Manitoba Hydro Place - So Impressive

Wow, I am so impressed with this design. Take a look at Manitoba Hydro Place, designed by Kuwabara Payne Mckenna Blumberg Architects, with Architect of Record Smith Carter Architects. I am so impressed, this is one beautifully designed building, and very GREEN.

If you have ever been to Winnipeg, Manitoba, Canada in the winter, then you know how cold it gets there, and how long the winter can be. Heating gets to be pretty expensive too, and this building has been designed with great GREEN features, to help keep the costs down. Manitoba Hydro Place, relies mostly on "passive free energy" (sun heat). Take a look at the 377 Foot tall "Solar Chimney". It is very efficient at drawing air out of the building during the shoulder seasons, and in the summer it uses the stack effect. Then, in the winter, fans draw the exhaust air down, and use it to preheat all the incoming cold air, and warm the parking garage.

Depending on the season, there is even a 24 metre tall waterfall in each of the atria, which humidifies or dehumidifies the incoming air. In colder temperatures, recovered heat from the exhaust air, and passive solar radiant energy are used to warm the fresh air, which is then drawn through the raised floors, and into the office spaces through under floor fan units.

Humans, computers, appliances and other sources of heat cause the air to rise, it is then drawn north and exhausted by the solar chimney. In the shoulder seasons, the building relys entirely on ourdoor fresh air, using automatic and manually operated windows.

This building uses a closed loop geoexchange system with 280 boreholes 400 feet deep; which cools or heats water which is piped through the thermal mass of the concrete floors, heating/cooling the space in the building. The podium rooftop has deep soil intensive green roofs and accessible terraces, which creates a lush landscape outdoors for employees to enjoy.