With the amount of eco-conscious cities and communities growing across the planet, I suppose both the administration and builders are being forced to design not just individual green buildings, but entire green eco systems of sorts. There new green communities are not just filled with features that conserve the energy resources of the planet but are actually designed to make sure that they are self-sufficient beyond a certain point! That truly is a great achievement. The new Municipal Pool Cover Soto del Real in Madrid is exactly one of those amazing man made green eco-system.
It is the Lorenzo Alonso Architects that have made this green structure possible. The land on which the project is located has an area of more than 8,000 square meters with a slight downward slope in north-south direction and a level difference of about 3 meters. In the plot were built facilities of the municipal swimming pools summer plus a range of ancillary buildings, performing access to the facility from the Street of the Order. The entire structure is filled with green features such as sky lights and fuel generating ability from bio mass along with maximizing the use of Solar energy that make it a very unique and special structure.
Another factor that was taken into account was the abundance of trees and green areas that existed in the area and the large amount of organic waste (biomass) that they generate. In the town of Soto del Real annually produces 6,000 tons of organic waste of plant origin, 3,000 MT per pruning of parks and gardens and other 3,000 MT per cleaning and conditioning forests in the vicinity. This fact was that the project was raised to neutralize all these residues as the main source of energy for supply to the pool. It will use a biomass boiler will consume 92 tons of pellets annually, with an oil equivalent of 36.5 MT annually. This facility involves avoiding the atmospheric emission of 110 tons of CO2.
The project in some of the pictures reminds me of the Michigan airport though I could be grossly wrong with that analysis. The project uses amazingly well both the available space and resources to make sure that the energy delivered to it is maximized and obtained from alternate sources of energy. . The main campus is covered with glasses along with the pool. There is also accommodation for rainwater collection and usage. All this make the structure truly remarkable and a boon to the planet.
