With sustainability a hot topic, how do developers make their projects green?
Almost overnight, the issue of green building has risen to the top of the agenda for the GCC's construction industry.
Until a few years ago anyone advocating green building may have been stereotyped as a far-out hippy.
Yet the realisation that global warming is a reality has meant that the concept of going green has been embraced by big business.
The Gulf region is known to be the least eco-friendly part of the planet.
And the construction industry was proven to be one of the worst culprits in adding to its huge carbon footprint.
But now, coupled with the drive to create the tallest and largest structures in the world is a desire to prove that the region can lead the way in sustainable construction.
Already, the world's first building with integrated wind turbines - the Bahrain World Trade Center in Manama - is nearing completion.
And last month, the Abu Dhabi Future Energy Company revealed more about its plans to build the first zero-carbon city in the world.
The US $15 billion (AED55 billion) Masdar City, designed by Lord Norman Foster, will make use of solar power to provide much of the city's energy.
And in Dubai, His Highness Sheikh Mohammed bin Rashid Al Maktoum, Vice President and Prime Minister of the UAE and Ruler of Dubai, has said that all new buildings must be sustainable.
As developers announce their latest ground-breaking projects, more and more of them are keen to boast that the building will have Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design (LEED) status.
But what are the actual processes that architects, developers, consultants and contractors need to go through to make their buildings more green?
One of the leaders in the region in promoting the concept is Atkins.
The company has worked on some of the best-known projects in the region, including the Burj Al Arab and the Bahrain World Trade Center.
Richard Smith, technical director, Atkins, believes that the process of green building requires four stages.
He says these are passive design; improved engineering; recovery strategy and the use of renewables.
Passive design means creating the building in the virtual world. It involves generating a computer model of the building to create better orientation and insulation.
In conjunction with these state-of-the-art techniques, architects are finding inspiration from buildings from the past.
Before the advent of air-conditioning and artificial heating, constructing buildings with thick walls was the only way of retaining heat.
But now designers are endorsing the creation of more ‘gothic' styles of buildings to save energy.
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Scaffolding is a very common construction component, one that should never be taken for granted.
The Bay Square project has shrugged off obstacles such as interference from infrastructure work and rising costs.
The race to build the tallest says much about the values of society. Should building tall be a source of pride?
Should the GCC nations be looking beyond traditional borders to plug its widening skilled labour gap?
Steven Miller encourages architects and clients to pay less attention to building 'icons'.
When it comes to dream projects, designing an island has to be pretty high up on the wish list.
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