Passive housing has become an internationally recognized energy-saving building standard
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It originated in Germany
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At present, there are thousands of passive houses in Europe, and the number of passive houses in North America, the Far East and other parts of the world is also increasing
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The reason for the success of passive housing is simple: building standards are clear and applicable to any type of building in any climate
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At the same time, it also provides a solution for the sustainable use of natural resources
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But most of the passive buildings are limited to low rise buildings
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Many years ago, Gregor Robertson, mayor of Vancouver, Canada, proposed the “green city 2020 initiative” to reduce the city’s carbon emissions
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Today, the world’s tallest passive tower is about to settle in Vancouver
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) wkka Architects / IBI group / Henson developments author loop design circle Dubai yacht hotel is a multi-functional residential tower located at the west end of downtown Vancouver, 586 feet (179 meters) high
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The 60 story skyscraper, which will be the world’s tallest passive house, is expected to be built in Nelson, near Cerro street in Vancouver’s west side
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Designed by UK wkka architects and Vancouver IBI group
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) wkka Architects / ibigroup / Henson developments Tom Wright, a famous architect of UK WKK architectural firm, is the main designer of the tower scheme
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The most well-known design should be the sailing hotel in Dubai
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IBI group in Vancouver is the design and implementation party of the project
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The tower has a undulating structure and a huge central public space spanning several floors
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The project is located near Thurlow street and between 1059 Nelson street and 1075 Nelson street
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After the completion of the project, there is no doubt that it will become a member of the local skyscraper complex
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Rick Gregory, vice chairman of Henson developments, said: “buildings that have been certified as passive housing will have a similar or even fixed shape, but we want to break this limitation and design a skyscraper that is eye-catching within feasible standards.” ) wkka Architects / IBI group / Henson developments Sean pander, one of the directors of green building, commented on the design scheme as follows: “it is precisely because this high-rise building can attract the attention of the public and capture the eyes of developers and designers at the same time, which makes the project extremely brilliant.” The project includes 485 residential units: 113 social housing units; 49 market rental units; 323 market apartment units; building height of 555.5 feet (585.5 feet from the top of the attachment); plot ratio of 24.94; 8-storey underground parking lot, 299 parking spaces and 1000 class a bicycle parking spaces and 26 class B bicycle parking spaces
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Closed, low power consumption, damping, because it is a passive room, so the project has strict energy efficiency standards
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The standard provides a sustainable solution for the use of natural resources and energy consumption in such buildings, which is about 80% lower than traditional buildings
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The building is a reinforced concrete structure
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Steel structural components will be embedded inside the building, and metal and glass belts will be used alternately for building sealing
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The building surface will use energy-efficient materials and three layers of glass to create perfect airtightness
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The energy efficiency requirements of passive houses are very strict: in order to meet the standard, the energy consumption of buildings per square meter per year can not exceed 15 kwh
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? wkkarchitects / ibigroup / Henson developments the high building volume makes the building “sway” in the breeze
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In order to reduce the building’s speed swing, the designer installed these large shock absorbers and dampers, which will enter the core of the elevator
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One of the construction challenges of the building is the narrow base area
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In order to achieve the required underground parking and other functions, the developer plans to excavate 11 floors, which will make it the deepest building in Vancouver
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“We use shotcrete to block the excavation against the wall and then connect the anchors to the foundations of the surrounding buildings,” Gregory said Can “passive energy saving” meet the needs of cities? Few independent high-end apartment buildings can accommodate social housing, but the project will achieve this goal through 102 units of social housing in the lower floors (25% of the building’s gross floor area) and 50 units of mortgaged market rental housing in the upper floors
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But it seems that many people think this is not enough
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There are also many different voices among the city councillors: “we still don’t know what the impact of the popularity of cowid-19 on housing is, and the form of this 60 story building will definitely involve a lot of elevators.” “I like passive houses very much, but the buildings are too high to block the lighting of nearby parks, playgrounds and primary schools at many times of the day.” “Cities need more public housing (low rent housing) than passive buildings.” Behind the different voices, we can feel the different expectations of the city
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But behind the “super high-rise passive building”, there are undoubtedly great progress and challenges
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As the mayor stressed, private investment, at least to a large extent, promotes the development of the local economy, which is crucial for Vancouver
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The start date for this project has not been set
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Vancouver City Council approved the plan at a public hearing in June last year, and developers are currently waiting for approval of the license, a process that could take six months
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What is the passive meaning of passive housing? Excellent thermal insulation performance and efficient heat recovery system make the whole building comfortable almost all year without any active heating or cooling measures, which means that these buildings are “passive”
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With little or no input, the energy-saving goal can be achieved
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As an effective energy-saving measure, passive design principle has been widely known in the engineering field
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Passive safety devices, passive filtration devices, passive refrigeration and passive housing are all successful cases of this principle
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Of course, the above cases are not strictly “passive”, because they all need a small amount of initial energy to guide their respective processes to run according to the preset program
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“Passive” does not mean that there is no energy consumption at all, but refers to an intelligent design: using complex systems and non renewable energy to achieve the goal of energy saving to the minimum.
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