Intent on producing one of the greenest buildings in Latin America, SPACE Architects + Planners have unveiled their Efizia Tower design for the Santa Fe district of Mexico City. The 33 story tower will be made from 30 percent recycled materials, including aluminum, reinforced concrete, and glass, and will boast numerous eco-friendly features. Efiza Tower was named one of the three best tall building projects at the 2009 MIPIM Architectural Review Future Projects Awards, and is currently under the LEED certification process, having already obtained the gold standard at its pre-certification stage.
What began as a response to developer Diimx’s call for “The Best Building in Latin America,” turned into a vision for Mexico’s second LEED Gold building. Led by managing director Juan Carlos Baumgartner, of SPACE’s Mexico City office, Efizia Tower was selected for its speculative scheme, which employed edgy design with environmental performance in the context of the built environment.
Composed of a dual facade (the first in Mexico) with double glazed glass and an irregularly shaped stainless steel mesh, the tower’s skin allows natural light to penetrate the outer layer while also absorbing heat and offering shade — thus diminishing stress on the building’s air conditioning systems and successfully reducing electricity consumption by over 37 percent. Baumgartner’s use of LED lights on all public areas will also be a factor in lowering the building’s overall consumption load.
Other eco-friendly elements of the Efizia Tower include: grey water recycling, a green roof made from local vegetation, low VOC emissions from paint and carpet backing, as well as the incorporation of local raw materials in the construction of the building.
The Efizia Tower is expected to reach completion by the end of 2012, when it is expected to serve as the towering benchmark for sustainable design in the Latin American region
+ SPACE Architects + Planners
Via Platforma Arquitectura
