Engineers and architects should design buildings which are environment-friendly and energy-efficient, an expert said in Doha yesterday. Andy Ford, president-elect of the globally acclaimed Chartered Institution of Building Services Engineers (CIBSE), said there was a need to make buildings under construction in the region, in particular the high rises, eco-friendly and energy-efficient. “This is one region where I feel building engineers should be more wary of the climatic conditions and should put in extra efforts to turn each of their new projects into both eco-friendly and energy-efficient structures,” said Ford, who will take over as the new president of the London-headquartered forum in May. While designing new buildings, engineers here should bear in mind their livability more than anything else, he said. “Buildings account for almost 50% of damaging carbon emissions and engineers could minimise the damage by bringing in innovative service designs,” he said. On his first visit to Qatar, where a chapter of CIBSE was set up last year, Ford went around some of the new projects where the forum members are at work. It included the Qatar Foundation, Sidra Institute of Medical Education Research, the New Doha International Airport (NDIA) and some of the ongoing housing and commercial projects of Barwa. The CIBSE has more than 50 active members in Qatar and efforts are on to increase the size of the organisation. “Our forum has more than 17,000 members and is spread in 89 countries,” he said. Ford feels Qatar needs to play a major role in the activities of the CIBSE. “It is one place where there is scope for experimenting and practicing a lot of new techniques, innovations and applications,” the British engineer said. “Our organisation supports the science, art and practice of building services engineering in many ways. We provide our members and the public with first-class information and education services and promoting the spirit of fellowship which guides our work,” he added. The CIBSE, he said, is promoting the career of building services engineers by accrediting courses of study in higher education. “We approve work-based training programmes and provide routes to full professional registration and membership, including chartered engineers, incorporated engineers and other engineering technicians.” The forum’s Qatar country manager Michael Daly feels there is a big scope for intensifying the CIBSE’s activities in view of the increasing pace of reforms being introduced in the educational sector in Qatar. “We run a host of courses and programmes aimed at improving the living conditions in new buildings and students from Qatar could also make use of some of those programmes,” Daly said. http://gulf-times.com/site/topics/article.asp?cu_no=2&item_no=399919&version=1&template_id=36&parent_id=16

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