Green buildings are 'sensible' and 'logical'

Sustainable buildings should be less reliant on technology

An expert on building sustainable schools has said that creating green buildings requires a change in attitude from all those involved in designing buildings.

Speaking at the Construction Week Building Sustainability into the Middle East conference, Abu Dhabi Education Council senior architect Jyoti Sharma said that architects should not rely on technology to solve problems in buildings.

“Most ‘green’ decisions are simply sensible and logical decisions. How much does it really cost to ensure your building is oriented correctly to reduce the cooling load required?” she said.

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Sharma said she had worked on renovation projects in the US and found it was far easier to convert stock from the 1920s to be more sustainable than stock from more recent decades. “At some point we decided we were going to try and solve all our problems through technology. We can’t solve all our problems with technology; we should do it through sensible thinking,” she said.

Sharma said that green buildings had to be designed through an integrated design process because of the need for financial trade-offs. “Cost-effective environmentally-friendly buildings may require trade-offs. The greater the ‘greening’, the more complicated the trade-offs, and the more the various disciplines in the design process must work together,” she said. “If it’s not economically feasible, your client won’t make the decision to construct a green building.”
 

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