8 May 2012
Muscat:The German University of Technology in Oman (GUtech) has welcomed the initiative of The Research Council (TRC) to encourage and promote eco-friendly buildings through its initiative.
Explaining the objective of the German university for participation in the house contest, Nikola's Knebel, Associate Professor of Architectural and Urban Design at the GUtech, said, "As we all know, Oman will experience an increasing demand for private housing, and at the same time the cost of fossil fuel will go up.
Therefore, new ideas on how to build energy-efficient buildings in the hot climate of Oman are the need of the hour."
Talking about the competition, he said building an eco-friendly house involves more than just the quantitative issues of energy or cost, which can be measured, but also qualitative aspects like comfort, or cultural and social aspects, which are not quantifiable.
"Therefore, the given evaluation criteria of the eco-friendly house contest are in our view well-balanced between what the sensors within the house can measure and what sensitive jurors are able to judge," he added.
Omani heritage.
The competition, he said, would boost the innovative abilities of people to design eco-friendly buildings that withstand the weather extremes and best utilise the designs as per the Omani
heritage.
Several eco-friendly house competitions are being held across the world but Oman's eco-friendly house contest is peculiar in the sense that it asks for a building that is located permanently on the university's campus, Prof.
Knebel said.
"The eco-friendly house concept is thus inevitably connected to the landscape and history of Oman. Also, our students have developed the basic concepts for the house and followed up with
further designs.
They brought forth their own views of what an eco-friendly house in Oman should be in terms of the design process.
"We are sure that in future the new generation of students would take the concept and idea of eco-friendly house project further and develop more such projects in their professional careers," he said.
When the TRC came out with the brief of the competition, it was agreed by all participants that the teams should include not only academics and students, but also practitioners.
"For example, a consultant would make sure that the project is feasible and built on experience; a contractor will make the design workable; and a municipality team will ensure that the it gets building permission," he explained.
"At the GUtech, we work together with Hoehler & Partner, Larsen & Toubro, and the Municipality of Muscat. In addition, we have some experts on board whose inputs are significant and will be made public at future exhibitions. We all worked together in the first phase of the project and we believe that this way of cooperation leads to an integrated solution.
Demographic situation
"On the vision of the competition, Prof. Knebel said, "The demographic situation is such that for each house we see in Oman today there will be two in the near future. Our contribution is just one more house. But our vision, or rather our wish, is that this one house can influence the huge wave of construction that is to come for the better.
"Once we will have built the eco-friendly house on GUtech's new campus in Halban, we will be able to show that architecture in Oman can be made climate adaptive, economically viable, and energy-efficient. Nothing is more convincing than a real physical example of an Eco House that works," he added.
Muscat:The German University of Technology in Oman (GUtech) has welcomed the initiative of The Research Council (TRC) to encourage and promote eco-friendly buildings through its initiative.
Explaining the objective of the German university for participation in the house contest, Nikola's Knebel, Associate Professor of Architectural and Urban Design at the GUtech, said, "As we all know, Oman will experience an increasing demand for private housing, and at the same time the cost of fossil fuel will go up.
Therefore, new ideas on how to build energy-efficient buildings in the hot climate of Oman are the need of the hour."
Talking about the competition, he said building an eco-friendly house involves more than just the quantitative issues of energy or cost, which can be measured, but also qualitative aspects like comfort, or cultural and social aspects, which are not quantifiable.
"Therefore, the given evaluation criteria of the eco-friendly house contest are in our view well-balanced between what the sensors within the house can measure and what sensitive jurors are able to judge," he added.
Omani heritage.
The competition, he said, would boost the innovative abilities of people to design eco-friendly buildings that withstand the weather extremes and best utilise the designs as per the Omani
heritage.
Several eco-friendly house competitions are being held across the world but Oman's eco-friendly house contest is peculiar in the sense that it asks for a building that is located permanently on the university's campus, Prof.
Knebel said.
"The eco-friendly house concept is thus inevitably connected to the landscape and history of Oman. Also, our students have developed the basic concepts for the house and followed up with
further designs.
They brought forth their own views of what an eco-friendly house in Oman should be in terms of the design process.
"We are sure that in future the new generation of students would take the concept and idea of eco-friendly house project further and develop more such projects in their professional careers," he said.
When the TRC came out with the brief of the competition, it was agreed by all participants that the teams should include not only academics and students, but also practitioners.
"For example, a consultant would make sure that the project is feasible and built on experience; a contractor will make the design workable; and a municipality team will ensure that the it gets building permission," he explained.
"At the GUtech, we work together with Hoehler & Partner, Larsen & Toubro, and the Municipality of Muscat. In addition, we have some experts on board whose inputs are significant and will be made public at future exhibitions. We all worked together in the first phase of the project and we believe that this way of cooperation leads to an integrated solution.
Demographic situation
"On the vision of the competition, Prof. Knebel said, "The demographic situation is such that for each house we see in Oman today there will be two in the near future. Our contribution is just one more house. But our vision, or rather our wish, is that this one house can influence the huge wave of construction that is to come for the better.
"Once we will have built the eco-friendly house on GUtech's new campus in Halban, we will be able to show that architecture in Oman can be made climate adaptive, economically viable, and energy-efficient. Nothing is more convincing than a real physical example of an Eco House that works," he added.
© Times of Oman 2012
