Beyond Green Walls

They have made it to the news, to photo features and to LEED ratings. They
have been everywherethese green buildings. For a concept that is less than a
decade old in India, the numbers seem quite pleasing. There are homes and a
hotel on the bandwagon too now.

Although these buildings have done a commendable job and are all unique in
themselves, we decided to move beyond the buildings and get to the brains behind
the bricks. Here, we talk to two of the leading green architects of the country.
Their take on green might just surprise you. And we also visit the first green
hotel and detail green luxury for you.

Responsible Luxury

...and that is what ITC Group of Hotels stands for. ITC Royal Gardenia in
Bengaluru adopted several green practices making a strong statement of going
green, and being responsible

Certified with the LEED India Platinum Rating, ITC Royal Gardenia complements
the Garden City with a green touch, from conceptualization of the design of the
hotel to water re-usability and other green practices.

A striking feature while walking through the hotel is the image of the Tree
of Life imprinted on elevators which is a strong statement of ITCs commitment
that every element in the hotel has to have a green touch. The reason why the
hotel is H-shaped is to draw maximum benefit from the citys great weather,
allowing cross ventilation and keeping the building cool. The entire lobby space
as well as the lotus pavilion, the beverage destination, is centrally cooled and
has a wind tunnel effect. There is no artificial source of cooling such as air
conditioners at the main entrance. The H-shaped design also allows for maximum
light. The bricks used are Malaysian, which do not require any maintenance, and
also stones that are long lasting. Also the green cladding all over the building
has copper cladding; the color of the element keeps changing every year which
gives the building a unique dimension.

The hotel is one of the first hotels in India to create the concept of
vertical hanging gardens that are located at the main lobby and the Cubbon
Pavilion, the coffee shop. These gardens rise towards the ceiling. Lighting is
provided from natural sources or through an energy efficient lighting system.

ITC is the only company in the world to be carbon positive, water positive
and solid waste recycling positive. Utilizing innovation, cutting-edge
technology, and design integration the hotel has maintained  harmony
between responsibility and luxury.

PC Suraj

surap@cybermedia.co.in

Questioning Norms

Being into the business of green buildings for over two decades, Vinod
Gupta discourages people to go for the common practice of green ratings

As is the general practice, most people are setting up green building as per
the American standards, and following the given rating systems that evaluate
reductions in natural resource consumption. However, these norms dont look into
macro issues related to environmental hazards that might vary from place to
place or site to site. They only concentrate on lowering the consumption of
natural resources by say 25-30% instead of listing ways of intelligent use of
resources by better planning and sensible thinking.

In such a scenario, here is a man, a designer and an architect by profession,
for whom going green is more than fashion or trend or concept. We are talking
about Vinod Gupta of Space Design Consultants who has been a part of this
movement since the last two decades.

Environment Friendly

Gupta has been into the business of designing environment and eco friendly
buildings even before the concept of green started, since the 1980s: The
buildings have been known by various names in different agesenergy efficient,
solar passive, environment friendlyand so on. Currently, they are called green
buildings, says Gupta with a smile.

India is a country where people have always been making green buildings. The
practice traditionally has been of making non air-conditioned buildings. The IT
sector though has never been focused towards such initiatives earlier. They have
rather been the biggest consumers of energy and other hazardous resources.
There has been a notion that a building housing IT offices has to have higher
air conditioning standards. This is peculiar because in India there are many
places like Bengaluru or Pune wherein artificial air conditioning is hardly
required as the weather doesnt demand it. The buildings could be designed in a
manner that can use natural cooling methods, thus saving enormous amounts of
power, says Gupta.

We tried making such buildings but the IT companies demanded building with
full air conditioning facility just because they are in the IT sector. And the
most surprising thing is that after doing this wrong thing they demanded to make
these buildings energy efficient so that they consume less power. But one cant
compare such buildings with the ones which are naturally cooled, he adds.

In short, Guptas thinking differs from the general green building movement
which says, reduce energy consumption by 30%. For him its not about energy
efficiency, its about making a building which is environment friendly, uses
natural cooling mechanism and is made of eco friendly materials.

All for Green

Iincidentally, Gupta made the first intelligent building in the country, the CMC
building in Mumbai, in 1992 using building automation system for best results.
He however feels there are simpler ways to achieve similar results. Instead of
using all these technologies, the designing of the building if can be made by
keeping in mind the natural concepts and mechanisms, the effect could be same or
better and most importantly, the cost will be much less, he explains. For the
American Institute building in Gurgaon instead of using any technology, Gupta
used the simple mechanism of putting sun shades designed in a manner that
reflects sunlight inside the building.

The Neemrana NIIT campus is again not a certified green building but its
greener than any other certified green building. The building uses 100% fresh
air, which is first pre-cooled using geo-thermal energy and is passed through
underground ducts before being put into the air conditioning units. For faster
cooling, Gupta has used displacement ventilations that provide air conditioning
vents at the bottom. We have also used light shades that help pass on the
daylight to the interior most areas of the building. We are also planning to use
daylight in the basements using solar panels, he informs. For me this is the
future, is what Gupta has to say.

Piyali Guha

piyalig@cybermedia.co.in

Green Rated

The increasing environment awareness has inspired the architects like Koul
to design buildings that are not only efficient but also sustainable in the long
run

According to Ramesh Koul, associate principal, Rajinder Kumar Associates, the
major challenge for an architect is to design a building that is not only green
but also stands apart from others in the vicinity in terms of its architecture.
For example, 90% of day light harnessing is not enough, the architect has to
ensure that the daylight covers 90% of the square feet area of the building so
that people can work comfortably.

To some extent building green offices are a part of corporate social
responsibility and branding. For example, ITC Green Center, Gurgaon, was an ITC
initiative to consolidate all the regional offices in one place. The ITC Green
Center was also an effort on the companys part to build its image as a socially
responsible company and move out of the shadow of being a tobacco company.

Green Projects

Ramesh Koul has single handedly designed a number of projects. The major
ones have been ITC Green Center, Gurgaon and ITC Gardenia, Bengaluru. The ITC
Green Center has been awarded Platinum rating by LEED, and it testifies
recycling of industrial wastes such as fly ash. ITC Gardenia is another project
that the architect feels would be a landmark in the history of green hotels.

Apart from this, the architect has worked on other noteworthy projects such as
Oil Industry Development Board (OIDB) building and a hotel project in Dwarka.
Both of these have gone for GRIHA Gold Rating.

Cost Effectiveness, and Beyond

Ramesh Koul says that people might debate on the initial cost of designing and
procurement of resources for a green building, but in reality there is no major
difference in investment in terms of establishing green buildings and non-green
buildings. The green buildings are extremely cost effective and the average
payback period is two to four years. The cost increases if the company decides
to add a particular innovative solution. In addition, the lifetime costs are
lower because green buildings make optimum use of all resources.

It is to be further noted that the investment and effort put in constructing
the first green building (by a particular company) is subsequently high when
compared to its second green building. In terms of effort, first time design and
documentation takes a lot of time.

IT plays a dominant role in providing relevant information on available
resources required for a green building. To add to it, IT provides support in
the form of Building Management System (BMS) which supports and monitors all the
paraphernalia required for construction and maintenance of a building.

Atreyee Datta

atreyeed@cybermedia.co.in