Green Design of Tall Buildings in Kuwait: Obstacles & Opportunities

Abstract

The purpose of this paper is to explore the extent of tall buildings development in Kuwait and to look at the issue of how sustainable and green design principles and strategies are disseminating in the society of tall buildings designers. Specifically the paper investigates how those designers are looking at this issue and what is the drive or incentive behind adopting some of the green design technologies and strategies in their projects. It also looks at the process of designing tall buildings and the obstacles and potential opportunities for making this process green and sustainable. The paper sets forth a hypothesis that green design parameters, such as LEED, may not be directly applicable to the Kuwaiti context. The assumption is a more appropriate system of LEED must be devised for Kuwait, similar to the UAE Green Building Council, for example. While this appropriate system is based on universal rules and guidelines for green design, it must take into consideration, and respect, local systems and conditions. These could be human, cultural, economical and technical. In this paper, the focus is on the designers of tall buildings, since they represent the experts on the matter. The paper uses both quantitative and qualitative data to prove or disprove this hypothesis. The data collection tool used is interview survey with a representative sample of tall buildings designers in Kuwait.

Citation

Khattab, O. and Al-Mumin, A. (2011), "Green Design of Tall Buildings in Kuwait: Obstacles & Opportunities", Open House International, Vol. 36 No. 2, pp. 70-81. https://doi.org/10.1108/OHI-02-2011-B0008