Bedzed v Masdar

1970-71 I was living in Dubai in an old hotel called Chicago Beach the land that is now the Jumeirah Beach Hotel

A friend invited me to say for 2 nights in his family compound with promises of fun & living like it was in the old days. 

His family were well off (as in Dubai well off)  a huge compound, new marble buildings & the old clay stuff with the wind sucking towers.

Cooking in the yard on a big fire was fun,  company was good,  but most left bidding me, our host & 3 others a (wink wink) "good night"  

We stayed one night in the wind tower,  a night of not much sleep with 30 to 40 degress.

So all I can say on that is,  dun it but no thanks.

Next day of desert dune busting & man stuff was great,  but the last night was spend in the marble house with its air-con set too low for comfort

Most of the compound was empty & I asked where his family were.

Mostly in London or Paris was the reply,  they never stay in Dubai in Jul & August

Don - simplz - futile

I spent a while based in Sharjah but occasionally with the ADDF in Abu Dahbi from 68 to 72 after which I moved down to Dohfar (Salalah) 72/73 with SOAF. I went back to Abu Dhabi in 80/81 as an instructor.

Looks like we might have passed like ships in the night.

When I first arrived, most locals (obviously not all) from the Liwa to Rams lived in very simple buildings or where nomadic. They are the people I was refering to as being carbon-neutral with a sustainable way of life. This is only based on observation having spent quite a bit of time in the Liwa, Al Ain, Fujairah, Khor Fakhan, Musafi, Dibba, as well as Sharjah, Dubai/Deira and Abu Dhabi. I accept that all observation isn't proof of widespread fact.

The expats, mainly Brits, lived mainly in marble-clad blockwork villas with wall-bangers, driven by local diesel generators. The first large power station/desalination plant was commissioned in Abu Dhabi in 69/70 - I don't recall the situation in Dubai. By the time i moved to Oman, the local population of the Emirates had largly transformed to an oil-based power/water supply plus luxury good ecconomy and the rest, as they say, is history. I agree, many of the better-off locals emigrated to Europe/London for the summer even in '68.

The globe can't cope with 6bn people aspiring to western living styles, never mind Emirates styles.

I agree, our global effort in recent years re the environment and, more importantly IMHO, sustainability, are pretty futile - they might buy us a bit of time to wake up.

But the Bedzed and Masdar projects aren't encouraging

Cheers

Don

PS I presume you bought your first, obligatory, Dual/Sansui hifi system in VV & Sons ?

Don

This could be an interesting discussion. I come clean first tho'. I am an architect and run a small design office. Sustainability is, and has been for some years now, the current mantra! But it is complex and confused in its understanding and use. There are many definitions of sustainability, enough to keep a large room of 'experts' argueing for days. I take a simple view that it is just about using and depleteing our natural resources as little as possible.

Bedzed is one mans vision and suffers from that. It also uses technologies that are management intensive and whose efficiency are 'limited' by the scale of the project. For example the boiler falls over and there are a limited number of people who can fix it and so it stays off longer than it should and thereby is expensive.

I have only visited Dubai so cannot effectively or sensibly comment, particularly against your experience, however although I am obviously jaded, why can't someone else aspire to our way of life? In theory if they got all their energy from the sun ( a 'renewable' source!) then they can use as much as they want. The problem is that they don't, they deplete oil etc. Different discussion really. A bit like americans and petrol.

The current thinking here ( and not necessarily the governments approach) is designing building that use as little energy as possible, highly insulated etc and then using energy from highly efficient centralised sources such as offshore wind farms etc. I say 'highly efficien' but more 'highly efficient' than individual wind turbines on individual houses! There are a number of cities in Europe who have explored this, Frieberg to name but one.

It is possible but it has to have a centralised vision and no government will do that if oil is a key part of their economy. There is also the small p political issue of aspiration to a 'better' way of life.

I continue to try to persuade my clients to move in this direction but it always comes down to money. People who buy houses in this country for instance still see them as a financial investment not a personal investment and won't, as a general rule, pay even the tiniest bit more for higly efficient boilers, more insulation, solar panels etc unless forced to.

go figure!

atb

james

I think everbody has a right to aspire to whatever lifestyle they wish. However, given the evidence that large numbers of people aspire to the current lifestyle and living standards of (say) Western Europe and North America, this lifestyle is unsustainable. The planet simply cannot provide the required resources at the required rate for the earth's current population.

Some resources are limited. eg oil, coal, lithium (probably). Once used, that's it. The oil WILL run out sonner or later.

Some resources are renewable, but at a limited rate. Examples include food and water, timber, organic soil, wool, cotton etc. They are renewable, but the rate of production/harvesting is insufficient to support 6bn people in western lifestyles. At present, the rate of production might be artificially high, given our use of oil-driven farm machinery and fertilisers.

Other resources are effectively limitless, eg solar energy and wind energy - but our ability to use them is probably limited by our current ingenuity and the need to use limited resources for their capture.

Ingenuity is needed to extend the life-span of the limited resources (oil, coal etc) - this will give us breathing space. Ingenuity is also needed to increase the yield of the limited-renewable resources (food, water, timber etc).

I understand that to support the global population at current western lifestyles would require something like 5 Earths - assuming we still have oil and coal. The Bedzed project indicates that we might be able to reduce this to about 2.5 Earths, but is hugely dependent on how much and what we eat; and how much we travel.

I can see a way forward with a global population of c 1bn - but 9bn (2050) doesn't look too clever, it looks like global warfare over limited resources.

Ideas?

Cheers

Don 

James

I think that architects have a hugely influential role to play in sustainability (*). Our built environment accounts for a huge utilisation of resource in initial provision, operation and maintenance.

ISTR a move about 15 years ago towards a "Green" specification (or Bills of Quantities) which aimed at sustainability. I'm not sure whether this gained widespread aclaim or use. Or has been expanded/replaced?

Of course, new ideas spring up every week. Sometimes its difficult to separate short-term opportunism from long-term sustainability. We rely on professionals such as yourself to differentiate. Not easy.

Cheers

Don

(*) declaration of interest - my youngest daughter is a Part 3 Post-Grad (Newcastle/Nottingham) currently working in Putney with a small firm focused on residential properties.

I had the obligatory Dual/Sansui at some point in 1982 I think!

from VV & Sons ?

I still have my lattice-grilled speakers.

Cheers

Don

No Don.  From a shop long gone in Scotland.

Graeme