LAHORE - Provincial Minister for Industries, Commerce and Investment (ICI) Sheikh Alauddin has said that designing and constructing the energy-efficient buildings is a must to save energy and overcome issues like global warming, environmental pollution and decreasing natural resources of energy.
He expresses these remarks while addressing 2nd international seminar titled as “Energy Efficient Building Design” arranged by the Architecture Department of Lahore College for Women University (LCWU). The other speakers included Vice Chancellor Dr Rukhsana Kousar, Prof Dr Norbert Lechner and Dr Salman Azher of Auburn University, Alabama USA, VC of University of Engineering & Technology Lahore Dr Fazal Ahmad Khalid and its head of Architecture Department Dr Arif Khan.
The minister said, “Pakistan stands among top countries that consume highest energy in domestic sector which is more than 45 percent while the energy deficiency is gravely affecting our economic growth and industry sector.” “Under such circumstances, it has become prime responsibility of our architects to come forward with the innovative solutions for energy efficient designs of buildings and their construction with effective materials to help the country for reduction in energy burden,” he added.
Dr Norbert said, “We should focus on the low cost and easy to apply energy conscious design strategies to combat this hot climate of Pakistan and design for delighting along with solar geometry.” Dr Fazal threw light on the role of traditional housing concepts for energy conservation with contemporary issues of design and construction methods. Dr Salman said that using state of the art technologies for construction of energy efficient buildings can save sufficient energy that can be used for industrial purpose.