In a bid to create awareness about environment-friendly buildings, experts attending the 24th construction confluence Nirman 2009 urged the developers to keep climate in mind while designing buildings based on western models.

The experts said the developers should look at the buildings through the prism of energy efficiency and energy conservation, and not just copy designs from the West.

Dr Ajay Mathur, Director General, Bureau of Energy Efficiency, New Delhi, said: “To achieve a sustainable future is to save energy. The commercial space in India has grown by 9 per cent in this decade, while the energy consumption in commercial sector has increased by 13 per cent. This reflects the fact that newer building is more energy consuming and is designed in lines with the designs that work in the West. Therefore, it is advisable to take local climate into consideration while designing a building.”

The objective of the confluence is to create awareness about green buildings in Gujarat, which presently has just two such buildings, in spite of being the only government to have an exclusive department for climate change.

Several architects, including Yatin Pandya of Footprints, E.A.R.T.H; Varun Kohli, Associate Skidmore, S.O.M, USA; and Karan Grover of Karan Grover & Associates Baroda were part of the discussion.

Grover, an expert in green building architecture, presented a 700-photographic film on the various faces of the earth and the impact of global warming.

He said, “The more we utilise the concept of green building, the more we will benefit in future. It is important to combine technology with tradition to come out with an aesthetically sustainable architecture.”