Gulf states gear up to go green

30 March 2007

In its drive to create an image of thrusting ambition, Dubai has simultaneously been giving the impression that the environment is for others to worry about. The perception is that the emirate, one of seven that make up the United Arab Emirates, is a playground of luxury and devil-may-care excess — and sod the consequences.

The fact is that the economic development of Dubai could not have been achieved without increasing the size of its carbon footprint, and like the rest of the UAE, Dubai is still essentially a fossil-fuel economy. According to the World Wildlife Fund, Dubai has the second-highest per capita carbon emissions in the world.

But the region is trying to dispel its image as an ecological basket case — the UAE signed up to the Kyoto Protocol last year.

“Dubai has had this reputation [of developing unsustainably], but it’s one the emirate is completely fed up with,” says Sinclair Webster, head of healthcare at HOK International. “It’s doing as much as it can to try and turn things round as quickly as it can. It doesn’t like the reputation of being the worst sinner on the planet.”

Richard Smith, technical director at Atkins’ Dubai office, agrees: “Until recently, ideas of zero emissions, global warming and the carbon footprint were almost unheard of in this part of the world. Now I’m seeing business cards with job titles like head of renewables all the time. We’re not there yet, but it’s all very positive.”

Dubai, where the oil reserves are expected to be exhausted within 20 years, has certainly compounded the inherent unsustainabliity of its situation with further mistakes. A combination of cheap petrol and expensive housing forces many people to live on the city’s periphery or in the cheaper emirate of Sharjah.

And massive offshore developments such as The World and the three Palm Island resorts, each of which is bigger than the last, have interfered with marine life and forced local fishermen to venture further afield.

The fish may be gone for ever, but Dubai is now building an eco-friendly metro system that will extend more than 50km — very likely into Sharjah and possibly also into Abu Dhabi eventually.

Developers’ agendas

Not long ago, western architects had to work hard to get energy reduction onto developers’ agendas, but now developers often put it there themselves. “Minimising energy use is always part of the brief,” says Webster.

But such is the demand for energy, especially for cooling, that the client now tends not to rely on the architect of an individual building to draw up a clever solution. Instead, the emirate is investing heavily in district cooling systems. These gas-fuelled plants work at night to chill water, which is then fed through a network of pipes into all the buildings within a single development.

The manufacturers claim that the economies of scale achieved with these large systems reduce energy use and carbon emissions each by around 50%, compared with every building having its own chillers and air conditioners, and occupiers are also saved the expense of maintenance. Most big developers in Dubai, including Nakheel and the client for the mega-tall Burj Dubai tower, Emaar Properties, are adopting these systems.

In fact, the cooling system for the Burj Dubai, the 160-storey candidate for world’s tallest building, is slightly different. The SOM-designed structure and other nearby buildings will be cooled from melt waters from three ice-making plants, probably because chilled water alone would be ineffective by the time it was pumped to the tower’s upper reaches. The condensation produced — about 15 million gallons a year — will be drawn off and used to irrigate the local landscape.

Atkins is sponsoring a variety of research projects at the British University in Dubai’s Institute of the Built Environment, which partners with Cardiff University. The firm has also introduced a four-step programme for energy reduction: the integration of passive shading and cooling features into building design; better engineering; greater recovery of elements such as water and heat; and renewable energy.

As an example of the first step, Atkins is subjecting its designs for the 50-storey Trump tower on the Jumeirah Palm development to expensive shading studies, and the facade fin arrangements are also being examined. “These studies have just been shown to the client, and we don’t know what the reaction is yet,” says Richard Smith. “It’s still early days.”

The firm’s extraordinary world trade centre development, just completed in Bahrain, is an example of the fourth step, the use of renewable energy. The 50-storey complex has three wind turbines suspended between its twin towers. The aerodynamic styling of the towers is expected to double the average wind speed to around 14m per second, generating up to 15% of the building’s power needs.

And there is also Atkins’ Iris Bay scheme, a giant pitta bread of a building, which features balconies as shading devices; a low window-to-solid ratio where appropriate; natural ventilation, including openable windows; and even photovoltaics (PV), which remain rare in the Middle East. It’s a hybrid structure, one which conforms to the emirati desire for icons, while embodying more than just a gesture towards sustainability.

“In Dubai, the client wants a building that is striking. We could design the most sustainable building in the world, but if it doesn’t look good, it won’t get built,” says Atkins architect Karl Hurwood.

The application of PV is a leap of faith here. PV is little used in the region because the panels can become inefficient in high ambient heat, while the significant dust content in the air can quickly make them dirty. But Richard Smith is confident that developments in the technology will soon make PV a viable proposition, especially the type that concentrates the sun’s rays to turn water into steam. The steam can then be used to generate electricity. Smith says the UAE is working hard to attract manufacturers and researchers to develop the technology, and he expects large solar arrays and even solar “farms” to appear in the desert soon. “Eventually this region could be exporting renewable energy. They’re thinking big,” he says.

Abu Dhabi has the edge

But the general sense is that it’s easier to achieve environmentally responsible design over the border in Abu Dhabi, Dubai’s bigger, quieter and more sensible big brother, which is also the gas-rich capital of the UAE. Sinclair Webster says this emirate has seen what has happened in Dubai, and is determined to learn the lessons: “Abu Dhabi has the edge, and stresses habitat protection and the marine environment. UK consultants working on environmental impact assessments are operating in the same way they would in this country.”

Webster is working on a large development in Abu Dhabi, and is trying to learn from the Arup-led Dongtan eco-island project in China. Webster’s project is under wraps, but he says people using it will always be within a short walk of public transport, which is likely to be a light rail system. “It will largely be directed at the international population, so environmental sustainability and a small carbon footprint is seen as being a selling point,” says Webster.

And then there is Al Ain, a 900ha “low-impact, ecologically aware” development also taking place in Abu Dhabi. Designed by HOK with Buro Happold, the masterplan includes provision for water transport, water recycling, extensive solar shading and “appropriate material” for its desert location.

While this emerging region — and Dubai in particular — seems to get off on unveiling projects that are defined by superlatives, it does seem that clients are beginning to realise that size isn’t everything.

Eco-projects in the pipeline

Iris Bay

Architect: Atkins
Location: Dubai

Designed by Atkins, the Iris Bay tower uses assisted natural ventilation. The facade is partially perforated to allow cool night air to circulate through, then vent from the top. Air intake at ground level is cooled by the building’s water features, while the plant room is situated in the middle of the tower to boost the efficiency of the services distribution. Photovoltaic transparent mesh is integrated into the glass on the front facade as sun shading, while side facades have minimal slot windows to decrease heat absorption.

Al Ain

Architect: HOK
Location: Abu Dhabi

Designed by HOK International and HOK Sport, the 900ha Al Ain community will accommodate 115,000. The development, at the foothills of the Jebel Hafleet mountain range (midway between Abu Dhabi city and Dubai), is being billed by the architects as a "low rise, low impact, ecologically aware alternative". The scheme will maximise water recycling and water transport, as well as having extensive solar shading and appropriate materials for the desert location.

Five-Star Hotel, Zayed Sports City

Architect: Jacobs Webber
Location: Abu Dhabi

London-based Jacobs Webber’s design employs a double facade composed of an inner skin of 140mm-thick blockwork incorporating double-glazed windows, projecting concrete floor plates, and an outer skin of open-jointed, fritted glass.

Partner Nic Jacobs says the arrangement, which shades the blockwork and reflects solar energy, is expected to cut energy costs by 15-20%. Calculations show that a U value of 1.09 will be achieved, according to environmental modelling conducted by Hoare Lea. The building goes on site in three months.

Time Residence

Architect: Glenn Howells
Location: Dubai

Glenn Howells Architects has an eco-tower with a twist, a 360-degree twist in fact, because the entire 80,000-tonne building rotates a full circle once every seven days. Undisclosed engineering wizardry by the engineer for the Falkirk Wheel, MG Bennett & Associates, permits the process to be managed by just 20 electric motors, each exerting a force of 50 tonnes and running on a 2.5kW electricity supply. Happily for the environment, the fuel source will be solar-powered batteries.

As well as ever-changing views, residents in the 30-storey structure will be kept cool by the double-skinned, ventilated glass facade.

World Trade Centre

Architect: Atkins
Location: Bahrain

The three wind turbines on this complex will generate up to 15% of the building’s power.

Burj Dubai

Architect: SOM
Location: Dubai

This 160-storey tower will be cooled from the melted waters of three ice making plants.

The condensation produced will then be used to irrigate the local landscape.

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