Gallery: Golfers Can Tee Off on This Zero-Energy Clubhouse’s Green Roof

Hot air is taken from the restaurant's kitchen and filtered to a hypocaust.

The clubhouse serves multiple functions. In addition to becoming an extension of the greater greens, it has an inner courtyard where golfers finishing up their game can enjoy a meal or drink, or collect a prize during award events. Both the green roof and golf greens are kept weed-free without harmful pesticides and absolutely no energy is wasted. (For more coverage about golf courses, check out the floating Golf Course set to break water in the Maldives.)

The restaurant kitchen produces a lot of hot air which is then filtered through a ventilation system to a hypocaust that heats the floors of the bar and restaurant. A heat exchanger releases half of the heat from the cooler air into the incoming fresh air that heats the clubhouse air and water with the aid of an additional air/water heat pump.

+ X Architekten Architecture

Via Architizer


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1 Comment

  1. lazyreader October 3, 2011 at 2:28 pm

    What do pesticides have to do with weeds. I believe you mean herbicides. You still have to mow the grass intensely. Specific issues include the amount of water that’s available for the public courses to use involve many millions of gallons. The number of golf courses that have sprung up in the American SunBelt states has risen dramatically as the climate year round is favorable enough to be one of the few outdoor activities people still do in the winter instead of bundling up or going indoors. Researchers estimate that golf courses worldwide consume about 2.5 billion gallons of water a day. Many Western countries have instituted environmental restrictions on where and how courses can be built. In some parts of the world, attempts to build courses and resorts have led to protests, vandalism and violence. Golf is still perceived by much in the rest of the world as elitist, where as in America golf is no longer the game of kings. Over 37 million Americans golfed last year, not all of them can be millionaires. Extreme golf is played on environmentally sustainable alternatives to traditional courses. A cross between hiking and golf, the course layout exposes players to a wide range of natural obstacles and challenging terrains, little landscaping is performed and the plants that are already there are left on their own. Others take place un-mowed meadows and forest instead of fairways, with “goals” scored on temporary greens, little putting takes place. It’s not the country club that needs to change, the practice needs to change.

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