What’s not to love about a 95-room hotel with a giant, 400 foot built-in ski slope – especially if it’s powered by wind and sun? This is one resort that definitely redefines on-slope accommodations. Designed by the always imaginative Michael Jantzen, this eco-hotel offers a new way to experience the frosty luxuries of Aspen with all of our favorite green features.
Eight wind turbines and an array of solar cells supply most of the hotel’s energy needs, and each of the 95 rooms has operable windows that offer guests the advantage of fresh air. South facing windows help heat a large thermal mass in the floor of the lobby, providing passive solar heating along with a number of deeply buried earth pipes.
Additional amentities planned for the hotel include an eco-spa and gym with electricity-generating exercise equipment, and a number of shopping and dining options include a bar at the top of the slope. Jantzen hopes that the design will “once again demonstrate(s) how even the most luxurious places on earth can, and should be, built in an earth friendly way.”
+ Michael Jantzen
This is a very cool concept. Even though I don’t ski, I’m for passive solar in every possible use.
My husband and I are planning a very passive solar house which we expect to build in 2012.
We are working with a green architect who was recently written up in the New York Times http://www.nytimes.com/2009/11/05/garden/05tree.html?_r=1&scp=1&sq=Roald%20Gundersen&st=cse
and we are taking the siting very seriously to maximize solar gain.
But last week we realized that anyone facing big window at the sun should also consider the position of the moon, which can vary quite a bit at times.
Check out our post on how to make sure you maximize your lunar as well as solar energy at
http://digginginthedriftless.wordpress.com/2010/01/19/passive-solar-meets-the-moon/
Shouldn’t we all be a little loony?
Denise
Architecture that hides in the landscape is easy on the eyes. This example appears to be easy on the eco-system as well. Denise, I am in the solar business and have a client with an evacuated tube solar hot water system. He logs data regularly and has found clear full moon summer nights have different data (warmer collector temperature) than clear dark summer nights. This has been happening since the install in 2008.
Ray Pokorny
I’m not sure about this design… The run looks a bit narrow, so unless it’s very light traffic, you’re an expert ski hillest, or incredibly lucky, you’ll probably be killed flying off the edge.
next all you have to do is add a water slide and a ferris wheel. Its a bit strange