The Brooklyn Children’s Museum in New York is a visual treat as its lemon colored tiled exterior stands out in sharp contrast to the brown-colored surroundings. The museum’s ecofriendly feature to make the building sustainable and ‘green’ is what has made it accredited with the first LEED Silver certified status – the first ever for a New York Museum. The institution is set on an expansion plan which will make the museum bigger and better and for this a very novel idea of an ecofriendly canopy has been unveiled.
The canopy, made out of transparent ETFE material (which is a heat resistant plastic derived from fluorine) fused with dot matrix glass, would be used as it has a very high temperature resistance and durability. This innovative transparent enclosure has been designed by Toshiko Mori and would give an effect similar to the one we would experience in a thick canopy of trees – dappled and scattered sunlight.
The canopy spreads out across 75 feet and has a curved appearance in which four distinct and proportional curves meet at the center to form a unique design. From a bird’s eye view, the rooftop canopy would appear like a leaf that has been pinned down by four yellow colored pins which are actually bins that contain soft yellow cushions for seating purposes. The skeleton of the canopy is made out of lightweight tubes that have a width of 6 inches.
The Brooklyn Children’s Museum is essentially an eco-friendly building that makes use of recycled materials and renewable energy. The canopy would make the rooftop an ideal place for conducting summer events, concert, lectures etc. by making use of natural light in a pleasant way.
Via: Inhabitat
