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Burj al-Taqa to Be World’s First Zero Emissions Skyscraper

The Burj al-Taqa is one of the wildest skycraper designs ever proposed for construction in the Middle East (and anywhere, for that matter). It only exists in virtual form at the moment, but it looks to become a reality soon and will be the first building of its kind to provide all its own energy needs.

The tower’s design, if built as planned, will be a smorgasbord of environmentally friendly energy production. Plans include a 50 meter high wind turbine atop the building, an array of over 30,000 square meters of solar panels, hydrogen fuel cells and new vacuum sealed windows that block out two thirds more heat from the exterior than current products.

With the amount of cash places like Dubai are pouring into new buildings, it’s an amazing time to be an architect.

From Spiegel:

Now, with the Burj al-Taqa, Gerber is engaging in a far bolder experiment — one that would, however, not have been conceivable without the support of the Stuttgart engineering company DS-Plan. The architectural consultants were responsible for planning practically the
building’s entire technological facilities.

The outer surface is usually considered especially problematic for giant glass constructions. A study by the Darmstadt-based Institute for Housing and Environment, for example, revealed worrying conditions in German office blocks. Employees were sweltering in room temperatures well above 40 degrees Celsius (104 degrees Fahrenheit) in the summer, according to the study.

Hence the Burj al-Taqa’s cylindrical shape is designed to expose as little surface area to the sun as possible. A protective solar shield
reaches from the ground to the roof, covering 60 degrees of the giant circular building. It protects the side most affected from the sun’s glaring rays, making sure that none of the rooms are exposed to direct
sunlight. The diffuse light on the other sides of the building is tempered by a mineral coating on the windows.

The tower’s façade is to be built from a new generation of vacuum glazing that will only come on the market in 2008. The new top-quality windows are meant to largely shield the interior of the tower from outside heat — indispensable in a region where outside temperatures can reach 50 degrees Celsius (122 degrees Fahrenheit) in the summer. This is made possible by a new breakthrough in the quality of the materials used: The new vacuum glazing windows transmit as much as two thirds less heat compared to today’s products.