2009-01-13 04:57:02 -

The rarely well-known, but healthy and sustainable, construction materials from mineral rocks, such as serpentine and "Singang stone", one kind of dolomite, naturally and abundantly reserved in eastern Taiwan has attracted great attention from architects and researchers in the field of green buildings. A donation ceremony of the healthy construction mineral rocks for the NCKU Education Center for Subtropical Green

Buildings (ECSGB), aliased Green Magic School, will be held on Jan 10th at the Parkview Hotel in Hualien County. The usage of the healthy construction rocks in the NCKU Green Magic School is expected to greatly increase popularity of these domestically reserved mineral rocks in the construction of green buildings.


The NCKU Education Center for Subtropical Green Buildings (ECSGB) with an alias as "Green Magic School", is considered as the first of its kind in the world and has adopted green serpentine from Hualien County and cream Singang stone from Taitung County, both locating in the beautiful eastern Taiwan, as a token of its green designs in the NCKU ECSGB construction project. Professor Jing-Wen Chen, the Vice President for General Affairs, and Professor Mou-Yung Yeh will attend the foundation meeting of the NCKU Alumni Association in Eastern Taiwan, where four companies, including SanTai Mining Co., Shan Huo Shan Mining Co., Kun Lian Co. and Taiwan Jade& Mineral Co., will conjointly make a gift donation of two hundred tons of healthy construction mineral rocks for building the NCKU Green Magic School. This will certainly play a pioneer model in education and construction of green buildings.


According to NCKU Professor Hsien-Te Lin of the NCKU Architecture Department and the project leader of the NCKU Green Magic School, the beautiful serpentine supplied from Hualien County is to be used in the International Conference Hall, which is a basic stone that can emit far infrared ray as well as purify and quarantine indoor air to vitalize attendees. Furthermore, serpentine, if used in outdoor water gardens, can also clean up water and reduce propagation of bugs and mosquitoes. Prof. Lin in his design also adopts collocation of cream Singang stone and green serpentine manifests the luxuriance. Utilization of Singang stone in design element is based on its known characteristics in lower heat conductivity and good heat insulation efficiency to fulfill the environmental friendly design requirements in the NCKU Green Magic School, especially in promotion of inhabitant health and in rendering a higher energy utilization efficiency.


Additionally, in order to promote the value-added mineral industry, especially in construction stone materials, the Ministry of Economic Affairs (MOEA) has established the Research Center for Stone and Mineral Resources Development. The center has agreed generously to provide without charge these gifted construction stone materials with special surface treatments to make them contaminant-free, water-proof, and oil-proof, by using their newly developed formulation in "environmentally benign nano-protectants for stone materials." This treatment will definitely extend the life of these stone materials and set up a good model for the ecological construction engineering.


Professor Hsien-Te Lin said that in domestic construction projects only colors and decorative designs, instead of health concerns of inhabitants, of stone materials patterns are considered. Very often, these extensively used imported stone materials could contain, not on purpose, trace of Radon, which could cause significant health concerns. Compared with other expensive imported mineral rock, local mineral rock produced in eastern Taiwan is mainly metamorphic oceanic sedimentary rocks without any possibility of emitting nuclear radiation. "It contains not only a great amount of shell fossils, but also magnesium oxide with rich chlorophyll, which is good to mankind," added Professor Lin. Professor Lin also advocates that the domestic construction industry should take more advantage by making great use of domestically produced healthy stone materials as a landmark feature of Green Building Construction Industry of Taiwan.


The NCKU Green Magic School, aliased as "Y.S. Sun Green Building Research Center", was endowed by Chairman of Delta Electronics, Dr. Bruce Cheng's 100 million NTD donations, approximately 3 million USD to commemorate Y.S. Sun, one of Taiwan's most admired statesmen. The NCKU Green Magic School is slated to use "adequate techniques", instead of "expensive techniques", to achieve "quadruple benefit" with the challengeable aims to save 40% energy, to conserve 30% water, to reduce 30% carbon emission as well as for a utilization expectancy of one hundred years. This Green Magic school was awarded by the Architecture and Building Research Institute of the Ministry of the Interior as a "Diamond Level Candidate for Green Building Labeling."


About National Cheng Kung University


With three quarters of a century of distinguished history, with well over 120,000 powerful alumni now dotting the globe, many have achieved supreme successes in arts, business, education, science, technology and healthcare and are ready and willing to assist, with 20,000 academic selective students and 1100 academic significant faculty members currently, both have healthy dosage of international flavor, with enormous regional support, and with a permeating culture of proactive intellectual growth on the world's stage, NCKU in Tainan, Taiwan, has evolved from its engineering genesis to become a powerful comprehensive, research and international university in Asia Pacific.


For further information contact: NCKU Press Officer Wei-Chen Huang at 06-2757575 ext. 50042/mobil: 0952-213-421 or email: weichen@mail.ncku.edu.tw








National Cheng Kung University

NCKU Press Officer

Wei-Chen Huang, 06-2757575 ext. 50042

mobil: 0952-213-421

weichen@mail.ncku.edu.tw