Smart City & Green Building

Green building movement in India and abroad has now made each designer think more and more about saving energy and make the buildings green. Although it has started under US Green Building Council, the concept started hundreds of years back, when buildings like Victoria Terminus Station or Hawa Mahal in Jaipur constructed where light and ventilations reach each corner of the building giving comfortable atmosphere. Similarly, Smart City Concept might have grabbed front page of newspapers now-a-days; it really started 4,000 years back when Indus civilization started. When we talk of modernization and development, these both points, green building and Smart City comes together and as a designer we have to check both things at a time. Every smart city will have thousands of buildings. If we make every building, be it a commercial or residential a green building, it will generate opportunites for energy savings.

Pushing Green Building Concept in Smart Cities

While considering the basic requirements of green building, we need following things to be in order before beginnning of the construction:

Sustainable Architecture & Design

While making footprint of the smart city, we need to be very much careful about space planning for different segments of developments and how each segment is well taken care of. We need to take care that each area is self-sufficient of its needs, each zone is self-dependent and each building is self-sustained in terms of building envelope and necessary features.

Site Selection and Planning

Before getting the approval for plan, the master planner has to make sure that the purpose of the building is matching the dream of smart city and it gives incentive to the buyer as well. All the basic amenities such as market, bank, post office, bus stop, restaurant should be very close to each building so that there is no requirement for vehicular movement and basic necessities get fulfilled within walking distance .

Water Conservation 

Both in Smart City and Green Building, water management is very important. Proper water consumption calculation and accordingly distribution is required. All the fixtures in the apartment and in the offices should be of optimum water saving. Sensors should be used in commercial building. Beginning from the construction stage, the planner has to take care of water conservation.

Energy Efficiency 

No need to mention that, every building in a Smart City should be fitted with LED fixtures and fans & all air conditioners should be five-star rated. All street lights shoild be illuminated with solar power and all water pumps should have solar cell and grid back up. There has to be single tariff system for all suppliers and billing methodology should be same. Commercial and residential tariffs should be well defined and incentive should be given for night time users by dual tariff methodology. Type of AC units should be well defined as per building footprint area. High COP chillers should be used and equipment selection criteria should be published in the smart city building guidelines itself.

Building Materials and Resources

Cement and steel along with sand brick and water are major parts of the building works in terms of cost and time. These should be procured from green sources. Atmost care has to be taken so that environment does not get polluted. Glass is the next material that helps in increasing day light and reducing load on the building foundation. Proper E value glass should be used. Maximum reusable materials should be used in the smart city and other materials should be procured within 500 kilometer distance of the smart city. Local materials and local architecture should be considered while making the design.

Indoor Environmental Quality

People occupying the building should always get clean air. So, while selecting the building, especially, the residential ones one has to check whether any exhaust gas of any industrial outlet (of course small industry as big industry will not at all be allowed inside smart city) comes close with the building area. We have to see whether any open drainage giving foul smell passing through building area. Inside the building also, it is very important to maintain hygiene air. Indoor air purging can be done before occupying the building to clean the air.

Innovation and Development

Green building is an innovation and so as smart city. So, the designer should be given free hand in doing more innovation in terms of renewable energy, solar energy, water saving, geothermal air conditioning, green STPs, less polluted generator and so on. Making smart city with green building aspects is a big task but maintaining it is also very important.

Building Commissioning and Management System

In above paragraphs, we studied how the designer conceptualizes green aspects in HVAC system which at the end reflects in indoor air quality, environmental friendly construction and saving in power consumption. The designer also does value addition in electrical design by selecting proper energy saving equipment. The designer also gives its best by providing water saving fixtures and green STPs. However, it is also compulsory to appoint a Commissioning Authority who has to cross check all installations, power consumption.

Conclusion

Green Building and Smart city both are talks of the moment. But the main goal is healthy living and energy saving. India has only two percent of total water of the world and is having 17 per cent of total population. Due to global warming, the temperature is rising leading to hike in air conditioning electricity bills. Nuclear power generation is a way away and hydro power is not self-sufficient. Indian living standard is increasing and so as our expectations. Smart city and green building have to go hand in hand for the growth.

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