Unique Sustainable Architectures Around The World

In the face of an increasingly severe climate change crisis, architecture, like all other aspects of modern life, needs to be changed day by day to become more sustainable.
The fact that construction and architecture themselves contradict to the nature environment requires architects to work even harder to create smarter architectures in order to meet users’ needs and remain both aesthetic & environment-friendly.
Belows are a few sustainable but equally unique buildings that will surely excite people:

1. Ilulissat Icefjord Centre, Greenland

Designed by Danish architect Dorte Mandrup, this new climate research center is part of a UNESCO-protected area on GreenLand Bay. This is also home to the Sermeq Kujalleq glacier - the fastest-moving and most active glacier in the world.

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Once a place few could reach, now Icefjord carries on its mission to serve climate research while also being a tourist destination, allowing visitors to easily observe and learn about the activity and role of ice to local people in particular and to the Earth's climate in general.

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It is known that the building is made of 80% recycled steel frames, with wooden frames and roofs covering the rest. The space between the frames on both sides of the building is completely installed with tempered glass to help receive natural sunlight, saving both lighting and heating energy.

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2. SFER IK Museum, Mexico

The gallery is located on the grounds of an ancient Mayan village in Yucatán. It took 9 months for the gallery to be built and it has attracted the attention of many visitors thanks to its sustainable design and the meaning it conveys: jungle through the aesthetic eye.

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Here, visitors can directly experience the feeling through their bare feet brought by each corner of the gallery, such as the temperature variation, the roughness or smoothness of each different building material.

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Although the overall architecture resembles a giant nest, and it seems to have taken a large amount of wood to be built, the truth is the opposite. The building was built with only 3 types of materials: vines, cement and fiberglass. The same fake structure also carries a reminder "say no to logging, protect the forest".

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3. HiLo Nest Research Building, Switzerland

This dome is installed on the roof of the research center NEST, Switzerland. It is is dome-shaped, ultra-thin, 7.5m high and has a curved surface area of ​​160 square metres, built by 3D printing technology with concrete material sprayed onto a steel mesh frame.

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Engineers have carefully calculated the curvature as well as the amount of concrete needed in each position to save materials as much as possible while ensuring safety. The steel frame can then be dismantled and reused if needed.

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The shape of the dome is designed with the purpose of naturally cooling and air-conditioning the building. The outside of the dome is also fitted with a photovoltaic cell to help generate solar electricity for interior needs.

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4. TECLA 3D Printed House, Italy

Tecla is the world's first house built entirely using 3D printing technology with raw earth materials. It took only 200 hours to complete the house.

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It is shaped like two domes joined together. The clay material was obtained from a nearby river bed. The waves of the wall are the result of 350 layers of 3D sprayed clay stacked. These waves also act as insulation, helping to maintain a stable temperature inside the house naturally.

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Engineers built the house in the hope that zero-waste, recyclable, low-carbon, and climate-resilient housing would become ubiquitous, replacing traditional housing in the future.

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H/T: Newsweek