Many conventional buildings that were built these days were designed with that modern and futuristic look. But, behind these looks is also the increased demand for energy production. Not to mention the adverse impacts on the environment that these modern yet poorly designed buildings have created. Unfortunately, a lot of skyscrapers that modern cities boast of have substantial impacts on the environment. Many of these buildings use resources, emit greenhouse gases, and degenerate waste that harms the environment. This is the same environment where people and other living things also live.

The damage that these modern buildings cause can be too profound that one may not have the exact idea of how it wreaks havoc to the environment. Thus, the need to create buildings that are focused on the concepts of green architecture.

Understanding Green Architecture

Green architecture refers to the concept of constructing and designing buildings while taking into consideration sustainable sources of energy. All aspects of the building must be created to become environmentally efficient. These are the kinds of buildings that require less energy to operate and use for many years to come.

Reasons to Go Green with Architectural Plans

Improvement in Energy Efficiency

Foreign investors who are planning to expand their businesses overseas will surely be impressed by the ecological awareness that your company building manifests. This is one way of showing that your establishment stands out from its competitors who are still in conventional buildings. The professionals from Architectural Cladding Suppliers believe that green architectural designs are brand differentiators. It is one of the best ways to show to your prospective investors that your company is among the leaders in terms of environmental awareness. Nowadays, leading lenders, along with the investors market have come to recognize the economic benefits of having a green building. Many of these investors are also looking to invest in companies that operate in green buildings that have earned certifications from environmental organizations. These certifications can also attract outstanding talents that are also just as environmentally conscious.

Makes Water Efficiency Possible

Buildings that adhere to eco-friendly architectural designs are built with water resource systems that make water efficiency possible. Many green buildings have alternative water sources in place which greatly reduce the strain that people may experience with shared water resources. These alternative water resources allow the purification of water while also enabling the process of recycling. These things are made possible because green buildings have sustainable plumbing systems. It gives all the building occupants the chance to use water responsibly. Water catchment systems may vary depending on what’s most suitable for your building design. An environment-friendly water catchment system makes it possible for a building to store and capture rainwater that can be used for different applications.

Reduction of Operational and Maintenance Cost

Green buildings are designed to lower the costs of energy usage. These buildings maximize the use of daylight, one lighting strategy that paves the way for lowered electricity costs. This feature alone of a green building already has a huge impact on the environment. Energy use accounts for 80 percent of the lifetime costs of maintaining a building. This also translates to more earnings and more money saved for building owners. Buildings that adhere to green architectural plans may entail higher costs during construction compared to conventional buildings. But, with the reduced costs spent on maintenance and operational costs, these green buildings are still considered cheaper over a while.

There are a plethora of benefits to green architectural plans. Businesses will be able to save on energy costs, with these in place. Not to mention the potential to attract more jobs and make significant contributions to the economy.

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With more cities legislating for the use of green roofs, one Israeli-Canadian dream architect Moshe Safdie has taken the task to hand to inspire the world and show us how it’s done. While we’d take a real forest anyway, if you are lost in the urban jungle be mesmerized by Moshe Safdie Crystal skywalk, a 300 meter cylindrical promenade some 250 meters up in the sky.

Moshe Safdie on the Crystal:

No doubt Safdie faced these technical challenges with water, humidity, the need for hydroponics systems and fertigation equipment to keep the forest of plants alive in this real life urban jungle. We will see how architecturally sound the construction is as the years go by.

The Crystal is part of a large housing complex, hotels, retail space, as well as a subway, bus, and ferry terminals.

Moshe Safdie has always been a dreamer among architects and joins the ranks of other beloved Middle East architects such as the late Zaha Hadid from Iraq – the first female and first Muslim to win the Pritzker Prize.

The post Moshe Safdie’s skywalk garden puts nature in China’s sky (VIDEO) appeared first on Green Prophet.

Slated for construction at Changi Airport, a major transportation hub that manages some 30 percent of the country’s air traffic, Project Jewel is designed to raise the airport’s profile as a worthwhile destination in itself for tourists either passing through or landing in Singapore.

Like a giant dome interconnecting terminals 1, 2, and 3, the new building will be comprised of glass and steel – not the most sensible or earth-friendly materials – and feature a massive indoor garden and even a waterfall that will pour from the dome’s roof.

Included in the mixed-use development’s offerings are retail facilities and a large communal facility complete with other interesting activities — all part of the plan to colonize the traveler’s mind with images of an airport that is more than just a boring place to wait for a plane.

Related: Bring Moshe Safdie’s green building to the Middle East

“To strengthen Changi Airport’s competitive advantage and ensure that we continue to capture passenger mindshare and traffic, we must take deliberate steps to enhance Changi’s attractiveness as a stopover point.  With Project Jewel, we are pleased to be developing an exciting product that will swing travellers to choose Changi Airport, and Singapore,” said Mr Lee Seow Hiang, Chief Executive Officer of the developers Changi Airport Group (CAG).

The indoor garden will include green walls that will help to offset a tiny amount of the overall emissions associated with an airport facility of this extraordinary girth – after all, it intends to serve 85 million passengers by the time Project Jewel is complete.

At $1.5 billion, this is no small project, so Safdie has a chance to really create something spectacular. It’s not clear when it will break ground, but at least local design firms will participate in the process of creating a unique lifestyle destination for the world’s wealthy elite.

:: Changi Airport

Images via Neoscape

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Israeli-born architect Moshe Safdie is famous for his “Habitat 67” design created for that year’s Montreal World Fair. And though his “Safdie Plan” for Jerusalem was somewhat controversial, his talent has since gathered in strength and now features throughout the world. The most recent commission – a pixelated residential complex – will be built in Qinhuangdao, China and will include a host of friendly green design components.

Designed as either a primary or second home, Golden Dream Bay makes dense urban life feel like a breeze. Literally. Straddling the Qinguangdao beach, each of the 2200 condominiums comes complete with a small garden and a spectacular view.

Instead of plonking it directly on the beachfront like so many other structural eyesores, the building is specifically arranged around a north/south beach boardwalk and an east/west bazaar or “spine” – which creates a feeling of interconnectedness within itself but also with the greater community.

Each of the four towers are angled towards the beach and are connected via a series of sky bridges.

In addition to the private gardens, Safdie has incorporated public space on the 15th and 30th floors. There residents can enjoy more green space and swimming pools.

Recent evidence suggests that urban life will be more viable in the long-term than a series of spread out communities if the infrastructure is built sustainably. Once again, Safdie takes an important step in that direction.

:: evolo

More on Moshe Safdie:

Bring Moshe Safdie’s Green Building To The Middle East

Is Moshe Safdie’s Habitat ’67 A Viable Model For Middle Eastern Urban Architecture?

The post Moshe Safdie Goes To China appeared first on Green Prophet.

Green Prophet had reported on Rawabi (for Hills), the first “planned” city for Palestinians back in 2007; We are not sure if the Israeli or American urban-style mortgage model is the one to follow for a sustainable community (as Daniella asks in her article about Palestinian malls).

Now Felice Friedson editor of The Media Line, the Mideast News Source, looks at new developments in the project:

For many Palestinians, the norm is tight-quartered living with barely a garden in sight, no defined sidewalks and a poor water system. But this is about to change with an ambitious plan for a new way of living.

Just six miles north of Ramallah, Palestinians have begun planting thousands of evergreen tree saplings as part of a major greening project to grow a forest to hug the edges of what will be the first planned Palestinian city.

The city is already named Rawabi, Arabic for “hills”. For Palestinians it presents a new kind of urbanism, which aims to draw middle-class professionals away from smoggy towns and villages towards a better way of life.

Besides being the first planned city, it also marks the first planting of a major forest by Palestinians in the territories since Israel took control 42 years ago. It is also the first time serious arrangements are being made to provide Palestinians with American-style mortgages.

Palestinian entrepreneur Bashar Masri is the force behind Rawabi. A chemical engineer by training, he is the human bulldozer who aims to turn his vision into a reality and modernize the heart of the Palestinian territories.

Building a sustainable city from scratch

“There is a great shortage of housing in Palestine,” Masri said during a tour of the planned site. “As you can see there is hardly anything here. That required setting the city up from scratch, which made the project much bigger and much more sophisticated and complicated, but we love it.”

It will be home to about 40,000 residents who aspire to own an affordable apartment. Neighborhoods will be spacious and green. They’ll have sidewalks and parking garages, something unheard of in most Palestinian communities. The town center will be a hub of high tech, mainly IT businesses, to provide jobs for the educated but underemployed Palestinian work force.

“A project like this can create 8,000 to 10,000 jobs in construction alone,” Masri said. “In addition, we are working on creating permanent jobs (in Rawabi) so this won’t be a bedroom community […] dependent on political closures and checkpoints.”

According to Rawabi’s main designer, architect Shireen Nazeer, the city is breaking away from old urban traditions in many ways.

“Really we are creating history and we are also creating affordable houses for a new generation of Palestine,” Nazeer said. “We have integrated this new idea of how we can live in neighborhoods and how to share all the public and open spaces inside the neighborhoods”

Just as Israeli apartment dwellers in crowded cities like Tel Aviv opted for suburban living in areas that came under Israeli control after the 1967 war, Palestinians are looking for a more rural existence in Rawabi, where 60% of the town will be green areas.

Although not quick to admit it, several aspects of the Rawabi package, from environmental awareness to mortgages, mirror Israeli urban planning. Recently Moshe Safdie, the Israeli architect who designed Israel’s planned city, Modi’in escorted Masri’s staff around Modi’in to learn about the failure and successes of his city.

Agreeing to work on water cooperation

But Rawabi collegial cooperation with Israelis is not entirely a matter of benevolence. The city itself is to be constructed on land in Area A, which according to the Oslo Agreement is completely under the Palestinian Authority’s control and therefore needs no Israeli approval. Still, the city rests on Israeli permits to move forward, particularly regarding water allocation and access routes that pass through Area C, which is controlled by Israel.

According to Bayti Real Estate Investments Company, which oversees the Rawabi project, Israel’s Civil Administration in the West Bank has granted the permits necessary for the “Grow-for-Greener Palestine” project, which will see the planting of 25,000 trees.

The first 3,000 trees were provided by the Jewish National Fund, who also provided consultants on growing forests – an area the Palestinians have been unable to develop experience in.

“There are 170,000 dunams of (existing) forest in the West Bank and it has been illegal for Palestinians to plant until now” said Oren Blonder, Director of Agriculture, Water & Environment for the Peres Center for Peace.

Construction has yet to begin as Masri waits for Israel’s permission to move the jurisdiction of the necessary access road to the Palestinian Authority, a road that currently winds through Israeli controlled Area C.

Masri is open to Israeli co-operation on a business to business level.

“We realize Israel is one of the most advanced nations in the area, especially in technology and we will co-operate with them,” he said.

But that stops cold when it comes to Jewish settlers in the West Bank. Looking out across the valley Masri points out the Jewish community of Ataret.

“The only exception to that is Israelis who are settlers,” Masri said. “We will not deal with settlements. We will not work with settlements. Hopefully, that settlement will one day be a suburb of Rawabi and will be inhabited by Palestinians and will be welcome to Jews who want to live in a Palestinian state.”

This ambitious $800 million project is the largest to have been undertaken by Palestinians. It is funded by Qatari Diar Real Estate Investment Company and Massar International, of which Masri is chairman.

Five thousand inhabitants are expected to move in during the first phase. At that point a local mayor and council will be elected. Massar’s role ends here with the exception of the leasing of the town center.

Masri is trying to woo back Palestinians living abroad, which he estimates will account for 10% of the potential buyers of deluxe homes and boarding school places. Real estate prices will range from $140,000-$150,000.

Middle East mortgages, American-style

The home sales plan aims to transform the Palestinian clan based culture, which has traditionally seen men steadfast in their hometowns. The Middle East Investment Initiative is setting up the first American-style mortgage company to provide young Palestinians the opportunity to purchase affordable homes. With 10% down, the average monthly cost of a mortgage will be about $700 – approximately one-quarter of a typical monthly middle-class wage.

Mahmoud and Nora Ibrahim, potential Rawabi buyers, are look to the futures of their two young boys.

“Living in a crowded city like Ramallah it is not safe for us to keep our children anywhere, but we feel that Rawabi will mean a bigger home for us, having our children in safe places and public gardens,” Mahmoud Ibrahim said, but added he hoped the mortgage terms would be adequate.

“I hope we will find good offers from Rawabi that can meet our needs and capabilities as an average family in Palestinian society. I hope to see affordable prices and affordable payments,” he said.

Rawabi is home to a number of “firsts” for Palestinians — the first planned city, the first attempt at reforestation, and the first mortgage program for buyers – none of which come without risks.

“There are risks all over the project. There are political risks, commercial risks, and social risks,” Masri said.

Masri cautioned that lack of progress on the political front could deter investors, but that the project will continue regardless.

But Masri is betting that the lure of suburban life which is markedly safer and infinitely more aesthetically appealing will make Rawabi another “first” – the first of many planned cities to follow.

More on urban planning for Palestinians:
Rawabi Is First Planned City for Palestinians
Palestinian Mall in Jenin Could Bring Suburbia to the West Bank

::Rawabi website

(This story is printed with permission from The Media Line)

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