Climate Change Series New houses, office buildings and hospitals bring significant benefits to our day-to-day lives, but while they improve the built environment, they inevitably cause significant damage to the natural world.
Carbon emissions have become a hot topic, especially in Europe. Legislation is bringing dramatic changes to building regulations across the continent, and similar regulations are gradually being adopted in other regions such as the Middle East.
In the US, carbon is less of a priority but federal concern over energy security means millions of dollars are being invested in renewable energy technologies such as wind and solar power.
Such shifts mean that inherently un-green industries such as construction are being forced to rethink their priorities. For architects and consultants in particular, this represents an opportunity.
“What we call carbon-critical design is about finding a competitive advantage,” says Richard Smith, technical director of the Middle East region for Atkins, the architectural consultancy that designed the Bahrain World Trade Centre with its spectacular wind turbines.
He says there are four stages to the design process: passive design, such as the efficient use of light and shade to reduce lighting and cooling costs; engineering solutions such as using bigger pipes and smaller motors; recovery strategies to make better use of air and water; and renewable energy features such as wind turbines or photovoltaic panels.
Atkins’s latest project, the Lighthouse, in Dubai, is expected to be 58 per cent more energy efficient than the Bahrain WTC, but after that, says Mr Smith, further improvements may be slower in coming.
“I think we can improve another 10-15 per cent with today’s technology but moving further than that will be difficult,” he says. “It is a complex equation and you have to make compromises.”
In the UK, where the government has set a target for all new homes to be zero carbon by 2016, Barratt Homes is leading the way. In May, the company became the first big-name house builder to finish a zero carbon home. The house, located in Watford, was based on an award-winning design, called the “Green House”, from architects Gaunt Francis.
“The house was built on the key principles of careful design, high thermal mass, good insulation and low air leakage,” says Andrew Sutton, an associate at Gaunt Francis.
One of the key ideas for the Green House – using pre-cast concrete floors with a high thermal mass – forms the basis of traditional Mediterranean villas with thick walls and small windows.
Modern materials also play an important role, however. Kingspan, the Irish maker of insulated panel boards that provide maximum insulation with minimum air leakage, says 80 per cent of its business is focused on providing materials for modern low carbon buildings.
However, Tom Paul, who has developed the company’s zero carbon strategy, is keen to stress that Kingspan is not just a provider of materials, but of “building systems and solutions”. He argues that this is not just industry jargon.
“Up to now, the different parts of buildings were designed as individual elements – for example, a heating system would be effectively bolted on to the bricks and mortar – this will not work any more,” he says. “Buildings have to be created with a methodology that takes the whole building design into account.”
However, Ant Wilson, an engineering consultant from Faber Maunsell, says uptake of new methods has been slow because while all construction companies claim that they want to innovate, they usually want examples of success before they will adopt a new building technique. “In how companies do business, construction is a very risk-averse business, but because every project is unique, it is also very risky and that can stifle innovation,” he says.
Kate Dapré, principle consultant at AEA Technology, an environmental consultancy, is not optimistic that the industry is wholly committed to improving its environmental record. She says that one of their recent reports found that construction companies “almost unanimously said they build in order to just comply with legislation”.
“The view from the construction industry is that there is still a significant price premium on very low carbon building options and, whilst consumer demand is increasing for green design, it is not to the extent that it will offset increased costs,” she says.
Ms Dapré says governments need to take a firm, clear stance about standards and expectations. “What the industry wants is more detail about impending regulatory change,” she suggests. “Lorry diesel engines, where the intention is to reduce emissions by 2020, are a good example. Lorries are already being marketed as ‘2020 compliant’ and a similar push for the construction industry could have the same effect.”
Tom Griggs is a Financial Times commissioning editor
