...:: Days of Our Future ::...

The Vertical Village by Graft Lab is a multiple-use development for Dubai, which is designed to provide space for residential, hotel and entertainment facilities, while harnessing solar energy to the maximum. The complex is expected to be certified by a LEED Gold rating.

The complex is organized to reduce solar gain and maximize solar production, which is the most powerful renewable source of energy in the desert. The buildings are massed as self-shading slabs at the north of the site on the east-west axis to reduce long-angle sun penetration.

The southern end of the site is equipped with a vast solar collector array that automatically positions itself toward the sun to generate the maximum possible solar electricity. The solar roof, which the complex is equipped with, behaves like a leaf, with veins that break the solar field into manageable portions and help transport energy, which in this case is solar heated water that is used to reduce the amount of air conditioning the building requires.

Each hockey-stick-shaped building within the village is self-shading on its north side and on the east-west axis to reduce long-angle sun penetration. A massive bed of solar collectors lies at the south end of the complex and has the ability to automatically position itself toward the sun to maximize solar-energy aggregation. The roof of the village has veins like a leaf which can break up the solar field into smaller, more manageable portions.

Beneath the roof lie the entertainment center, which consists of cinemas, restaurants, shops and a theater. The residential and hotel buildings have been sliced and leaned to create large scale focal points, giving a unique address to each slab, which open up, interlock, disappear and then reappear as one approaches the complex.

Source inhabitat.com