PETpla.net Insider 10 / 2012

PET - THE NEXT GENERATION 22 PET planet insider Vol. 13 No. 10/12 www.petpla.net Recycled PET bottles for low carbon façade systems A PET brick in the wall “A product design company that got into architecture,” that is how Taiwanese company Mini- wiz Sustainable Energy Development describe themselves. Founder Arthur Huang and his company conceptualised, designed, tested and manufactured a system made from recycled PET bottles. A total of 480,000 interlocking “bricks” were used for the façade at the EcoArk pavilion which forms the centrepiece of the 2010 Taipei International Flora Expo. The latest project is an architectural design and supply of a new electronic waste recycling plant. Polli-Brick is a building material made from 100% recycled polyeth- ylene terephthalate polymer (PET). It is translucent, naturally insulated and durable. The modular 3D honey- comb self-interlocking units make it extremely strong without any chemi- cal adhesives. Polli-Brick can be assembled into rectangular panels or any customised shape. It can be tailored to either a simple modular, quick to install, affordable cladding system or an interactive colour LED integrated animated building skin system. A Polli-Brick panel can bear up to 3,300Pa of destructive lateral wind force (up to Category 5 hurri- canes) without any damage or water seepage and weighs only one-fifth of the material of the standard curtain wall system. The performance enhanced films enforce the panel strength while pro- viding extra protection against UV, water and fire. The PC coating makes the Polli-Brick panel scratch-resistant and easy to clean. Polli-Brick can fur- ther enhance its environmental dura- bility with biaxial-oriented metallised film to give the building façade and roofing a semi-translucent aluminium finish with an extremely low carbon footprint. The cross-industry R&D hybridi- sation keeps the recycling process economically efficient since Polli-Brick can be mass manufactured on site, reducing the carbon footprint when compared with conventional glass and steel structures. The system reduces energy consumption in both trans- portation and construction phases, but the dead load itself reflects cost saving potential within the building structure. The EcoArk project The nine storey tall EcoArk of the 2010 Flora Expo in Taipai, Taiwan is a steel construction and an envelope of Polli-Brick panels with an iPhone controlled lighting system of 40,000 LEDs. The roof features a large pho- tovoltaic array to power the lighting, interior fans and a water feature. The structure of the Polli-Brick curtain wall was designed to be disassembled and reassembled in a new location after the Expo.