GREEN SCENE Samuel Kriegler with his retrofit model
Retrofitting Adam Himes explains his design
is the ‘new’ sustainable
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By Sindhu Nair
hen Rami El Samahy, Assistant Teaching Professor, School of Architecture, Carnegie Mellon University (CMU) gave his speech at the Qatar Green Building Council’s (QGBC) introductory session, he was greeted by a stunned silence. The figures he pointed out were shocking to say the least: Qatar with a GDP of $57,936, has an electricity consumption of 14,201,675.5 kw/h and water consumption of 675.5 litres (all in per capita). There is more. This small country of approximately 12,000 sq kilometres has registered 71,600 new vehicles in 2009 and issued 18,301 new residential building permits last year. The country also has the highest ranked per capita carbon emissions in the world. Unimpressive figures... The solution is without doubt sustainable living, and for buildings in particular, sustainable design from the conceptual stage, says El Samahy. But what is the solution for existing buildings? Would pulling them down and constructing from scratch using sustainable methods be a sensible approach? “At the end of the day, demolition is not sustainable. It is squander of energy,” he says, adding, “Retrofitting or restoring older buildings could be the answer.”
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GREEN SCENE
“The students start off by identifying issues with the villa, most of which are typical to many buildings; it is a sealed place which has to rely completely on Air-conditioning. The orientation of the villa is such that it doesn’t benefit from the passive technologies” Rami El Samahy, Assistant Teaching Professor, School of Architecture, CMU Problem at hand
El Samahy and his group of students are currently working towards one such solution. He and Kelly Hutzell, Assistant Teaching Professor of Architecture, CMU, along with their students are retrofitting an existing villa. Once refitted, the villa , situated opposite the Education City, will be used by the QGBC not just as its headquarters but also as a premise to demonstrate sustainable strategies that the Council is advocating, a showpiece for their philosophy. “The students at Carnegie Mellon Pittsburgh have a paper in the fourth year called System Integration, which takes into account all the varied areas they have studied so far, mechanical, chemical, structural, finishing and even interiors, and they are supposed to integrate all of these into real-life applications. We have added environment to the subject range
as we think that is one of the areas that has to be looked into more carefully. This was one such typical yet challenging situation where our students come up with solutions. We had a typical villa, one that was given to QGBC by Qatar Foundation, quite large and spacious, with five bedrooms and the students retrofit it for a complete new purpose.” This exercise will demonstrate the students’ knowledge in building systems integration and representation and explore the potential of building systems as a generative, creative force in design. “The students identify issues with the villa, most of which are typical to many buildings; it is a sealed place which has to rely completely on air-conditioning. The orientation of the villa is such that it doesn’t benefit from the passive technologies, to capture the winds from the North and the North-East, techniques that
were inherent in the earlier era but were forgotten.” The students though new to the country they approached the project from the basics, says El Samahy. They studied the environment, the climatic and the living conditions and started with a proper background of the challenge. “CMU-Pittsburg has a semester in architecture major, where the students go abroad, usually Europe, Denmark and now the Middle East. They study the culture of these new places and find solutions, keeping in mind the climatic conditions of the region, architecturally. We have eight students this year, selected out of an interested group of 16.” But to the question of choosing this region over others, El Samahy has an answer. “The Middle East is such a misunderstood place and it is time young students
local solutions
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Firas Bata with the paper mache screen
tudents from Carnegie Mellon University Qatar (CMUQ) are also involved in the retrofit exercise. “These are students who do the various Business and Computer major programmes. In their course, they are required to complete a minor and some of them choose Architecture as their subject. These students are engaged in designing a small portion called the Learning Pavillion, a semi-covered screen outside the building.
"QGBC is thrilled that students from Qatar are actively involved in finding sustainable solutions. It makes them think of sustainable methods to be put to use in real situations,” says El Samahy. The students formed five groups and each group used one recyclable material, like paper, cardboard, bottles etc and demonstrated their solution. Firas Bata, one of the students at CMUQ, who used paper to form the screen says, “This exercise made me look at things in a different way, like I have never done before.”
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green scene
Demolition ruins an important part of history
“This is a hypothetical project running in parallel to a real situation. If any of the projects actually get approved they could form the solution, if not, these projects will serve as an educative tools and the work will be exhibited at the QGBC.” Kelly Hutzell
Assistant Teaching, Professor of Architecture, CMU understood the layers of the societal fabric here. This is a very dynamic area and presently this is where major innovations in architecture are happening,” says El Samahy. “The students had a proper feel of the place. Some of them arrived early for their spring vacation, went to Dubai and drove down to Oman. And three of the eight students will stay back here in Doha to find suitable job opportunities here,” says Hutzell.
Solving it
But other than the climatic constraints, the students were lucky to have no limiting factors while finding the solution. “We have to keep in mind that these are students working on the project. We wanted them to give vent to their creativity without being concerned by real-life situations, at least not factors like cost etc. This is a hypothetical project running in parallel to a real situation. These projects will serve as educative tools and the work will be exhibited at the QGBC,” says Hutzell. 52
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Both El Samahy and Hutzell are concerned about some buildings which are representative of a certain phase in history that are being razed down to bring in other sustainable constructions. “There is an enormous amount of demolition activities going on in the country. There is an interest in old buildings too which is why there is numerous restoration activities going on, like the Souq Waqif, Al Wakrah.” But what is not being appreciated are the buildings in the 50s and 60s, which are being razed down now. “It was not because they didn’t use the earlier methods of construction, they did, and in fact they used the method of shadow to cool adjacent buildings. Some of them have a typical character of their own too. What must have happened is that they were not The retrofit solutions were reviewed by experts in the field. Of the eight projects, three projects, Adam Himes, Alex Legrady and Samuel Kriegler, received the highest grades. Martin Hay, Director of Architecture at GHD felt that the project represented "a very interesting range of responses". He says, “I felt that the students tackled a difficult area of design with confidence and style.” Sam Kriegler is a fourth-year student and his solution, as illustrated by the model he has made, is a double-skin layer to absorb the heat from the building that will reduce the heat on the building. He has also taken off the centre portion of the building, the core, to allow for more air flow. He was influenced by one of the towers in West Bay, designed by Jean Nouvel, which has the same double skin structure. Kriegler is also influenced by old Qatari buildings and is fascinated by the fact that earlier construction methods were so sustainable that there was no need of external forces to cool buildings in the
properly maintained and with the population boom, the buildings deteriorated. But there was also a vibrant community living there and it is sad that there is no record of that now,” says Hutzell. “Imagine those buildings with a fresh coat of paint. Many of them were beautiful. It is a shame that those buildings are being wiped out, not just in the sustainable point of view, but also from the historical point of view, as they are as much a part of history as other buildings. They portrayed the first period of post-oil discovery,” says El Samahy. He feels that this demolition drive is not distinctive of the region but is being followed all over. “Modern era of architecture (the mid 50’s to 60’s buildings) is worth preserving. Maybe much more than the post-modern glass-towered ones.” dessert climate. “Going back to those conditions would be one of the best sustainable practices architects could take.” Though he loves many of the new buildings in Doha his favourite is the archaeological site at Al Jemal area, which he describes as ‘almost a ruined town but with a distinct character.’ Another student, Adam Himes has also dramatically cut through the core of the building (in his model) to allow for the northern winds to flow through and he has added water features on the terrace, ‘which cools the air that passes through and then the scoops the air inwards, which then cools the interiors too.’ He has also conceptualised a roofgarden which could be watered by the air-conditioning overflow pipe. The roof garden would help in cooling the space below. On the architectural landscape of Doha, he says, “The glass towers are not specific of the place. They are just glass buildings that pump conditioned air into them, they are buildings that could be anywhere.” n