This is a blog in two parts that is an account of a flying visit to the the UAE's Capital. There is not much sight seeing as
much of the activities are centred on the ARC conference. Arrival into Abu
Dhabi International Airport takes the traveler into a space resembling the Jedi
Temple, a cluster of drum shaped sculptures with flowing roofs that become the
walls before heading out into the main terminal. On leaving the airport it appears that work on Masdar City has ceased
for the weekend, the red terracotta sculpture of the Masdar Institute, sits within its dense cluster of buildings on
a concrete podium surrounded by tower cranes as the next phases get underway.
‘Please slow down, you are crossing the speed limit’ says a polite female voice as the Nepalese cab driver works his magic through the contraflows. Sheikh Zayed Mosque is grand, very grand shining white domes surrounded by minarets. The highway is green, very green, more like driving through a park than along a tree lined boulevard even the Gas/petrol stations are completely surrounded by trees. Signs of wealth are everywhere, Officers Club, Sport City, Convention Centre with sinuous glass tower and shading device that morphs into the roof of a grandstand apparently for people to watch the traffic. The skyline is dominated by glass towers, some with imaginative shading devices as the city becomes more energy conscious. Along the side of the road air conditioned bus stops announce the first part of the integrated transport system and the city's aspiration to encourage people out of their cars.
‘Please slow down, you are crossing the speed limit’ says a polite female voice as the Nepalese cab driver works his magic through the contraflows. Sheikh Zayed Mosque is grand, very grand shining white domes surrounded by minarets. The highway is green, very green, more like driving through a park than along a tree lined boulevard even the Gas/petrol stations are completely surrounded by trees. Signs of wealth are everywhere, Officers Club, Sport City, Convention Centre with sinuous glass tower and shading device that morphs into the roof of a grandstand apparently for people to watch the traffic. The skyline is dominated by glass towers, some with imaginative shading devices as the city becomes more energy conscious. Along the side of the road air conditioned bus stops announce the first part of the integrated transport system and the city's aspiration to encourage people out of their cars.
The sun sets behind the Ethiad Towers with shadows
and colours changing by the minute, the water becomes still in the
Intercontinental Marina and people pack up after a day’s boating on their motor
cruisers talking about the weather getting better and the best time of the year
being October, November what would the Brits talk about if there was no
weather? Mooring charges, a group of fifty-somethings discuss mooring charges
and how Intercon is as bad as Yas Marina, to the untrained eye, these boats are
huge representing a small fortune, or in most cases a large fortune, drinking
huge amounts of fuel, and they complain about mooring charges…I guess some
people are never happy.
The format of the event is based on one to one
meetings with suppliers punctuated by a series of short seminars given by a
group of engaging speakers, a bit like a years worth of CPD in two days. From the keynote address of Saeed Al Abbar, vice
Chairman of the Emirates Green Building Council, there is a real a sense of the enormity
of the task ahead of us in addressing the increased population demands on
cities whilst reducing energy consumption.
The headline Issues are that the population of the
UAE set to double by 2030, and energy security is a serious issue. Power is
heavily subsidized meaning that the population has no appreciation of the
amount of energy they are consuming. Power stations are gas fired using the
depleting reserves of natural gas in the emirate with moves being made towards
nuclear to cope with increasing demand along with renewables (Masdar). As
energy demands increase the imports of gas will increase along with LPG and the
use of oil at eight times the cost even Saudi Arabia is expected to become a
net importer of energy by 2030. Water
security, the UAE receives very little rain and demand for water is met by desalination
plants which are a heavy user of energy, meaning that if there are issues with
energy security, water supply is affected very rapidly, makes you wonder about all those trees! As Architects we are
acutely aware that buildings consume vast amounts of energy, to put it into
perspective, in the 1920’s a building in Abu Dhabi would consume absolutely no
energy. The 1970s following the discovery of oil saw a massive increase as the
use of air conditioning became the dominant means of cooling buildings, I
suppose it is not really so surprising that energy usage to cool buildings has
increased exponentially over the past 40 years when we consider the amount of
glass towers that have been built like those I was looking at earlier.
Rob Watson, founder of LEED (Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design) says that
Mother Nature does not care which label you use on your building LEED, BREEAM,
Greenstar… just that a label is used, or more specifically that the building is
designed responsibly and is assessed in terms of environmental performance. LEED
registered buildings and certification is on the increase despite the economic
downturn. Environmental trends show data supporting a positive view of
environmental performance improvement for LEED projects, emphasizing that there
are emerging economic benefits of sustainable design.
With the emphasis on 2030 remaining a constant, targets are set and revised on a year by year basis from data collected from
projects. Some of the big picture numbers include: Energy saving estimate 11%
in non-residential energy through the construction of LEED buildings and 13%
reduction in commercial water use. The increase in the reuse of existing
buildings will make an energy saving equivalent to 200million barrels of oil. As
more site area data becomes available from USGBC savings in terms of 'location
efficiency', the placement of projects in close proximity to transport routes is
showing tangible benefits based on the current trend a reduction of 70million
vehicular journeys by 2030 will save the equivalent of 30Billion gallons of
gasoline a year. On 'Indoor Environmental Quality', reports are associating an
economic value to good design that results in increased productivity and
reduced sick days. Green labeled buildings command a rent premium of 3-6% and
an increase in sales value of 11-19% meaning that not doing LEED is no longer
an option. In NYC For example, tenants are demanding green buildings and it is
now difficult to let buildings that are performing badly.
As the day moves into the one to one meetings there is a sense that there is a long way to go on the road to 2030, at the same time there is a sense that everybody is on board and doing what they can, whether it is about the recycled content of materials, longevity of products so that recycling happens further down the road, or about developing more intelligent tools enabling us to facilitate good design.
Abu Dhabi September 2012
I can’t help feeling that we are not doing not enough, and that there is still a long way to go to meet the targets of 2030, what is encouraging is that the trend is moving in the right direction and is beginning to gain momentum, and we are gaining access to data that can help convince clients to go green. Green building is here to stay!
As the day moves into the one to one meetings there is a sense that there is a long way to go on the road to 2030, at the same time there is a sense that everybody is on board and doing what they can, whether it is about the recycled content of materials, longevity of products so that recycling happens further down the road, or about developing more intelligent tools enabling us to facilitate good design.
Abu Dhabi September 2012
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