Mahgoub and Al-Omaim...
environment.”^1
Demands for sustainable architecture started to appear not only to save planet earth from global warming, but also as a
trend and a key of publicity towards an intellectual awareness. The government of Dubai realized the negative impact of
its rapid urbanization strategies that is promoting mega projects and tall buildings projects. According to Littlefield, “the
fact is that the economic development of Dubai could not have been achieved without increasing the size of its carbon
footprint, and like the rest of the UAE, Dubai is still essentially a fossil-fuel economy. According to the World Wildlife
Fund, Dubai has the second-highest per capita carbon emissions in the world.”^2
In January 2008, HH Sheikh Mohammad bin Rashid Al Maktoum, Vice-President and Prime Minister of the UAE and
Ruler of Dubai instructed that all buildings in Dubai to be constructed according to “green building standards,” which
has imposed the right kind of pressure on the developers. According to Al-Marashi and Bhinder, “this comes as a ma-
jor boost to the international climate initiative and makes Dubai one of the first in the world, and the only city in the
Middle East region, to initiate ‘green building standards.’”^3 The UAE now has its own Emirates Green Building Council
to frame UAE’s building construction guidelines taking into account the local conditions. Pacific Control Systems LLC
has built the UAE’s first Platinum rated “Green Building” with solar air-conditioning and lighting. It is located at the
Techno Park in Dubai. The built-up area of the five-storey building spans an area of over 100,000 square feet. It is aes-
thetically designed to use solar energy for most of its energy consumption requirements.
Kuwait is following the trend in Dubai to apply a sustainability strategy by initiating “green architecture act” and the first
- Khaled Al-Sallal, “Tower Buildings in Dubai – Are they Sustainable?” Council on Tall Buildings and Urban Habitat
(CTBUH) Conference, October 10-13, 2004, Seoul, Korea. - David Littlefield, “Gulf States Gear Up to Go Green,” Building Design, March 30, 2007, pp. 14-15.
- H. Al-Marashi and J. Bhinder, “From the Tallest to the Greenest Paradigm Shift in Dubai,” CTBUH 8th World Congress, 2008.
Figure 3: Examples of tall buildings in Kuwait.