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Bright future
There's a growing political awareness that the Gulf's ecological footprint needs to be reduced.
Ask most people to name two key attributes of the Gulf region and invariably the response will involve the scorching sun and the abundance of oil.
Gulf states have built their fortunes on oil over the last few decades but increasing awareness of the damage caused by carbon emissions is turning the black gold into the bête noire.
H.H. Sheikh Mohammed Bin Rashid Al Maktoum's November 2007 mandate that all buildings constructed in Dubai must comply with LEED regulations means that, increasingly, architects are leading the charge by looking to the Gulf's other great natural resource: the sun.
LEED regulations require a reduction in a building's carbon footprint, which is achieved through the conservation and generation of energy.
With intelligent design and integrated technologies, architects can create solar-sensitive buildings that fulfill both these elements, and thus improve a building's overall LEED rating.
Back to basics
To start, good passive solar architecture can help handle the conservation side of the equation. "I think the more important thing here is conservation, so our windows and doors and systems are aimed at keeping the cool in," says Sam Brooks, Schüco technical manager.
Basic passive solar design can have a dramatic effect on improving the energy efficiency of a building for relatively little outlay.
Architects simply need to take into account the basic properties of the materials with which they choose to work.
For instance, selecting tinted glazing, rather than reflective glazing, will let as much light in as possible with a minimal amount of heat gain.
"You can have some specifications that allow 65% of the diffused light to go inside the space."
"With the luminosity that we have in Dubai, if you allow 65% to go inside, you can save a lot in artificial lighting because you won't need the same amount of luminosity of artificial lighting inside if you are allowing that amount of diffused light in," says Abdo Aoun, business unit manager for Somfy in the Gulf region.
Even with this information available, poor passive solar design is still a major problem in the region.
"One thing we're concerned with is the level of energy consumption and low levels of energy efficiency in buildings we're seeing in the UAE," says Andrew Machirant of Switchpower.
"The consumption of energy and the waste of cooling occurs through bad design."
Buildings that are designed to take into account the power of the sun and deal with it in a sensitive way-rather than relying on brute force air conditioning-will be more energy efficient.
To that end, there are several energy-driven systems that can be included in a building's fundamental design, which use minimal energy but increase overall energy efficiency.
The effect of the sun on a building façade varies both throughout the day and throughout the year, so a good architectural design will provide a degree of adaptability.
Several manufacturers provide automated louvres, shutters and blinds which allow a building to respond to the sun and reduce overall energy expenditure.
Such adaptable façades reduce thermal bridging, which reduces heat gain and results in a reduced cooling load.
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