The Hindu : Other States / Union Territories News : Energy conservation in building designs mooted

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Monday, Sep 13, 2004

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Other States - Union Territories

Energy conservation in building designs mooted

By Our Staff Correspondent

CHANDIGARH, SEPT 12. Experts in the field of architecture seem to be developing a consensus over the need to adopt approaches and promote practices that are eco-friendly and favour efficient as well as cost effect conservation of energy. These views were articulated by luminaries on the subject at a national- level seminar titled, "Towards Sustainable Architecture'' which was organised jointly by the city's leading architectural organisation, `Saakaar Foundation' and journal 'Architecture and Design' (A+D).

Inaugurating the seminar, the Punjab Minister for Housing and Urban Development, Raghunath Sahai Puri, drew the attention of experts towards the vision of the first Prime Minister, Jawaharlal Nehru, to stress the need for awareness regarding healthier housing designs that suite the country's requirements. While complimenting their role in urban development, the Minister appealed to the experts to focus their attention on the needs of rural people.

Mr. Puri said that the concept of energy conservation should be taken to the grassroots level as the rural areas faced a major shortage of power. He favoured the need encourage the use of solar and wind energy for lighting the houses and cooking.

Renowned energy consultant and Secretary of the Solar Energy Society of India, Anil Misra, said that low energy design had to be proposed at the initial stage of the project construction, while energy objectives should be more specific. He explained that lighting was the major consumer of electricity. It was followed by heating, ventilation and air conditioning.

He further said that the demand for energy grew annually at the rate of 11 per cent in commercial buildings and 9.5 per cent in the residential. He said that it had been established that the recent trend in construction led to excessively high-energy consumption due to low efficiency of conversation methods. He advocated the need to replicate the experiment at Shantivan and Auroville, where the world's largest solar cookers provided daily meals to thousand persons.

In his intervention, Surinder Bahga of the Saakaar Foundation, stressed the need for including energy efficient codes as part of the building byelaws. He cited a survey by the Foundation to point out that despite being one of the most planned cities of the country, 35 per cent of the houses in the first phases sectors of Chandigarh had faulty orientation. It was found that 25.8 per cent area in the commercial buildings, located in the main shopping plaza of Sector 17 in the city, were underlit.

The Delhi- based architect and planner, Jeet Malhotra, also stressed the need to tap the abundant resources of solar energy on the mainland and the wave energy along the coasts. Eminent scientist from the Roorkee- based CBRI, S.P. Jain, pointed out that energy efficient features usually fell victim to the availability of resources while constructing buildings. Former Principal of the Chandigarh College of Architecture, S.S. Bhatti chaired all the technical sessions. Others who spoke included, Chairman of the local unit of the Chapter of Indian Institute of Architects, Jit Gupta and Editor of A+D, Suneet Paul, while representatives of M/s Jindal Mectecno, gave a presentation of their products.

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