With all of the efforts that you seem to be making to exhort and inform more 'sustainable' design practices, I was surprised that the article on the supposedly 'sustainable skyscraper' in BSj 12/03 made it to publication.
What is sustainable about it? It seems to have a perfectly normal, highly glazed facade with no concession to orientation (shading of east and west elevations by masonry would be a good start) or attempt at external shading. With the possible exception of the condenser water recovery, the systems seem to be perfectly normal, old fashioned even – chillers, four pipe fcus, fresh air makeup and the cooling loads, by a quick calculation are in excess of 90 W/m2 which would hardly seem groundbreaking on a residential scheme! There was little or nothing in the materials, construction practices or water management which suggested a sustainable approach.

One of the biggest barriers to truly sustainable development is this sort of feeble band-wagoning – claims of great virtue when, in reality, the virtue barely exists. Please Building Services Journal – set the bar higher!

Editor's reply

We felt that this building, in Dubai, was more sustainable relative to many constructed in that area. But we take your point about setting standards of sustainability higher – hopefully clients and engineers will do the same.

Source

Building Sustainable Design

Postscript

Patrick Bellew CEng FCIBSE FInstE HonFRIBA, director, Atelier Ten (for Atelier Ten)