Green building in Paris

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As the City of Lights moves little by little toward its greener tomorrow, it has yet another piece of news to be excited about... Paris is set to be the home of the first ever zero-energy office building. World-renown architecture firm Skidmore, Owings & Merrill has designed an office building that will use no more energy than the building itself produces. The creative design of the building seen aerially gives a feeling of paths leading in many different directions.

The roof of the proposed building will be covered entirely in solar panels and the building itself, measuring 70,000 square meters, will be mostly windows, allowing ample sunlight to flow in and diminishing the need for electric lights. The proposed cooling system will take advantage of the Seine by pumping its water through the building. Patrick Getreide, who is leading this project known as Energy Plus, claims that the electricity consumption for this building will be an amazing 16 kilowatts per square meter, a fraction of what similar-sized buildings consume.

Inspired? Look to this building in the future as a place from which to purchase carbon credits. Completion date not yet set.

Via Inhabitat