environment

Forum promotes greener buildings

LA PRENSA

eco city: Architect Luis Carlos Herrera said Panama could benefit from innovative building techniques that reduce energy use.1016984

According to a report by the United Nations Environment Programme and Sustainable Construction and Building Initiative, the building industry is responsible for 30 to 40 percent of the planet´s energy consumption.

Most of that energy is used for air-conditioning systems and heating and lighting, which generate greenhouse gases that contribute to global warming and can harm the ozone layer.

Promoting alternatives such as sustainable architecture, novel energy policies aimed at reducing consumption and increased efficiency, and innovative environmental legislation, were some of the topics considered by participants of the "Building for the Planet" forum last Wednesday, an event organized by the Centro de Incidencia Ambiental de Panamá.

One of the guest speakers, José María Fernández of IHOBE (a Spanish eco-design firm) described the benefits of the "green city," an urban area of revolutionary design and detail whose every component, from parks to public transport, worked toward maximum energy efficiency and functioned like a living organism.

The Mexican architect Luis Carlos Herrera said that Panama´s increasing energy consumption in construction design was alarming. He urged builders and architects to remember the basics of heat transfer and entropy when designing a living space.

"The solution is not doing more to produce more hydroelectric power and continuing to spend more but to reduce consumption," he said. "When one is designing, how much more it costs well orient the building? Just think about it. When we forget to do that we build."