The construction industry is booming in India, and skyscrapers are lining the country’s skyline. Much of this development does not integrate sustainable features, however many architects and planners have realized the importance of green building practices, and many new buildings and housing projects have adopted green technologies. In line with these developments, India’s new Cyber Park IT hub is vying to be one of the greenest sites in the country.
The Cyber Park is situated in sector 67 of Gurgaon city, India’s new business destination and economic hub. The park will be built on 1.5 million square feet of land and boast 100% wi-fi support, fiber-optic connectivity, and 100% power back-up, all of which are prerequisites of any IT industry. The facade has been designed facing North and North East to help mitigate the heat of the tropical South.
The park will incorporate several green design strategies. The building will be energy efficient, significantly reducing energy costs. The external walls will be clad to reflect the sun and insulate the interior work areas. Natural light will shine into working areas without heating up the structure, which reduces the need for lighting during the daytime. Terrace gardens in the sky courts will help to cool the interior, and will be irrigated by the structure’s water recycling systems. The design also integrates rainwater harvesting and ground water recharge. These eco-friendly features will cut the structure’s energy use by over 35 percent.
Other amenities include a swimming pool on the top of the terrace, business centers, conference rooms, and a recreation center, health club, and library with a helipad on the rooftop.
The iconic park has been designed by Christopher Charles Benninger Architects, a reputable design house that aims to “seek the poetry in the place, the lyricism in the built-forms and vibrancy in the inhabitants’ lives.” The project is scheduled to be completed over the next three years.
INDIA TOWER: India’s Greenest Skyscraper.
FXFowle Architects’ India Tower, currently being built in South Mumbai to house a new Park Hyatt Hotel. According to the designers, India Tower will be the greenest skyscraper in the entire country, boasting rainwater harvesting, green materials, and a possible US LEED Gold rating.
Strikingly similar to Tianjin’s ‘Pile of Boxes’, the 60 story, 301 meter tower is subdivided into different modules, each slightly rotated to the next. Each module is meant to signal a change in function of the tower, one being a hotel, the next residential units, one next a retail area and so on. In terms of green features, the structure would integrate everything from common-sense green strategies like shaded windows, natural ventilation, and proper site orientation and zoning to green technologies such as rainwater harvesting and eco-friendly materials.
It is a good thing that developers and architects are trying to minimize the resource consumption of skyscrapers. We’ve seen some rather innovative examples in the past, some going as far as designing a building around sustainable features, such a wind turbines, like in the case of Castle House in London. Most of those have been in the United States or Britain, with a few lofty renderings coming from Dubai, so it is great to see interest in sustainable architecture in other parts of the world. The building is expected to be finished by 2010.
India’s First Green Housing Project Completed
According to the Planning Commission, India will need to generate at least 700,000 MW of additional power by 2030 to meet growing electricity demands. India will certainly be looking towards alternative energy sources to generate a substantial portion of this energy. Although solar energy production in India accounted for a mere 1.7% of the world total in 2007 (80 megawatt peak (MWp) power compared to a world total of 4,700 MWp), several great green strides have been taken by the country to harness the immense potential of solar energy. The latest example of this future forward thinking is Rabi Rashmi Abasan, India’s first completely green housing project.
Built in Kolkata, Rabi Rashmi Abasan is India’s first completely solar-powered housing complex. The complex has been built on a plot of 1.76 acres at Action Area I in New Town. The 58 kilowatt project consists of 26 photovoltaic systems comprising 464 units of Conergy C125W solar modules. The solar modules were customized to fit on the building roofs. Each home will generate 2kW of power. The solar power generated will be used to fulfill electricity needs of the homes, and the surplus power will be sent to the public grid. This is also India’s first building-integrated photovoltaic (BIPV) project. The building-integrated photovoltaic (BIPV) system would save 0.5 kgs of carbon emissions for every kw hour of solar power produced.
The houses will have both passive solar architecture and active solar energy features. The passive solar features will make houses cool during summer, ensure natural light, and better air circulation inside the house. The active solar energy elements include the solar water heating system. The housing complex will also have other sustainable features like garbage management system, battery operated pick-up vans for residents, solar street lights, and a swimming pool with solar water heating system.
The complex has been conceived, designed, engineered and built by West Bengal Renewable Energy Development Agency (WBREDA) and Bengal DCL. The solar photovoltaic has been installed by Sun Technics India, a brand of the Conergy Group.
Green Tower in Mumbai
A spate of green skyscrapers have shot up in the last few years, as people learn that buildings account for more CO2 emissions than any other single source. At the same time, we’ve seen a rise in greenwashing by companies recognizing the market value of green and making false claims to fit the category. In an exemplary meeting of these two trends, we have just discovered a building in progress in Mumbai that calls itself the greenest of all the buildings in the Maximum City of 13 million people. If ever there were a literal interpretation of a deceptive green façade, this is it.
Renderings of the 27-story Antilla building depict a highrise that couldn’t be greener. It’s covered in foliage, with living walls enclosing all four sides, hanging gardens and green rooftop. Just a few days ago, the architects boasted about its environmental features – primarily that the walls of plants will increase green space and combat urban heat island effect. But look behind the green façade, and as far as we can tell, there’s nothing else sustainable about the materials or construction. Architecture firm Perkins + Will doesn’t include the project on their site, but this week mentioned no other green features besides the literal green.
The Antilla is being built for Reliance Industries Ltd, India’s largest private sector enterprise (with revenues exceeding $25 billion), and the Ambani family, who own the company. Reliance is a petrochemical corporation whose earnings come from exploring, producing, refining and marketing oil and gas. They are the world’s largest producer of polyester fiber, and a runner-up for several others.
