Eco home projects get the green light

The Sunday Times

December 14, 2008
Sustainability is the new buzz word for builders

Peter Conradi

One of the solutions to Dubai’s problematic carbon footprint may be glaringly obvious. The sun shines here all year round, so why not make use of it to help the environment?
The Dubai company Solar Technologies FZE announced plans in October to build the first solar panel plant in the Middle East. Measuring 61.4 sq ft, the panels will be the largest in the world, their makers claim.
New green building regulations, meanwhile, are due be submitted to Dubai’s ruling executive council, which will decide the timetable for implementation, starting next year. “Solar energy will feature strongly on the ratings and minimum standards that buildings should adhere to,” Eisa al-Maidour, assistant director-general of Dubai’s municipality for planning and building affairs and chairman of the green building committee, said recently, predicting that all buildings in the emirate would be environmentally friendly and energy-efficient in five to 10 years.
Since the beginning of this year, all new buildings in Dubai have had to meet global benchmarks on sustainability, while Nakheel, one of the country’s largest developers, is backing a campaign to encourage people to replace traditional incandescent light bulbs with low-energy ones.
The need for Dubai to improve its environmental record is clear as you sit in a frustrating traffic jam of 4x4s on Sheikh Zayed Road, surrounded by evidence of the relentless building boom that has transformed the emirate over the past decade. Stung by studies portraying it as one of the world’s worst polluters, the emirate’s rulers have begun looking at ways of creating a more sustainable future.
Green ideas are finding their way into the design of new homes: with searing temperatures the main challenge, buildings are sited to take advantage of prevailing sun and wind conditions; ideally, small towers will be built in the shadow of larger ones, enough to reduce temperatures by a precious few degrees.
Conserving water – most of which comes from energy-intensive desalination plants – is also a challenge. Nakheel, which set up its own environmental department in 2004, says treated water on the man-made Palm Jumeirah island is reused for landscaping, cooling and fire-fighting. At its Shoreline Apartments on the palm’s trunk, solar panels are used to heat water.
Rival developer Damac is also going green and is proud of its flagship Damac Heights development at Dubai Marina, which it hopes will be granted gold status under the US-designed Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design (LEED) system being adopted in the United Arab Emirates.
Sustainability is an important selling feature for some residential projects now going on sale. Take the Atrium, a £1.1 billion mixed-use scheme being built by Australia’s Sunland Group in Madinat Al Arab, in the city’s Water-front precinct. The 68-storey skyscraper, expected to be completed by 2013, will be formed of two arching towers that blend together at the 47th level to form a single sculpted gateway, framing and maximising views to the Arabian Gulf and the city.
The complex will feature 1,045 luxury flats, from 60 sq m studios, priced at £442,000, up to a 1,318 sq m £13m penthouse. Although the emphasis will be on luxury, the Atrium will produce 1.725m kWh of renewable energy each year from solar hot water and photo-voltaic panels and wind turbines. Other features include a “smart” air-conditioning system that slightly increases the temperature inside the building when it hits 35C outside. To conserve water, air-conditioning condensate will be used to help irrigate green spaces. There will also be a centralised recycling system, car pooling services and specially designated parking slots for hybrids – a rarity on the streets of Dubai.
Sustainability has guided thinking behind the masterplan for the entire Waterfront-Canal District, a mini-city on a 500-acre site, where 60,000-70,000 people will eventually live and work. In an attempt to lure people out of their cars, the complex will have its own light rail system linking into the Dubai metro, which is due to be completed next year; there will be stops in each of the eight subdistricts into which it is divided. In a novelty for a city in which people don’t often walk, there will also be parks and pedestrian boulevards. The buildings will be designed to minimise energy and water use, with a network of canals providing a further cooling effect. The first phase should be completed in the middle of the next decade.
“Environmental consciousness in Dubai is at a much higher level than it was even five years ago,” says Sudhir Jambhekar, a senior partner at FxFowle, New York-based architects, which drew up the master plan for the development. “Everyone is talking about sustainability but it’s all incremental. Yes, there are contradictions, but we are optimistic that we can overcome them.”