Rio de Janeiro – The city’s latest cultural addition, the Museum of Tomorrow, has been designed to improve the quality of the environment around it.
The two-storey building designed by architect Santiago Calatrava uses cold water from the surrounding Guanabara Bay in its air conditioning system, reducing the museum’s energy consumption.
As it moves through this system the water is filtered and returned to the bay via reflective pools that cool the surrounding air by up to 2°C.
‘The building is like an organism that has a direct relationship with the landscape,’ says architect Santiago Calatrava, who designed the Museum of Tomorrow with a range of sustainable features, including solar panels which supply 9% of its power.
Architects and engineers are examining the potential of harnessing energy from the environment and incorporating their thinking into radical design. Read our Energetic Architecture microtrend for more. For the latest on Rio de Janeiro’s changing landscape in the run-up to the Olympics, see our recent Safari.