William McDonough has designed a skyscraper that takes the idea of a tree as an entire living system and applies it to a responsible philosophy for a tower. McDonough argues that the tower, much similar to a tree, can produce oxygen through vertically distributed plant-life, distill water that it comes into contact with, produce energy on a consistent basis, and adapt to the varying seasons for an overall efficient building.
Dubbed as the “tower of tomorrow”, passive and active sustainability is married with biomimetic strategies throughout the building. Waste water is designed to be re-used for irrigating the endless gardens scattered throughout the floors. The curves and volumes of the building are designed to make it more aerodynamic and space efficient to avoid excessive construction costs. The entire southern facade is made of photovoltaic panels that, coupled with an in-house natural gas plant, will supply a majority of the energy for the building.
