Design Sustainability and Green Communities
Bassam Abu-Hijleh
Head of the Sustainable Design of the Built Environment Programme (SDBE)
Fellow, Cardiff University (UK) - The British University in Dubai
How would you define in your own words ‘sustainability’?
Innovative solutions that enhances the human experience while reducing the
demand on the environment & the pocket (i.e. cost).
Should sustainability be controlled by government / global legislation or should
it rely solely on architects’ ethics and why?
I think both the stick & the carrot are needed. This is especially true at the
start when people are not “educated” about the need and the cost of early
adoption is high.
Can sustainability be compatible with experimental / progressive / innovative
design and why?
Sustainability is a great driver for new designs. They challenge the architects
to revise their priorities and their way of address design challenges.
Architects will be challenged to produce function sustainable designs that are
still esthetically pleasing and “economical”. This means thinking outside the
box, looking for new innovations/technologies and enhancing the holistic design
team approach.
Will you decline a commission if your clients declare that they are not
interested and they will not pay any additional cost to your sustainable design
and why?
I am not in a position to answer this, do not work with clients, but would try
to “educate” the client.
It is astonishing that in the last five years or so, almost everybody claims to
be ‘sustainable’. Do you think that the world is really now so much more
sustainable and why?
It is a little better. Unfortunately most of the talk is for public consumption.
There is a long way to go before those claims are translated to real change on
the ground.
Describe your ideal sustainable design.
Pleasant, comfortable, in touch with nature, versatile, economical and
environmentally friendly. As you can see, personal concerns tend to come first,
which means that a sustainable design must recognize and meet the personal needs
and not just focus on the big picture and risk sacrificing/alienating the end
users of the design.
© Published by 2A Magazine, Issue 11