Building green and sustainable buildings is definitely a trend that’s here to stay. We pride ourselves on developing residential buildings that are not only easy on the eyes but also great for the environment and future generations. We’re not the only ones who believe this is important – in fact, there are several residential buildings around the world that also have many sustainable features.
Here’s a few:
This 6-storey, 70-unit apartment complex in Seattle, Washington was completed late 2014, and is considered to be more upscale apartment. It’s located in Capitol Hill, one of the more trendy neighbourhoods in the city. It was designed to be LEED certified, and not just any level of LEED but Gold! Some of its features include big, wide windows to allow a lot of natural light, reverse cycle air-to-water chillers to heat domestic hot water, LED lighting and reflective roofing. It was built with a net zero carbon footprint!
The 5-storey apartment building built by local Australian firm Breathe Architecture is considered Australia’s flagship sustainable apartment building. It was completed in 2013, and has since won multiple awards including the Award for Residential Architecture and Sustainable Architecture at the 2014 National Architecture Awards. Some of the building’s features include a storage room for bikes rather than a parking garage, lots of greenery to shade the apartments in the summer, and thermal energy in lieu of traditional air conditioning. We like
Older than the other two buildings, The Octagon is 35% more energy efficient than New York State building code standards and uses far less energy than its traditional counterparts. The building is super green: over half of the construction materials used were manufactured within 500 miles of the construction site, and most of the waste was recycled. In addition to this, over 40% of the materials used are also recycled, including the wood used for the stairs in the rotunda. The Octagon also boasts wide windows, which means more natural light and fresher air.
Do you live in a sustainable building? Is it important to you? We’d love to hear what you think. Give us a shout on Twitter!