Green technology at Taiwan’s international flora expo

The Taipei International Flora Exposition’s Pavilion of Fashion features the latest and greatest of green technology－the Pavilion of Fashion or “EcoARK.“ The EcoARK is a perfect example of promoting green concepts such as reduce, reuse and recycle, for it is the world’s first building constructed entirely from garbage, literally.

The ark is made from plastic bricks made from 1.5 million recycled PET bottles and all of the materials used during the research and development, manufacturing, and construction phases were “100% Made in Taiwan.” While the building is light and has an airy interior due to the use of semi-transparent PET bricks, it also boasts an extremely solid and stable interior structure and is said to withstand winds 1.5 times stronger than those of hurricane Megi. More so, despite the EcoARK’s simple design, it seems to radiate with beauty particularly at high noon when the sun is shining through and it doesn’t give you the feeling that you are in the middle of trash at all.

I was really impressed how all of the plastic bottles used were stuck together. The design reminded me of Chinese temples and how they are put together without the use of nails or screws. I was also impressed with the small stream around the entrance because it gave the EcoARK a calming, welcoming effect for visitors. In addition, the use of flowers around the building emphasized that although I was in a building made out of garbage, it was still lovely to be in.

The architecture of the EcoARK has set new standards for the world in terms of what can be accomplished by recycling. It is one of its kind and displays how sustainability can be achieved through the materials that are often used in everyday life. A professor of architecture at National Taipei University of Technology, Peng Kuang-hui, said “the Xinsheng project successfully minimized its impact on the environment; it’s a perfect example of energy-saving green architecture. More so, Chang Chi-yi, an associate professor of architecture at National Chiao Tung University, said “with an excellent ventilation system and reusability, the EcoARK has established a model for future architecture”. I couldn’t agree more with both of these statements.

Taiwan has really shown itself as well as the rest of the world what it is capable of and what measures the world can start taking to promote and create a more sustainable environment. If other countries can start thinking about using recycled materials and other green techniques to create infrastructure, this will help protect and sustain the environment to a huge extent and could alter the future of the world drastically. Hopefully if this does catch on more, other countries can use Taiwan’s accomplishments at the flora expo as reference and be inspired to know that something as simple as one bottle can go a long way into building one sustainable earth.

In the meantime, if you are interested in how Taiwan’s natural environment is depleting, you might want to check out the movie “Beyond Beauty-Taiwan from Above” despite its lack of solutions.