2017考研英语阅读精选：世界最环保建筑智能吗?

考研英语来源：新东方网整理 2016-04-13　

Tomorrow’s buildings: Is world’s greenest office smart?

未来建筑：世界最环保建筑智能吗?

The Edge office building in Amsterdam prides itself on good coffee, lots of natural light - no desk is far from a window - and a gym that allows you not just to get fit but also to contribute to the energy supply of the office.

位于阿姆斯特丹的“边缘”大厦以美味咖啡和自然光线著称-所有办公桌都靠窗-大厦内还有一个健身房，不仅可以用来健身，还能为办公室提供能源。

It also flushes its toilets with rainwater, has a robot security guard that will challenge you if you wander around at night and a whole range of clever technology to make the building sustainable.

该栋大厦采集雨水冲洗厕所，如果你三更半夜在大楼附近游荡，机器人保安会上前对你进行盘问。大厦运用了一整套智能技术来保证其可持续性。

The developers behind it, Dutch firm OVG, liked it so much that they moved in when it was finished.

大厦发明者是一家荷兰公司OVG。他们非常喜欢这个设计，因此完工后他们便搬了进来。

So is the office that has already been dubbed the world’s greenest, really as smart as it seems?

这栋被称为世界最环保的办公大楼，在智能方面是否真的名副其实呢?

The building, whose main tenant is consultancy firm Deloitte and was designed by London-based architects PLP Architecture, boasts "smart" ceilings embedded with 28,000 sensors, which measure temperature, light, motion and humidity. The lighting, designed by Phillips, is also smart - each one of the LED panels is ultra-efficient and requires only a tiny amount of electricity.

这座大楼的主要用户是咨询公司德勤，它由总部设在伦敦的PLP建筑事务所设计，号称其“智能”天花板内置了28000个传感器，可以测量温度、光线、运动和湿度。智能照明系统由飞利浦设计-每个LED显示屏效率超高且消耗能源量极低。

Workers can control the temperature, lighting and blinds via a series of apps on their smartphones and work is ongoing to unify them.

职员可通过智能手机上一系列APP来控制大楼温度、光线和百叶窗，而不用中断工作。

Users select the temperature they want from a sliding gauge on their phone and it will in turn adjust the valves in the pipes above their head. Each valve controls the temperature of around four desks so they do have to hope that the colleague sitting next to them is also happy with the change.

用户可通过手机上的温度表选择适合自己的温度，同时他们头顶管道的阀门会相应调节，每支阀门控制4张办公桌范围内的温度。但愿他周围的同事乐意接受温度的改变。

Facilities manager Wybe Van der Mey tells me, with some degree of pride, that in the first year of opening he only received a handful of complaints about the heating.

后勤经理Wybe Van der Mey略带几分骄傲地告诉我，在大楼开放的第一年，他只接到很少的关于供暖方面的投诉。

"In a traditional building that would be our headache number one," he said.

“对于传统办公大楼，供暖将会是头号难题。”他说。

Workers can also use one of the apps to book meeting rooms, open lockers and check in to their desks.

职员同时可通过一款手机app预订会议室、打开储物柜以及解锁办公桌。

When The Edge first opened its doors in September 2014, around 20% of the workers checked themselves in via the app. That quickly fell to 10% and is now at around 1%, according to Mr Van der Mey.

据Van der May先生说，2014年9月“边缘”大楼首次开放时，约20%的员工通过手机软件上班打卡。很快这个比例降到10%，而现在只有1%。

"We hoped everyone would check in to their desks daily but they haven’t done that."

“我们原本希望所有人每天通过软件打卡办公，但是他们还没做到。