A National Geographic Channel documentary on EcoARK, a three-story exhibition hall at the Taipei International Flora Exposition constructed of 1.5 million recycled plastic bottles, will be released at the end of March, expo organizers said March 22.
“This green building reflects the intelligence of the Taiwanese people,” said Joanne Tsai, senior vice president of NGC Network Asia’s Taiwan Branch. “Taiwan produces a huge quantity of bottles every year and this ingenious structure is a good example of turning waste into something valuable.”
According to Arthur C. Huang, head of the EcoARK design team and a founder and managing director with Miniwiz Sustainable Energy Development Ltd., the concept behind the structure is simply “to utilize nature and pick up our trash.”
“The idea is to make use of what nature has to give us and turn trash into something that can be utilized as a construction material,” Huang said. “It’s easy to say, but no one is doing it.”
The building uses natural wind to provide air-conditioning, while the waste bottles absorb sunlight during the daytime and function as light bulbs when night comes, Huang explained.
The hall is the first green construction in Taiwan to be spotlighted in NGC’s megastructures series.
“Megastructures: EcoARK,” co-produced by National Geographic and the Government Information Office, will be shown in Taiwan and Asia March 27. It will later be translated into 34 languages for broadcast in 168 countries around the world, attracting over 370 million viewers, NGC said.
Sponsored by the Far Eastern Group, the EcoARK, also known as the Pavilion of Fashion, has attracted 1.5 million expo visitors to date. (THN)
Write to Grace Kuo at morningk@mail.gio.gov.tw