So we all know the world is heading towards being green. Solar, wind, hydro, electric energy. Check out the commercial real estate below, these buildings are the future of realestate.


Last but not least, green trophy buildings are all the rage, and like cars, they offer a fun, almost indulgent starting point for anyone trying to spruce up their ECO-ICONIC offerings. Consider the exhibitionist glee with which these buildings expose their vast green roofs, towering windmills and glimmering acres of solar panels.


The Bahrain World Trade Center is the world's first commercial building to incorporate large-scale wind turbines into its initial design. It has three massive wind turbines that measure 29 meters in diameter and are supported on bridges between the BWTC’s two 240-meter-high towers. The turbines generate approximately 11–15% of the BWTC’s total energy needs.



The Castle House, a 42-storey apartment tower under construction at Elephant and Castle in London, will feature a roof with an array of integrated wind turbines, each nine meters in diameter.
The Lighthouse is currently being designed by international consultants Atkins (who also designed the aforementioned Bahrain WTC), and is envisioned as a 360-meter, 55-storey luxury low-carbon office tower in Dubai. Quite a lot of the structure’s energy will be gained from three huge 225-kilowatt wind turbines and 4000 photovoltaic panels. Plans are still in the development phase, but the building is slated to be completed by 2010.
The 309-meter-tall Pearl River Tower in Guangzhou, China, designed by Skidmore, Owings & Merrill, aims to be one of the most environmentally-friendly buildings in the world. Slated for completion in 2009, it too features turbines that turn wind into energy for the building's heating, ventilating and air conditioning.





More Dubai: the 370-meter, 92-floor Wave Tower, designed by the Spanish architectural group A-cero, will be located right on the water. The “seascraper” is designed to be a green building: interior gardens or 'sky gardens' will be located in common zones, improving the air quality and working as natural temperature regulators. The building's silk-screened glass skin will assist with controlling heat from the sun. Wave Tower will also contain a water purification plant, which will desalinate and purify the surrounding sea water to be used as drinking water and for landscape maintenance and sewage.



The Solstice on the Park, a 26-storey residential tower in Chicago's Hyde Park neighborhood, to be completed in September 2010, is literally shaped by solar access. Its surface is designed to precisely the optimum angle for 41.5 degrees north (Chicago), which allows the sun to enter the apartments during winter for passive solar warming and keeps it out during the summer to reduce air-conditioning usage. The saw-tooth design creates balconies that block direct midday sun, decreasing the need for power-hungry air conditioning. In winter, when the sun is lower, rays pass through the windows to warm the interior. Quote from the architects: “By making latitude into a visible feature for the façade and its reason-to-be, the project challenges the current notion of pure iconography and symbolism in tall buildings."





The Agro-Housing concept by Israeli Knafo Klimor Architects is a combination of housing and urban agriculture. The building is composed of two parts: an apartment tower and a vertical greenhouse. The greenhouse is a multi-level structure for cultivating crops such as vegetables, fruits, flowers and spices. It's equipped with a drip-irrigation system, heating system and natural ventilation. Knafo Klimor Architects developed this concept with concern for predictions that 50% of China's citizens will eventually live in its cities, a trend mirrored in many developing countries in the world.





South Beach is a planned commercial and residential complex to be located on Beach Road in downtown Singapore. The development will feature two new towers, 45 and 42 stories tall, which house two luxury hotels, offices and apartments. Designed by British architectural firm Foster + Partners, a key feature of the design is a large 'environmental filter' canopy that covers open spaces, providing shelter from the elements and drawing air currents to cool the area beneath it. The two towers will have slanting facades to catch wind and direct air flow to ground-level spaces. The buildings' facades will also incorporate photovoltaic cells. Rainwater will be collected off the towers and the canopy and flow into a holding tank underground, instead of being wasted. South Beach is scheduled for completion in 2012.




And last but not least, expect many more green roofs and walls to add to the ECO-ICONIC landscape. From GAP’s headquarters in San Bruno, California, to the California Academy of Sciences in San Francisco to the Ann Demeulemeester store in Seoul, to the ACROS building in Fukuoka, Japan. And yes, green roofs will increasingly appeal to households, too