{"id":55161,"date":"2017-05-18T00:20:24","date_gmt":"2017-05-17T17:20:24","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.siamlandbank.com\/propertynews\/?p=55161"},"modified":"2017-05-17T22:45:37","modified_gmt":"2017-05-17T15:45:37","slug":"think-outside-the-glass-box-when-building-in-the-uae-says-architect","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.siamlandbank.com\/propertynews\/property-news\/think-outside-the-glass-box-when-building-in-the-uae-says-architect\/","title":{"rendered":"Think outside the glass box when building in the UAE, says architect"},"content":{"rendered":"


\nBuilding owners who want to achieve high levels of sustainability need to move away from building glass boxes in the harsh desert climate, according to an expert.Scott Coombes, a director of the Dubai building consultancy AESG, said although traditional Islamic architecture in the region is very useful for creating sustainable buildings, it is often overlooked by customers who are predominantly interested in the building’s appearance.
\n“What worries me a little bit is that we are still designing glass boxes in a country that has got sunlight throughout the year,” Mr Coombes said at an IHC sustainability rountable event at Curtin University in Dubai Academic City on Tuesday. “We’ve got a very, very harsh climate and then we’re trying to complement these and call them sustainable by putting photovoltaics on buildings and sugar-coating them with what they’re calling green technologies, which isn’t right.”
\nHe said older buildings such as those in Al Fahidi district or the Dubai World Trade Centre display many more sustainable characteristics such as thick, concrete walls offering higher levels of thermal insulation and recessed windows that offer shading to keep buildings cooler. “We had buildings that were incredibly sustainable, built for the environment, with a really low abundance of resources, power, fuel and air conditioning that worked. And then we took this huge departure with the availability of technology because we were able to compromise.”
\nAlex Davies, the managing director of the facilities management firm Emrill, said that although many designers and engineers talk about the benefits of considering the whole-life costs of a building, a developer’s interest is typically much more short-term.”If you’re dealing with a developer, their only interest is in ‘how much will it cost to build? How much am I going to sell it for?’ That’s their whole-life cost. They’re not the end user [and] they’re not the bill payer. And I can’t remember seeing a property marketed here that actually has low utilities usage as part of the sales pitch. Until the end user is willing to pay a premium for that … developers won’t invest in it.”
\nmfahy@thenational.aeFollow The National’s Business section on Twitter
\n
\nSource : thenational.ae
\nRead more…Think outside the glass box when building in the UAE, says architect<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Building owners who want to achieve high levels of sustainability need to move away from...<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"false","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"spay_email":"","footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_is_tweetstorm":false,"jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-55161","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-property-news"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p75ss1-elH","jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":57502,"url":"https:\/\/www.siamlandbank.com\/propertynews\/property-news\/uae-a-leader-in-sustainable-buildings-says-core-savills\/","url_meta":{"origin":55161,"position":0},"title":"UAE a leader in sustainable buildings, says Core Savills","date":"June 11, 2017","format":false,"excerpt":"\r The UAE is the flag-bearer of building sustainability within the region, with some of the highest rates of accredited green buildings in the world, according to a new report by Core Savills.The property consultancy's Green Report said that the UAE ranks among the top 10 countries in the world\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Property News"","img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":55703,"url":"https:\/\/www.siamlandbank.com\/propertynews\/property-news\/dubai-space-centre-wins-with-first-passive-house-for-hot-climates\/","url_meta":{"origin":55161,"position":1},"title":"Dubai space centre wins with first 'Passive House' for hot climates","date":"May 23, 2017","format":false,"excerpt":"\r The Mohammed bin Rashid Space Centre (MBRSC) Sustainable Autonomous House, the first of its kind \"Passive House\" for a hot and humid climate, has won the 2017 Mena Green Building Award under the category Green Residential Building.The awards attracted a large number of 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