About to acquire the highest green building certificates from Taiwan's Ecology, Energy Saving, Waste Reduction and Health (EEWH) rating system and the U.S. Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design (LEED) rating system, the Y. S. Sun Green Building Research Center (Magic School of Green Technology), the first energy-saving and zero-carbon building in Taiwan, will be inaugurated on January 12th, 2011, in Li-Hsing Campus, National Cheng Kung University (NCKU), Tainan, Taiwan.
Consisting of three levels above ground one level underground and occupying a total floor area of 4,800m², the Y. S. Sun Green Building Research Center will serve as NCKU's international conference center and exhibit technologies achieved through green building research, utilizing the most economical and efficient green building technologies such as energy-conservation, renewable energy, waste reduction, water recycling and nano photo-catalysts.
"Even though National Cheng Kung University has many innovative teaching research buildings, the Y. S. Sun Green Building Research Center, donated mostly by Chairman Bruce Cheng of Delta Electronics, has a unique significance. It does not only symbolize the enterprises' concerns for the global ecology and their contributions to human well-being, it also signifies the beginning of NCKU marching towards a green era," said President Michael Ming-Chiao Lai of National Cheng Kung University in his opening address.
National Cheng Kung University has many fruitful achievements in alternative energy research; according to the academic ranking of the internationally renowned publisher company Elsevier, NCKU ranks 19th globally in the research papers of Alternative Energy and is the only Taiwanese institution among the global top 25 list.
In addition, acting in concert with the inauguration of the Y. S. Sun Green Building Research Center, the entire faculty and study body at NCKU have been comprehensively promoting activities with eco-friendly themes to truly implement green life, thus living up to the expectations of Chairman Bruce Cheng.
Delta Electronics' Founder and Chairman, Bruce Cheng, expressed, "The spirit of Mr. Yun-Suan Sun in devoting and sacrificing his entire life to the nation is an excellent model for the future generation, and thus the green building is named after him. In the hope of honoring his spirit, Delta Electronics and National Cheng Kung University have taken practical action to construct an energy-saving and zero-carbon building to mitigate global warming."
Chairman Bruce Cheng also revealed his sincere gratitude toward NCKU President Michael Ming-Chiao Lai, "Four years ago, when President Lai assumed the position of the President of National Cheng Kung University, he fully supported the construction of the green building, having especially reserved a forest land in the University for the building to reach zero-carbon."
Chairman Bruce Cheng emphasized, "The Y. S. Sun Green Building Research Center, which employs the LED energy-saving light bulbs and solar panels produced by Delta Electronics and other related enterprises, will not only become the embodiment of Delta Electronics' mission to provide innovative, clean and efficient energy solutions for a better tomorrow, it will also become Taiwan's most energy-efficient teaching building."
The Y. S. Sun Green Building Research Center, rewriting the history of world architecture research, has mobilized four top university professors who led twelve master and doctoral students to participate in an experiment of the construction of a never-seen-before green building.
According to the precise analysis done by Department of Architecture at National Cheng Kung University, it is expected that the building's annual Energy Usage Intensity (EUI) to be 43kWh/(m².yr), much lower than the 125kWh/( m².yr) of regular office buildings, and its energy-saving ratio to be 65%.
Generally, the Energy Usage Intensity of office buildings in Taiwan ranges from 241kWh (m².yr) on high floor and 169kWh/(m².yr) on the low floor, and even small business offices which have no elevators have an EUI of 97kWh/m².yr).
Internationally, the EUI of office buildings in England, United States, Hong Kong, Singapore and China are approximately 404kWh/(m².a), 390kWh/(m².a), 304kWh/(m².a), 217kWh/(m².a) and 111.2kWh/(m².a), respectively.
The cost of the Y. S. Sun Green Building Research Center, which is NT$87,000 per 36 square feet, adopts 13 different green building design methods, including 5 natural ventilation energy-saving methods, 2 equipment reduction methods, and 5 equipment energy-saving technologies and renewable energy technologies.
Among the 13 methods, the most exciting one is the natural buoyancy ventilation technology, allowing an international conference hall which can fit 300 people to stay cool in summer and warm in winter without turning on the air conditioning.
The air conditioning system of modern buildings can easily cause condensation, mildew, accumulated dust and bacteria as well as pneumonia, but the Y. S. Sun Green Building Research Center have completely overcome the disadvantage, guaranteeing the healthiest air quality by using the antibacterial and environmental-friendly steel donated by an enterprise.
For instance, the toilets in Y. S. Sun Green Building Research Center have adopted the UB-FINE water reduction system of zero power and hand-free access, one of the most unique and environmental-friendly designs, and it can prevent bacteria from spreading and cross infecting.
The two hundred tons of serpentine jade cement, to be used as the stone material for the international conference halls, have high degree of alkaline, magnetic field and hydroxyl radicals and can release large amount of far-infrared which can purify air and activate cells, benefiting human health.
The Y. S. Sun Green Building Research Center, aka Magic School of Green Technology, got its inspiration from Noah's Ark, echoing the renowned masterpiece, "Hot, Flat, and Crowded," by American journalist Thomas Friedman, which states that the world needs a million Noahs and a million Arks to save living beings and protect biodiversity.
The exterior look of the green building is like a spaceship in Star Wars, having a leaf-like solar panel on the roof of the spaceship, ventilation towers that look marine command module with chimney, as well as railings, handrails and balconies.
The roof of the spaceship looks like Napoleon cap, forming a deep sunshade which can block most of the direct solar radiation from entering indoor, thus reducing the power consumption of air conditioning, and it has been made into a roof garden with Crassulaceae drought-tolerant plants, vividly showing a strong contrast between natural ecology and modern technology.
The inauguration ceremony of the Y. S. Sun Green Building Research Center will be held on January 12th, 2011, in the Conference Hall on the second floor of the green building, where Founder Gunter Pauli of Zero Emissions Research Initiative, President Akihisa Iida from OM Solar, Japan, Director An-Gang Hu of Center for China Study at Tsinghua University, Beijing, as well as national green architecture scholars and architects will attend the ceremony.