Green Office Building Takes Off In "Energy City Qatar"

Green building is becoming a fad in Arab countries. We’ve all probably heard of the world’s first carbon neutral city Masdar being built in Abu Dhabi. Now Qatar, another UAE state — this one wealthy from natural gas –– is planning its own eco-city project.

A new, specially designed “carbon neutral” office building is being planned for the “Energy City Qatar” project. The building, being designed and planned by the Lusail development is heralded as being truly unique as well as a model and example for future developments, reports the Gulf Times.

The all-green design of Energy City Qatar will incorporate unique solar paneling which will provide lighting and other electricity needs for the project, including a special district cooling system that will provide cooling for the entire project.

Senior project construction manager Ashraf Kahlaf noted that the concept of such a building will help other projects create similar projects which will utilize renewal resources including the recycling of water, and soil that will be removed during the construction process.

Special chilling systems will be used in the data collecting systems center as well as energy efficient lighting systems. The recycled water, a by-product of the air conditioning system, will be used for irrigation of greenery inside and surrounding the buildings.

When completed, the entire Energy City project will eventually house 20,000-30,000 industry professionals, on 500,000 sq m of the entire 700,000 sqm site.

Kahlaf said that these features will result in Energy City being the first fully LEED or Leadership in Energy Environmental Design) concept project.

Similar projects are also being planned for countries like Libya and Kazakhstan, with the Qatar project to be the model on which the other projects will be based.

Although the construction will be higher in costs than ordinary construction projects, Kahlaf hopes to offset these costs by saving as much as 20% on electricity and 40% on water use (due to recycling) which should save in the long run around $116 per sq. meter, as well as being more environmentally friendly.

Kahlaf noted that Qatar is taking future environmental concerns “very seriously,” and that this project will be an example that other companies can use toward development projects involving building sustainability for future environmental concerns.

::Gulf Times