Cape Town's clean green building coolest at COP

Built of milk crates and plastic bottles, the coolest building at Cop17 draws in air through openings at the floor which is released through openings near the ceiling. Stroll inside the green building and it's cool. And there is not an air conditioning unit in sight.

The City of Cape Town's stand in Durban. Photo: Stephen Lamb.

It is entirely powered by renewable energy - a small wind turbine on the roof and a few solar panels. Not only that, but it generates enough energy to allow electricity to be fed back into Durban's grid.

The building is part of the City of Cape Town's climate smart programme and was designed and built by Capetonian Steve Lamb.

He used local labour, to cut down on "carbon kilometres", and gave the job to a group of unemployed people. The floor is made from alien wood and the lampshades from recycled paper. Outside, rows of lettuces grow out of soil in plastic bottles.

"I think these conferences need to rethink their footprints. If you look at those huge tents, they have a big bank of air conditioning units, all emitting carbon."

Cape Times

Posted at 09:10AM Nov 30, 2011 by Editor in Commercial  |