Dubai Municipality Seminar On Energy Saving Glass For Green Buildings

A seminar will be organised by Dubai Municipality tomorrow (Wednesday, 18 June 2008) to discuss main issues and solutions related to energy saving glass for green buildings.

The seminar, titled "Highly Transparent & Energy Saving Glass for Green Buildings" comes as part of the civic body's initiative to offer a continuous learning environment for the local architects and consultant engineers. It will be held on Wednesday at City Hall from 9 a.m. to 12.30 p.m.

Commenting on the significance of this seminar, Khalid Mohammed Saleh, Director of Buildings Department at the municipality, said the building of contemporary glass structures is directly linked to environmentally compatible energy saving concepts. This is why perfect interaction between energy transmittance and translucency is so highly rated. The low overall energy transmittance contributes to considerable reduction of the cooling energy requirements since heating up inside the building is greatly reduced.

"Building materials contribute significantly to a structure’s aesthetics and operating costs. The advocacy of HH Sheikh Mohammad bin Rashid Al Maktoum to initiate Green Buildings in the UAE makes it possible to have structures of improved quality and reduced operating costs which would benefit not only the owner and the occupants but also promotes a positive impact to the environment," he said.

He added that the necessity to permanently reduce the energy costs for air conditioning systems and maintain agreeable temperature level in the interior can now be planned individually. Highly effective solar control therefore allows full use of natural light. A work place of high quality with optimum use of day light also reduces the need for artificial light.

He noted that two prominent experts will address the audience at the seminar. In the first lecture, Volker Herrmann, Marketing Manager of Glastroch AG, will present how Glaströsch developed a series of products which helps to achieve higher insulation which in turn means less air conditioning power requirement, getting us a step closer to a green environment. As global warming is becoming more and more a big of an issue, glass manufacturers are responsible for developing their products in a way which minimizes this phenomenon.

The outstanding solar control properties prevent the heating up of the interiors and incident solar energy is effectively reflected away. This represents a major contribution towards minimizing the costs for cooling energy. But passive solar energy gains are also possible, in line with legal regulations. This function is one of the many choices offered, with unbeatable transparency rooms get good natural light which achieves a balance between pleasant working conditions and reduced artificial lighting without compromising the aesthetics of the buildings.

In the second lecture, Joseph Sayegh, Operations Manager of Gulf Engineering and Supply Limited (Guenis), will discuss the Glaströsch technology and its compliance to the Green Building standards. It also focuses on how the highly transparent glazing blends harmoniously into an existing building environment and the stylistic device of colour reflections which extends the architectural design options.