ABU DHABI May 11, 2013: Organizers of World Future Energy Summit Show (WFES) in Abu Dhabi, outlined the significant business opportunities that the Middle East region and the UAE in particular offer to renewable and energy-efficient technology providers during a recent visit to Tokyo. Rising energy needs, adoption of energy efficient-solutions and the scope of renewable energy as an increasingly popular means to power the region were addressed. By 2020, Abu Dhabi has committed to producing 7 per cent of its energy through renewable sources, while Dubai has committed to producing approximately 5 per cent of its energy through solar power set by 2030. As one of the world’s leading producers of oil and gas, Abu Dhabi is investing heavily in renewable and sustainable energy knowledge, technology and capacity. A prime example of the Abu Dhabi’s unrelenting commitment is the creation of Masdar City, an emerging global clean-technology cluster and special economic zone in Abu Dhabi. Masdar, Abu Dhabi’s multi-faceted renewable energy company will once again host the seventh World Future Energy Summit from 20-22 January 2014. The 2013 event attracted 91 official government delegations at the opening ceremony and over 25,000 attendees from 155 countries. WFES is an important global event that brings together world leaders, policy makers, business leaders, financiers and entrepreneurs to address the key issues affecting the future of energy.
may 30th 2013 – A++ Abu Dhabi comes to life!
We welcome the new A++ Abu Dhabi branch among our big family!!
After a long history of A++ project work in the Middle East that includes thousands of square meters of mixed-use properties working with various developers including Emaar, Seasif and Nakheel, the new Abu Dhabi’s office will be up and running very soon. Ongoing project works range from master plans for residential and office towers in Abu Dhabi, Saudi Arabia, Qatar and Dubai. The A++ Abu Dhabi office of locally experienced architects and technical staff offers clients increased production capabilities. Niko Sandro Alvarez, who is the Managing Director of the Abu Dhabi office, brings his previous experience with the design of large retail, entertainment and mixed-use projects.
As well as developing architecture and interior projects with a conventional approach, and characterized with the look and taste that has made the firm renewed internationally , the A++ Abu Dhabi office has the main aim of developing the implementation of X new projects in the area of gulf that aims to revolutionize the approach to design and sustainable building, as a result of the work developed by A + + in the last three years and that will be brought to light in the coming months.
This innovative project will spark a new light and will open up tremendous opportunities for developers of the area of the Middle East.
Happy Easter 2013
we would like to wish you the happier Easter and that peace and serenity go with you always, regardless of your beliefs.
New mongolian sustainable living standards
A++ is in an advance phase of designing and almost ready for the development of a set of highly efficient modular homes for the mongolian government to set new living standards for the people of Ulaanbaatar. The recipients of this new dwell is the people currently living in YURTAS, the traditional wood and felt tent that has been used for centuries by the nomadic population of mongolia and that today, due to the massive migration towards the cities and the and the effective end of the nomadic life, loses its meaning and function.
the new home follows a process that rethinks the design and building process to respond to a wider sustainability criterion and to be equally responsive to environmental, qualitative, aesthetic and social Issues, without compromises, to provide a quality realization to a more broad audience, through the optimizing the costs of constraint and the use of local materials, manpower and resources in accordance with the most current technologies.
The house is designed, industrialized and completed in place of his final implementation, in order to fit into the context and the local needs and standards, while comply with new international regulations to reduce building short and long term costs and minimizing maintenance. This methodology provides a considerable advantage to local businesses, with which we develop relationships of partnership for labor, production of building materials, the assembly of finite elements and technical support to local governments, effectively providing support to a social and economic grow of the local community.
the Estia method empowers a design process that evaluates and make use of all available technologies combining millenary application together with highly innovative ones. their choice and composition ensures the creation of an Energy Efficient Envelopes without compromising on functional or aesthetic characteristics.
All these solutions are transparent to the user, who perceives the benefits of comfort and ease of use while limiting and often eliminating the need for human intervention also in terms of maintenance.
The modules will be built with the use of mostly local material such as mass providing stones, cold formed steel structures and wool scraps for thermal insulation, assembled with new technology and methodology and will be fitted with new means of heating that uses a new patented technology of deep geothermal probes that allow for the provision of heating energy to a high number of homes with a single borehole.
The shape, size and orientation of each house is designed to respond to its relative to sun, dominant winds and surroundings and the walls are fitted with solar gain elements to increase the thermal efficiency of the envelope. shape and composition of walls and windows as well as the roof inclination are designed specifically to adapt to geographical orientation and the home, which will have a price that it is considerably lower then standard construction methods, is proven to meet and exceed the stringent european standards of efficiency and it is undergoing the process of its leed certification.
Merry Christmas and a fantastic new year
china sustainable revolution
A++ is opening its doors to the chinese community.
With so many environmental failures leading to social instability, China have begun to understand that changes need to be made in order to effectively address its sustainability challenges.
A++ and its valuable Chinese partner will employ all the available tools to play, for as little as it might be, a role in a process that has already begun, primarily in areas where economic development is the most advanced, and involves policies, technological solutions, and awareness and engagement campaigns.
The translation of our site it is our first step to share our vision to chinese speaking people,in the quest of a better and sustainable world.
Sustainable beauty or beautiful sustainability?
Nowadays, the traditional criterion for judging design, such cost, performance and aesthetics is being redefined by the introduction of the concept of sustainable design.
Many professionals dismiss this issue by stating that green and sustainability have nothing to do with Architecture and the term “sustainable” has the reputation to be a matter of substance and not of style.
Sustainability is believed to be bounded exclusively to energy efficiency, carbon emission and material chemistry and as a result, many consider green design a technological matter rather that a creative process leading to something that could be inherently beautiful and, truly, we can argue that our experience has taught us that most sustainable design is inevitably unattractive.
The issue here is to be able to use all possible skills, to produce something that is as sustainable as possible without compromising on its aesthetic values. Yes but how?
Originally, the concept of sustainability promised to broaden the purpose of contemporary design, specifically by adding ethic to aesthetic; this approach failed, and ethic took over the place of aesthetic by providing clear and compelling standards for its implementation without giving guidelines for this to go along with the process of beautiful design.
The mistake in this approach lies in the misleading conviction that attractiveness is not essential to sustainability.We need to create a different approach to our consideration of the beauty of a realization and consider aesthetic as the result of testing and research as much as sustainable solutions are. Many study demonstrate the effectiveness and the benefit hidden behind a procedure or a material, but many other show that shapes, pattern and texture, can create environmental, social and economic value.Green procedures and technique can be both invisible and visible.The first are those that relies on the environmental performance of the building and do not concur on the final look of the realization, the visible one affect the form, shape and image directly.Although the enviable ones can be easier to control and measure, the visible can have an even greater impact on both conservation and well being of the inhabitant. The shape of a building has great impact on its performance so much so that over 90% of the product environmental impact is determined during its shaping phase; isn’t it enough to consider aesthetic an integral part of conceiving a sustainable building?Lets start considering aesthetic and sustainable design as bound together and beauty intrinsically part of the basic principles of sustainability, and develop a more rational approach to beauty by merging techniques and material innovation with the human millennial knowledge and research on the methods and technique to create a graceful interaction between the environment and its user:
Isn’t this the definition of architecture?
Architects should develop ways for a societal valuation of their building plans by future users, neighbors and others, making them adaptable and integral part of their surroundings by implementing aesthetic and sustainability as adjoining paths to be walked contemporaneously.
Eco Design Solutions
Architecture, urban planning, design and technology have as its primary goal to improve our living conditions based on quality. Over time has often happened that in reaching this goal has sacrificed an important asset, the environment. From several years is greatly increased sensitivity to the relationship between quality of life and health of the environment.
There is much talk of ecology and sustainability, particularly in design today is designing and creating functional objects, and respectful of the ecosystem, for example by recycling materials, devising ways to ensure maximum energy savings by adopting technologies that use renewable and non-polluting energy, without sacrificing the comfort and progress.
The uses and the examples are many: Sunglasses that convert solar energy into electricity to power iPods and cell phones, dishes made from biodegradable materials, bicycles and solar car, building coatings with high thermal efficiency, technical recycling water used for sanitary and irrigation equipment, shoes that fulfilled their life cycle biodegrade and sprout, furniture, chairs and armchairs in a sturdy corrugated cardboard, chandeliers made entirely with recycled Bic pens …
The goal is to raise awareness that our every gesture and every one of our single choice (from grocery shopping), determine a definite impact on the environment depending on the way in which we perform.
It ‘s necessary to optimize fuel consumption and at the same time significantly reduce waste.
Focusing for example on the amount of plastic bottles that are thrown away every day you realize that for that bottle we pay twice, once when we buy it and one when we dispose it. Would not it be easier and cheaper for everyone to drink the tap water, constantly monitored and analyzed?
An example of sustainable design in all its phases is the tree-shirt, a shirt to plant a tree, a T-shirt designed by Vivienne Westwood. This is a new project for Green UP sponsored by UNEP (United Nations Environment Programme) to raise the public awareness of deforestation and to raise money for reforestation European Union.
The design created by the designer has been printed on T-shirts donated by Anvil Eco T-Shirt Collec, knitwear that has patented a fabric for shirts made from recycled plastic PET bottles and cotton grown on farms that have implemented a process to become organically certified, and each chapter contains a QR code which allows access to all information regarding the Green Up program. Revenues will be allocated to plantation forestry in Europe: a T-shirt is equivalent to planting a new tree.
As stressed by Vivienne Westwood, during the press conference at the launch of the Tree-shirts are designed to provoke and inspire a new way of thinking. The antidote to consumerism and climate change is the culture.
Thank you for being there!!
A++ has hosted the 2012 architectsParty in Milan. More than 300 people have attended the event and plunged deep into the fantastic worlds of architecture and design.
we would like to thank each one of you for giving us the opportunity to make this event a success story. canadian pharmacy Sinemet
Iranian Sustainable Space
A comprehensive look toward sustainable architecture reaches us to this point that it can typically account as the climatically responsive architecture. A general review of the Iranian traditional architecture principles indicates the dominant effects of natural environmental factors on above-mentioned principals. Climatic factors can be considered as the most significant component in natural environment that has a leading influence on the formation of Iran’s architecture principles. As in some cases, forming factors merely serve a climatically responsive function and utterly shaped according to natural environmental factors.
The vast area of Iran has hot and dry climate and the raining average rate is less. This region is located in the east and central of Iran. One of the signs is having no plant and no rain. (1)
Characteristics of Iran’s climate are as follow:
• Having a very low shower rain.
• Few trees and plants.
• Very low humidity.
• High difference in temperature between day and night.
A typical example to make this clearer is Iranian gardens. The research shown Iranian garden has been very famous even it has been mentioned in Bible. Agronomy and constructing garden was holy in ancient period of Iran. After entering Islam constructing garden has been developed around Islamic world. Geometry of Iranian gardens is very important. Normally a garden is divided into little sections. The original of this geometry is based on land divisions. Every parts of the garden are squared or rectangle shaped and inside each of these parts there are other smaller rectangles that are normally planted with flowers and trees. The separation of these parts is normally trees or streams.
Contribution elements in Iranian gardens that can create a sustainable space have been divided into two sections: physical and non-physical.
Some Physical Elements:
1. The area of garden is surrounded of wall.
2. The area of garden has been divided into four sections.
3. Rose bushes have to be plant more often.
4. There is no interval or boundary line between the mansion and the rest of the garden.
5. A large amount of trees have been planted in order to make shades.
6. Canals are so designed that the flow of the water produces a sound.
7. There are a large number of fruit trees; the bigger the garden the more fruit-trees are planted. (2) [figure1].
Figure 1. A typical Iranian garden
Description of important physical elements:
1. Wall: It is an important physical element that of a garden that plays an important role in security and prevention of storms.
2. Water: It can be a ground water or spring water. Normally ground water that flows over the ground has supplies from under water channel that Iranian calls in Quanat. This water can water trees, flowers and plants of the path side and of course would add humidity in environment that in a dry weather .Therefore, providing heat in days and cold at nights. With increased humidity plants and trees can overcome unsuitable desert conditions and maintain their green structure. Sometimes you can find water fountains which help the humidity maintenance and making the environment more beautiful plus thermal comfort for the garden. [3,4,5].
Description of a Non-Physical Element:
Continuity:
In Iranian garden, we always observe the phenomenon of transferring from one space to another. Mainly, one of the main features of architecture in Iranian garden is the combination and mixture of garden and building; these two are mixed and connected so much that nobody can feel where the garden starts and where it finishes [Figure 2]. The continuity between garden and the building in the middle of it makes the natural ventilation and makes the air circulation much easier. It also provides unexpected perspective for the residents.
Figure 2. Dolaat-Abaad garden- Yazd- Iran
Conclusion:
Iranian architects use tangible and physical elements such as trees, water streams and by mixing them with designing techniques they create shades and suitable places for a dry environment. Have to mention that the effect of features of Iranian gardens is obvious on creating comfort in hot and dry climate; thus, making use of these features and architectural methods can create sustainable spaces for related climate.
Dorreh Golbon
Marketing Director
A++ Tehran
References:
1) V. Ghobadiyan, The Climatic Investigation of Iran’s Traditional building, Tehran University Publication, Tehran, Iran, 2001.
2) Y. Daneshdost,Tabas gardens, Sorosh Publication, Tehran, Iran,2000.
3) H. Behbahani, Iranian Garden: A Place of Coexistence: City-Nature- Landscape, paper presented on Environmental Science, 2006.
4) A. Masoodi, Iranian Garden, Nashre Faza Publication, Iran, 2008.
5) H. Penelope, Gardens of Persia, Cassel Illustrated, United King¬dom, 2001.
6) International Journal of Climate Change: Impacts and Responses, Volume 2, Issue 1, pp.291-302.
7) http://www.architecturalpapers.ch
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