Constellation Energy Corporation (CEC) is spreading its business interests from renewable power to green architecture by building Mindanao’s first eco-friendly building in Cagayan de Oro City.
CEC’s partnership with ItalPinas Euroasian Design and Eco-Development Corporation (ITPI) has earned both firms local and international awards for their pioneering work in the city.
“Constellation Energy’s venture into green architecture is but a natural consequence of our company’s full thrust in exploring multi-technology RE projects,” said CEC Chairman Jose Leviste, whose firm has RE service contracts with the Department of Energy (DOE) for several geothermal, wind and hydroelectric projects all over the country.
Italian architect Romolo V. Nati, ITPI Chairman and CEO, said the firm’s first project, the Primavera Residences – a P450-million mixed-use 10-story twin-tower condominium – has eco-friendly design features, such as an inner courtyard and a cross-ventilation layout among the units to increase natural airflow and illumination.
The 160-unit Primavera Residences Tower A, which was completed last year, boasts of shaded façades to reduce direct sun illumination on the windows to bring down internal temperature of each unit. The building is equipped with photovoltaic solar panels on the rooftop for renewable energy production.
“With ItalPinas, we put our money where our mouth is by going to great lengths to put up eco-friendly and sustainable building,” said Nati, who also sits as vice chair of Constellations Energy.
Atty. Jose D. Leviste III, president of ItalPinas, said Primavera’s “passive design elements” had resulted in the reduction of 20 energy consumption in air-conditioning expense for their building residents.
Due to its revolutionary nature-friendly designs, Nati and Filipino architects at ItalPinas have received a number of green architecture awards, including one of the “Best Condo Developments” in the Philippines at the 2011 Southeast Asia Property Awards (SEAPA) held in Singapore in November 2011; and the “Special Energy Award” in the 2011 Design Against the Elements (DAtE) global architectural design competition.
Recently, its latest green condominium project received recognition from the Climate Technology Initiative Private Financing Advisory Network (CTI PFAN), whose funding partners include the Asian Development Bank (ADB) and the United States Agency for International Development (USAID).
Set up in 2009, ItalPinas EuroAsian Design and Eco-development Corporation has partnerships with ICCP (Investment & Capital Corporation of the Philippines) Group of Companies, the leading independent investment bank in the country and the owner of a land development estate in Northern Mindanao; Habitat for Humanity Philippines; Pueblo de Oro Development Corporation; and FODC (First Oriental Development Corporation), a triple AAA contractor specializing in green building construction.
Featured in the Manila Bulletin, 11 July 2013
