings account for over 20 percent of the city-state's carbon emissions.
19 Sep 2021
Singapore's new wildlife forensics centre aims to help in the fight against smuggling networks by analysing seized body parts from endangered animals to determine where they originated from.