Saturday, November 22, 2008

Life Expectancy With 15% Heart Muscle

California Academy of Sciences, a work that promotes the conservation of nature [Renzo Piano].


Academy of Sciences in California on 27 September this year opened new facilities in the city San Francisco, an elegant and innovative building designed by Italian architect Renzo Piano , which by its nature, critics already considered as the greenest museum in the world.

On several occasions, the Italian architect Renzo Piano, famous for works such as the Pompidou Centre, the Potsdamer Platz in Berlin, the Whitney Museum of American Art and the New York Times Building, has said that architecture is a reflection of society and culture which believes that an architect should experiment and innovate using with discretion, of new technologies and tools of his time, but without leaving aside the history and tradition.

For Piano, architecture is an office complex that synthesizes: science, art, history, anthropology, geography and climate of each country in which the architect works. His latest work, The Academy of Sciences of California, located in Golden Gate Park in the United States is a reflection of this.

Like many of the works designed by Italian architect, it is characterized for its elegance, simplicity, his innovative architectural solutions, as well as using the latest technology and foremost for respect and care for the environment. Piano's intention in this project was to raise a piece of Golden Gate Park and put a museum underneath to subsequently cover the landscape. Thus, the Academy of Sciences, which will house 38.000 live animals, was determined from a steel structure on which rests a corrugated roof completely covered 10,000 square meters of grass, plants and flowers native to the area, which causes the building seemed to have grown naturally on the ground.

The undulating roof the building, which simulates the seven hills of San Francisco, has multiple functions, including thermal insulation, reducing air conditioning use.

landscape architecture was held in cooperation with the firm SWA Group and the so called "guru of green roofs-Paul Kephart of Rana Creek Living Architecture.

The garden lies on the deck is structured around a network of stones placed on a metal mesh that allows water to drain to collect it and reuse it for landscaping and in some areas located inside the museum.

"The inclination of the small hills, makes the air flow directly into the courtyard located in the center of the project, this allows the temperature-usually in this area is very warm-inside is always comfortable, so you only need the use of air conditioning in a small part of the building .

The seven mounds, whose curves and simulating natural hills from the outside can differentiate the various spaces contained in the building, a research center, an aquarium, a planetarium and an aviary, plus the museum rooms, two restaurants A three-dimensional cinema, a terrace and a shop.

A square transparent glass walls [of twelve meters] is the piazza * or main hall, located between two large domes. One of them housed inside the planetarium, the other a rain forest, where there are hundreds of birds and butterflies flying under the cover of transparent glass. Within this space is also a huge whale skeleton that hangs over the room where you can see various animal species threatened by climate change. In the lower part of the building is a room dedicated to the marine world, there lies the largest coral reef of origin-filipino-built in captivity and a pond to house about 2,000 species of fish.

The California Academy of Sciences is a building -Green, almost in its entirety and with solutions such as doors and curtains, many of them located on the deck that open and close as the needs of the interior through a sophisticated computer system. This solution enables the building always has an optimal temperature and humidity.

Since this is a building-green-[that many have labeled as the greenest in the world, and has even been proposed for the LEED platinum award from the U.S. Green Building Council] the concept of recycling was instrumental in the design and the selection of materials, such as thermal insulation for the walls were used old denim jeans. Another example is that at least 90% of the spaces inside the museum with natural light, which greatly reduces the cost of electricity. In addition, the museum has 60.000 photovoltaic cells, with which the building will generate 15% of the electricity it consumes.

is estimated that the building that houses the museum achieve lower energy costs by 20 to 30%. This savings is due in large part to the Germans used glass facades allow to heat or cool the atmosphere depending on the season.

This technology was developed by Gartner in the city of Gundelfingen in the Land of Baden-Württemberg, southwest Germany.

During the opening ceremony held on September 27 this year, Renzo Piano said that "This museum is a gift to our children and future generations, and is a tool for the next generation is faced with the problem that Earth needs help.

In the same ceremony, Greg Farrington, executive director of the California Academy of Sciences said that this institution is focused on life, science and evolution, "concepts that she accurately reflected in the structure designed by Piano, whose work no doubt, as also mentioned Farrington is an example of the evolution of species sometimes attains huge successes.

Like many other projects Renzo Piano, this, favors an important role in the community, it is a work that promotes respect for the lives of people living on the planet. No doubt this building, its architectural solution will become part of the great works of the century.

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