Net-zero building has come a long way since its nascent stages. Designers and engineers once struggled to find methods that allowed occupants to live with modern comforts without relying on unsustainable energy sources. Passive solar heating, solar panels, hydropower and wind turbines posed viable solutions for indoor climate control and power generation but each reaches limitations in select environments. Green builders needed a power source that could be used on buildings across the globe regardless of climate, urban, or rural settings. All eyes turned to the little green slime that might just save the day. Algae are plenteous, hardy organisms that can survive in extreme conditions. They need only a bit of water and sunlight to thrive; by simply doing what they do best, algae create the type of energy that can produce electricity, purify water and freshen the air. Innovative scientists have been exploring algae’s potential for well over a decade. What they’ve found has caught the attention of green builders. Exhibition superstars Splitterwerk Architects is in the process of constructing its latest zero-energy housing community, BIQ. The BIQ building harvests power through the use of a bio-adaptive façade that houses countless microalgae. The façade is composed of louvres that allow the algae to flourish in natural light. (Imagine a building clad in tiny, narrow fish tanks and you’re thinking in the right direction.) Within their transparent homes, the algae transform the sun’s energy into chemical energy through photosynthesis; the algae consume carbon dioxide and release oxygen, creating fatty lipids in the process that can be converted into practical energy for the building’s use. By using algae as a source of  power, the BIQ can operate with minimal reliance on the grid and great cost-savings to its inhabitants.   Though BIQ will be...

One very positive response to the U.S. recession has come from what may perhaps seem a surprising quarter: While the movie “Field of Dreams” gave voice to the commercial development mantra “If we build it, they will come,” in the past few years this generally enthusiastic group has been admirably cautious. In fact, having contributed to the late ‘80s/early ‘90s recession with so much office development that the term “see-through buildings” became part of the real estate lexicon, this time around developers have significantly slowed the pace of new construction to the point, arguably, of helping to keep vacancy rates under control. Office property, in fact, has exhibited the most noticeable drop-off: The amount of property under construction fell from 172.4 million square feet at the end of 2008 down to 60.7 million square feet at the end of 2011 (and 56.4 million as of Jan. 29, 2012), according to CoStar Group data. Year-over-year, the office total grew last year, but only by 3 percent. Also significant but not as extreme have been shifts in the growth of industrial and retail construction, with the industrial sector reducing its pace of construction from 170.9 million square feet at the end of 2008 to 46.8 million square feet three years later, while the amount of retail under construction dropped from 145.1 million square feet to a mere 34.3 million. Indeed, Deloitte’s report titled “Real Estate Outlook: Top Ten Issues in 2012,” released in October, found that commercial real estate is being leased or purchased faster than new units are being completed, thanks to record low levels of construction activity. Office vacancy rates averaged 12.3 percent nationally in fourth quarter 2011, according to CoStar, which predicts a drop to 11.7 percent by the same time next year....