"The glass towers so prevalent in Taiwan are incompatible with the humid and hot local climate," Lin Hsien-te says. Glass produces a greenhouse effect. It allows hot shortwave sunlight to penetrate indoors and be converted into long-wave heat energy that is not easily dissipated. This building style is suitable for temperate climates, but here in the subtropics it entails an enormous consumption of power.
「台灣流行的玻璃帷幕大樓與本地溼熱的氣候格格不入，」林憲德指出，玻璃具有溫室效應的特性，它讓短波高溫的日光穿入室內後變成長波熱，不易消散到室外，是適合溫帶氣候的風格，拿到亞熱帶來，卻成了大量耗電的能源殺手。