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UAE: Designing a greener future
After decades of fast development and urbanisation that have put an immense strain on the ecosystem, the attitude towards the environment in the UAE is changing.
The 2006 Living Planet Report from the World Wildlife Fund (WWF) has revealed the UAE's human pressure on global ecosystems (its ecological footprint) to be the highest in the world. The country is currently five times more unsustainable than any other country, and with not much underway in the Middle East in terms of exploring alternative renewable energy sources, the region is in danger of facing a catastrophic energy crisis.
The region's construction industry is taking an increasingly proactive approach to tackling the imminent threats posed to the environment with a growing focus on sustainable building design.
According to Lee Morris, senior design architect, Atkins Middle East, it is up to designers and architects to lead the way in promoting ‘green' building design and sustainability.
"We need to work on changes in the Middle East," he said.
"Sustainability is a matter of survival. As Dubai has become suddenly urbanised, construction has occurred at extraordinary speed.
"But do we really know what we are doing? It is vital for those commissioning buildings to think about the long-term."
The Emirates Green Building Council is doing much to promote green building in the region.
It is currently working on preparing a set of ‘green' building guidelines specific to the Middle East, similar to US LEED ratings.
According to Dr Mohsen Aboulnaga, chairman of the Emirates Green Building Council, sustainable design includes buildings that "incorporate excellent practices resulting in environmental protection, water efficiency, water conservation, usage of recycled products and are energy efficient."
"Sustainable building has so many added values for every stakeholder - the developer, the owner, and the end user. Our wish is to achieve the highest level of sustainable building in the UAE."
Green buildings are healthy to live and work in, flexible in use and designed for a long lifecycle. Atkins is working on a number of sustainable building projects in the region including the Bahrain World Trade Centre, which uses wind turbines to generate up to 15% of the building's energy, and Trump Tower on Palm Jumeirah, which has vertically mounted solar panels to generate energy as well as pipes running through the external skin of the building which heat water.
Despite an increasing interest in sustainable building projects, challenges still exist. Many developers can be put off by the cost - sustainable building adds a minimum of 2% onto construction costs. However, Tony McLaughlin, partner at Buro Happold, points out that savings of 30-50% could be made on the long-term operating costs of a green building, and the productivity of people working in ‘green' commercial buildings has been proven to increase.
"Green buildings do deliver better returns. We need to create a ‘win-win' situation for the clients who pay for the buildings, and get more people to buy into the process."
Gaetean Siew, president of the International Union of Architects said: "For those who are still not convinced, the World Health Organisation published a paper which stated that if you invest in performance buildings they may increase productivity by at least 30%.
"When you think that the cost of an enterprise today is 70 times the cost of the energy used to run the enterprise, any saving you make there is well worth the small investment you make at the beginning."
Other challenges include the processes involved in designing sustainable high-rise buildings. "It is easy to design a sustainable low-rise building, so the challenge is applying this to high rise sustainability," said McLaughlin.
"If we are trying to defeat gravity we will consume a lot more energy than in a low-rise building. We need to find more sustainable solutions for high-rise buildings. The higher up you go, the more it will cost and the more energy it will need."
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