A Giant Air Purifier That Also Looks Great

The first time I looked at this photo, I thought to myself: “What a great rendering job!” Upon closer look at more photos, I then realized that this is an actual building that is built! The uniqueness of this building no doubt is its twisting form. It is a rather unusual form to be adopted for an apartment building. The form is not designed purely for aesthetic reasons but there are logical driving force behind it.

The architect designed this form to achieve 4 main objectives:

• To integrate the North / South pyramidal profile of the Building Volume defined with the urban setbacks stipulated by the Municipality of Taipei.

• As the suspended open-air gardens is not included in the floor area ratio, a dramatic cascades of these gardens is achieved since the planted balconies surface area can exceed the limit of the required 10%.

• Provide panoramic views of Taipei skyline to each inhabitants. Taipei 101 tower cab be seen from this building.

• Provide privacy to each apartment by avoiding direct vision axes. As the tower moves up every floor is rotated by 4.5 degrees clockwise to a total of 90 degrees. The tower looks different when viewed from different angles.

« Tao Zhu Yin Yuan » tower is self-sufficient energy wise. The “Tao Zhu Yin Yuan” tower is also inspired by the structure of double helix DNA (Deoxyribonucleic acid) which symbolises source of life, dynamism and twinning. Every double helix is represented in the project by two housing units forming a full level.

To achieve its Anti-Global Warming and Carbon-Absorbing Ecosystem objectives, Tao Zhu Yin Yuan covers its open spaces with trees, planting approximately 23,000 trees, shrubs and plants on the ground floor garden, the balconies and terraces of each household. It is estimated that the annual carbon absorption of this project could reach up to 130 tons with a green coverage of 246%, which is nearly 5 times higher than required by local regulation. Professional botanists carefully selected and planted multiple species of trees with better carbon absorption capabilities to improve the air quality. The growing plants on balconies provide oxygen, moisture environment, also mitigate the noise from surroundings. In addition, the tower integrates natural ventilation chimneys filtering the air inside the central core, rainwater recycle, wireless monitor control of LED lighting, fiber optic connection, light guide system and solar/wind power to achieve energy saving and carbon reduction. The double skin façade at the central core of the building extracts air at ground level by heating it in a specially adapted glass greenhouse at the base before letting the air pass through a series of filters and releasing clean air at the top. The heating at the base of the tower is done using solar energy. Think of the tower as a giant air purifier smacked right in the centre of a big city!

Solar panels is designed to integrate into the aesthetic of the roof.

Besides protecting the environment, the design team of this project also has to consider earthquake resistant. The structural design is inspired by the body of a skier in the design. The central core of the tower is the human body. The 5‐meter truss structure above 21F are the two arms. The megacolumns on the two sides are the ski poles. A suspended structural system and a Vierendeel truss system (a set of beams for every two floors) transfer all the weight via the arms (beams) to the body (central core) and then down to the foundation. The result is a one‐of‐a‐kind structural design that combines the science of mechanics and the art of aesthetics.

Tao Zhu Yin Yuan is a building that co-exists with the environment. The tower is a huge carbon absorbing Vertical Forest which sets the benchmark for designing eco-friendly buildings in urban environment. This tower no doubt has successfully put Taiwan on the map in terms of fighting global warming. It is a perfect example of action speaks louder than words. Let’s hope that more architects worldwide can learn a valuable lesson from this project.

第一次看这照片时，我对自己说：“现在的电脑可以画到如此逼真啊！” 但仔细查看其他照片后，才意识到原来这是一栋真正已建俊的建筑！这座建筑的独特性无疑是其扭曲的形状。对公寓楼设计来讲这是一种非常不寻常的建筑。

«桃竹银苑»塔的设计灵感取自于双螺旋DNA（脱氧核糖核酸）结构，双螺旋DNA象征着生命，活力和孪生的来源。

为了实现对抗全球暖化和碳吸收生态系统的目标，《桃竹银苑》用树木覆盖其空间，在底层花园，每个家庭的阳台和露台上种植了约23,000棵树木，灌木和植物。据估计，该项目的年碳吸收量可达130吨，绿色覆盖率为246％，比当地法规要求高近5倍。专业的植物学家精心挑选并种植了多种具有更好碳吸收能力的树木，以改善空气质量。阳台上生长的植物不但提供氧气，也减少了周围环境的噪音。此外，该塔还集成了自然通风烟囱，可过滤中心核心内的空气，回收雨水，无线监控LED照明，光纤连接，光导系统和太阳能/风能，以实现节能和减碳。建筑物中央核心的双层外立面通过在底部经过特殊改装的玻璃温室中加热空气来抽取地面空气，然后让空气通过一系列过滤器并在顶部释放干净的空气。塔底的加热系统利用太阳能。

除了保护环境，该项目的设计团队还必须考虑到抗震性。结构设计的灵感来自滑雪者的身体。塔的中心核心是人体。21楼上方的5米长的桁架结构是两条臂。两侧的巨型柱是滑雪杆。悬挂的结构系统和Vierendeel桁架系统（每两层一组横梁）将所有重量通过手臂（梁）传递到身体（中央核心），然后向下传递到基础。出来的效果是独一无二的结构设计，将科学和美学艺术融为一体。

桃竹银苑是一座与环境共存的建筑。该塔是一个巨大的碳吸收性垂直森林，为设计城市环境中的环保建筑树立了基准。无可否认的，这座塔成功地将台湾置于应对全球变暖的位置。这是行动胜于雄辩的完美例子。希望世界各地有更多的建筑师可以从该项目中学习到宝贵的一课以便在世界各地设计更多环保建筑。