Dreams of green

The Building Sustainability into the Middle East conference was held at the Sheraton Abu Dhabi and covered various topics from sustainability regulati

The UAE has almost no renewable water resources but people living here have one of the highest per-capita water-consumption rates in the world.

According to the Environment Agency Abu Dhabi, each resident uses an average of 550 litres of water per day – this is not inclusive of the water used for landscaping and agriculture. In comparison, people living in Jordan consume 85 litres while in the US and Canada, countries with far greater water resources, residents use 485 and 425 litres, respectively.

This scarcity has led to the introduction of various initiatives including water saving devices. In Abu Dhabi, the taps of 300 mosques were fitted with the devices that slash the flow of water from 12 litres per minute to 3 litres per minute.

But these things need to be considered very early on, ideally during the design stages, explains Aldar Properties’ infrastructure manager, George Kenich. Aldar Properties is one company that has considered a number of water conserving techniques in its building designs including the reuse of storm water.

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“Infrastructure-wise, one of the things you look at when planning a big construction is how can it utilise grey or black water for other things - for example in irrigation or in landscaping - the way we’ve done in Yas Island where we have a big sewerage treatment plant and use this water for irrigation,” said Kenich.

“The MEP engineer and designer have to work together to look at how to slash energy consumption in buildings. This has to be put in at the early stages of design, whether constructing a building or a city,” he added.

Good Intentions

David Crowder, head of MEP, Atkins, supports Kenich’s theory, explaining that integrating efficiency in a building requires early input.

“The earlier you can get into a design and start integrating those features the better and more efficient it’s going to be. Trying to do things later on when design has already progressed to an advanced stage – it becomes very difficult and you often miss the opportunity.”

However, it is not entirely impossible to convert an existing building into one that considers efficiency and sustainability issues. Recently, the 12,000m2 Dutch Embassy in Jordan, became the first building in the country to be certified LEED silver.

The strategy employed by Consolidated Consultants (CC) involved developing an infrastructure for the building, based in Amman, similar to that found in buildings in the Netherlands. When the design concept was developed for the project, construction was planned to start at the top left of building. This was where the only single storey residential building stood.

“Conscious decision was made by architects and designers not to tear it down and instead to maintain the original structural elements as much as possible,” said Rashed Al Nasa’a, design architect for CC. “80% of the original building was maintained – reusing the original structure in order to minimise environmental impact was a major design strategy.”

Many of the existing elements were utilised including the turf grass, covered with ground cover in order to minimise water consumption. The existing swimming pool was kept and maintained on site and is now used as a thermal storage tank for the building’s HVAC system, connected to the heat pumps and used for heating and cooling in addition to the solar panels used to heat the pool water.

“The whole idea of thermal storage is that it increases the efficiency of the system, providing storage heat and actually making the system run at better capacity during summer or even winter when you do have a lot of solar radiation – this is where the system is beneficial to use,” explained Al Nasa’a.

Water consumption was a primary concern for the team which was working to reduce this by 30%. Many of the building’s water efficient strategies were limited to using water efficiently in WCs and sinks.

“A main component that enhanced water efficiency for the project was in regards to landscape design and strategy. All plants used on site were native or adoptive landscape species which use minimal if any water for irrigation, and water used for irrigation is harvested rainwater captured on site through underground tanks connected to an irrigation system.”

Where energy was concerned, Al Nasa’a said CC concentrated on more passive strategies including ensuring the air itself was well insulated and the building was airtight using high performance glazing. Furniture within the building has been made from recyclables or can be recycled.