This glass building is constructed in Jiangmen, Guangzhou. It is not the one in question but shows the possibility of style.
There is a report of a a high open zone in Baoding city where an ‘Optical Building’ is near completion.
ANROSOFT reports the whole building is 4,490 square meters of ‘sunlight reacting’ outside walls, roof, platform and other parts, all installed using the ‘solar glass curtain wall to breathe.’
These walls, by photoelectric conversion of light energy to electrical energy, are able to meet the building’s public lighting needs, but possibly also pipe power into the normal grid, power which is the equivalent to that generated by a small hydro-power station.
In addition to ‘building photovoltaic’ outside the main building, all of its subsidiaries make use of photovoltaic glass curtain walls.
At the completion of the entire project there will be 27,128 square meters of curtain walls which should, under ordinary sunlight, provide 1.5 megawatts of electricity.
It will be energy-saving building glass curtain walls providing solar power built into the overall design.
Which will mean that not only can it take full advantage of solar power but the buildings themselves can be works of art.
The concept model suggests the whole building looks like a sort of semi-transparent circuti board. A service life of up to 25 years is projected.
This is a most amazing project. If it works it will then be a case of getting the pricing right so that it is widely affordable. But perhaps this is truly the way of the future.