The Singapore tower of tables may currently be nothing more than a proposal at the moment, but it could soon be a carbon neutral high-rise pioneer. serie architects came up with the ambitious design in an attempt to address the climate change challenges presented by traditional office towers.
Unlike a traditional office high-rise, the Singapore tower of tables is a series of stacked pavilions featuring four- to six- storey workspace communities intertwined with landscape terraces. At the base is a podium boasting a central courtyard and four circular pavilions that can be used for meetings or as breakout spaces. Meanwhile, a unique hybrid timber and steel frame allows the building achieve carbon neutrality.
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“The tower core and structural frame of each pavilion is made of steel while intermediate floors are constructed of a hybrid of steel and timber. By replacing four intermediate floors with met floorplates, the total embodied carbon per table is about zero kilogram per square meter of office area, resulting in a carbon neutral high-rise,” serie architects told designboom.
This is only one aspect of a three-prong approach that also addresses addressing construction, energy consumption, and energy generation. The Singapore tower of tables has been able to reduce carbon emissions in a number of other areas.
“With mass-engineered timber (MET), the total embodied carbon emission can be reduced by 50 percent. Innovation in comfort and energy design can reduce electrical energy demand of the office spaces by 30 percent while on-site photovoltaics can produce approximately 20 percent of the building’s electrical energy demand,” the firm noted.
Beyond that, the façade design maximizes daylight while simultaneously minimizing glare and solar heat gain. Additionally, energy efficient ‘adaptive cooling’ replaces conventional air conditioning which creates a 50 percent reduction in electrical use compared to a typical building of the same size.
And while all of this sounds great, the Singapore tower of tables remains a dream for now. The proposed carbon neutral high-rise hasn’t been utilized by a developer just yet, although it seems like someone will embrace the concept given the city state’s propensity for green architecture.
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