DOHA: Qatar Foundation’s new student housing complex which uses solar and wind energy and implements environmentally friendly practices will be ready by spring next year.
Located in Education City, the new 12-building residence hall complexes have solar panels installed on the roofs and the shades in the car park, set to generate about 15 percent of their required power.
The buildings now under construction, were designed according to LEED (Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design) Platinum standards, the first of their kind.
The new LEED-designed residence halls will implement environmentally friendly practices such as wind turbines which will provide up to 3 percent of the complex’s energy needs. Used water from sinks will be filtered to produce grey water, which can be reused for lavatories and watering plants. Card keys will require students to be at home in order for electricity to be available in their apartment.
A significant amount of the building materials also come from the region, within an 800km radius, and concrete in the building reuses the by-product, fly-ash. Recessed windows will provide light without heating the rooms to levels that would require energy hungry air-conditioning. Precast walls allow the parts of the building to be put together like Lego blocks, significantly cutting down on construction waste.
Qatar Foundation also plans to use the residence halls as a way to bring education to students’ homes. The building’s entrance will have a screen that monitors energy use, both overall and by floor.
According to Chris Silva, Sustainability Education Coordinator for Student Life, at the Office of Faculty and Student Services in the Education Division of Qatar Foundation, the screens will flash red if a building is using more energy than the previous day, yellow if the energy consumption remains stable and green if energy consumption has decreased.
Silva said that there is the potential for friendly competition between floors, rewarding those whose floors use the least amount of energy, and offering advice and education to those whose energy consumption patterns remain high.
The idea for the dorms came about in 2007, when the need for more housing led to a design competition. One bold design team produced what they claimed was a feasible design according to LEED standards that would succeed despite Qatar’s trying climate.
The design was conveyed to H H Sheikha Moza bint Nasser, chairwoman of Qatar Foundation. Under her direction, Qatar Foundation decided that any new building for the Education City campus must be designed to at least the LEED Gold standard.
A green housing for graduate students and married students will be the next project, said Silva.
The Peninsula