Not only is China spearheading the avant-garde architectural revolution, it is championing the green cause as well. Take the Linked Hybrid in Beijing for example, a mixed-used complex of eight towers interlinked by skybridges by Steven Holl Architects.
Crowned the Best Tall Building 2009 in the Asia and Australia category by the Council on Tall Buildings and Urban Habitat last week, the 220,000 sq m project is also in line for a LEED Gold Certification.
The most dramatic feature is of course, the skybridges, which connect the eight residential, office and hotel towers in what the architects describe as “an open city within a city”. The bridges start from the 12th to 18th floors, and takes you from a swimming pool in one tower, for example, to a fitness room or a café, gallery, auditorium in another, forming a closed loop. Green spaces abound in the form of roof gardens on the lower buildings and on top of the penthouses.
Its eco-friendly credentials are underlined by geothermal wells 100 m below the buildings which provides cooling in summer and heating in winter. Recycled water is used for the large central reflecting pond, which transforms into a public ice-skating rink in winter. In addition, earth excavated during construction was re-used to landscape educational and recreational facilities.
(Additional images via Dezeen)
