Sustainable design, Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia, birds island, energy efficiency, curtain, double silicone skin, LA, Berlin, Beijing, Germany, US, China

GRAFT, German office for architecture is eager to explore territories of design offered by a new awareness of and open-mindednes to sustainable design, converting energy-saving requirements into poetic design solutions which are not only environmentally friendly and efficient, but provide a new interpretation of the spaces we live in.

This structure in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia – a Birds Island – along these lines, presents a cost-saving response to warm climate habitation. Its living quarters provide an expansive shaded and ventilated outdoor living deck, while living space is primarily concentrated in a cooler interior core. A surrounding silicon glass skin structure provides a multi-functional translucent shell which casts subtle shadows and allows changing view patterns, hence freeing the space from the bonds of traditional walls. Curtains serve to enclose living spaces, therefore creating privacy.

This strategy is geared to cut waste and eliminate redundant energy systems. The optimized building skin doubles as a frame while implementing rainwater and solar heat collection systems, acting as wind flow conductor and distributing rainwater.

The structure is set on piers, minimizing erosion and affording natural cooling by allowing free air flow under its floor. Solar lotuses in the water nearby act as satellite energy-collectors, providing the remainder of the energy needed for the structure to operate as zero-energy building.

In January 1998 the label GRAFT has been created by three German architects in Los Angeles and it was conceived as a “Label” for Architecture, Urban Planning, Design, Music and the “pursuit of happiness”. Today GRAFT has offices in LA, Berlin and Beijing.

Sustainable design, Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia, birds island, energy efficiency, curtain, double silicone skin, LA, Berlin, Beijing, Germany, US, China

Sustainable design, Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia, birds island, energy efficiency, curtain, double silicone skin, LA, Berlin, Beijing, Germany, US, China

Sustainable design, Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia, birds island, energy efficiency, curtain, double silicone skin, LA, Berlin, Beijing, Germany, US, China

Sustainable design, Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia, birds island, energy efficiency, curtain, double silicone skin, LA, Berlin, Beijing, Germany, US, China

 

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