Sustainability_Project

A sustainable building is one that uses the design and materials to exploit the natural advantages and eliminate as much as possible artificial resources.
California Academy of Sciences

===Located in the midst of the great Golden Gate Park San Francisco, United States, is the Academy of Sciences of California. It is a museum created by the Italian architect Renzo Piano, and thanks to its great ecological and environmental considerations, is considered the more ecological or green museum complex in the world.===

===This museum was designed 5 years on paper, and in 2005 began construction. Importantly, this is the new home of the Academy of Sciences of California and to make this new museum, the caring for the environment began with the choice of materials, first, minimizing the amount and then by choosing organic, basically, limestone, extra white glass and concrete. There are also recycled materials, some as curious as cotton jeans obtained, as part of the walls as soundproofing.===

===The building is bioclimatic. It is oriented to maximize daylight (up to 90% of needs) and the likelihood that the air conditioning and ventilation are performed naturally. There is almost no color in your decor, creating a neutral environment and light sensor. There is virtually no area air conditioning, because there are different building elements that facilitate the exit of hot air while cooling the air. For example, the concrete floor is made up of hundreds of embedded pipes carrying hot water to heat the space.===

===The whole building has been constructed taking axis as a central courtyard or central square, a space interconnected with renewed contents under a living roof that produces energy, and integrates the building into its surroundings. In it, are located the main environmental solutions.===

===Different building features and systems can reduce energy and water consumption. On the one hand, thanks to having been designed with passive temperature control and ventilation, and the number of windows and skylights implemented that take advantage of sunlight, the building uses 30% to 35% less energy than a conventional building. On the other hand, with the 60,000 photovoltaic cells (a component designed to convert solar energy into electricity) of the roof, providing almost 213,000 kWh of clean energy per year, can provide up to 15% of the energy demand of the building. Finally, the roof is not common its 10,000 m2 are fully landscaped with native plants resistant to drought. It collects rain water and has the capacity to collect 13 million liters of water per year, which is reused, and also get a cooling effect for the entire museum. Also, this ceiling has large skylights that are responsible for providing natural lighting to the museum.===

=== Materials : ===

===To make the process of deconstruction of the old facilities had to special care and environmental management. Over 90% of waste from demolition of old buildings were recycled. For example, factory recycled 12,000 tons of steel, 9,000 tons were reused in concrete for the construction of nearby roads and 120 tonnes of biodegradable waste was recycled in situ. The remains of the old complex are not the only recycled materials for the new headquarters of the museum. For the entire building's structural steel was used recycled steel and as mentioned previously, for the isolation of the walls we used a product consists mainly of cotton and 85% post-industrial recycled content.===

===On the other hand, over 50% of the renovated museum wood comes from sustainably managed forests and is certified according to the principles of the Forest Stewardship Council (FSC). In addition, the concrete used is 30% ash (a byproduct of coal power plants) and 20% of slag (a waste product of smelting processes), which has prevented the emission of more than 5,375 tons of carbon in the manufacturing process of the concrete.===

===Importantly a sustainable building, it must make a real help to the environment, as is the case of the new headquarters of the Academy of Sciences of California, where invested considerable was time to design the whole museum, and then used the materials needed to actually reduce environmental impact.===