Taipei 101 was formerly known as the World Financial Center in Taipei. The building is a landmark of a very tall skyscraper, located in the Xinyi area of Taipei, Taiwan. The building was awarded the title as the tallest building in the world in 2004, although it was later defeated by the Burj Khalifa building in Dubai in 2010. However, another feature of this building is also crowned as the highest green building in the world.
This huge building consists of 101 floors, which is why it was named Taipei 101. The title of the tallest building has been in this building from March 2004 to March 10, 2010. It is worth noting that the first time it got the title was also the first sign of the world’s record-breaking building with half a kilometer long.
Although about six years later the height of this building was defeated by the Burj Khalifa, Taipei 101 remains the highest in the top ten of the world today. In July 2011, the building is still the largest, even adding to its title as the most widely used green building.
The height of this building reaches 509.2 meters (about 1,671 feet). It is able to surpass the tallest building in the world before, the Petronas Towers in Malaysia which has a height of 451.9 meters (1483 feet). The building also defeated the Tuntex Sky Tower as high as 347.5 meters (1,140 feet) consisting of 85 floors in Kaohsiung. The building was previously the highest in Taiwan. Shin Kong Life Tower, the tallest building in Taipei was also conquered because its height only reached 244.15 meters (801 feet), composed of 51 floors.
Its success to be the world’s tallest green building is marked by bagging LEED Platinum awards (Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design). The award is awarded by U.S. Green Building Council (USGBC) which is the highest certification level and the highest honor for green building in the world.
The certification of this building has set three records at once: the tallest building in the world; the largest green building (about 150,000 m2); and the most widely used green building (there are about 90 more tenants in it).
According to Harace Lin, President of Taipei Financial Center Corp., the efforts made by Taipei 101 indicate that environmental protection will save more costs and bring in revenue in the future.
It is not easy to be in that position. Lin said when receiving the award that his company has spent about 60 million Taiwan dollars (approximately $ 2.08 million US dollars). The time spent was also a lot, more than 10,000 hours spent two years to earn the LEED certification.
This green building has saved as much as 14.4 million kilowatts/hour of electricity each year. The value is equivalent to 36 million Taiwan dollars, or about 18 percent of electricity saved for three years.
The design specification for the CO2 level in this building is 600 ppm (parts per million), which is lower than the national standard of 1,000 ppm. This is what makes the occupants of this building can enjoy the fresh air in the building due to low CO2 levels.
In 2014, Taipei 101 was also reportedly awarded the highest green building in the world and became an example of building for the whole world. Despite being the third tallest building in the world at the time, Taipei 101 received two special sustainability awards: “World’s Tallest Green Building” and LEED Platinum certification.
The building employs about 11,000 people. A large number of existing workers does not make the managers of this building desperate to maintain their condition in any weather by producing ice in the building. This is intended to keep them feel the cool weather during the stinging summer or humidity in Taipei. The method that Taipei 101 did to cool the building was to use two dozens of giant refrigerators, not using air conditioning. Thus, the building can save as much as € 540,000 per year.
In addition, the greenery of this building is also shown on the roof of the building and the water recycling system that meets 20% to 30% of the water requirement in the building. Siemens Taiwan is working with EcoTech International and Steven Leach Associates in designing cooling and recycling systems. This makes the building more advantageous in terms of utilizing the environment as a source of electricity when electricity prices are soaring.
This method can also be applied to building construction around the world, adjust the environmental conditions. With so many technological innovations, it is no wonder that Taipei 101 is modeled as the tallest building but conscious about the environment.
