Punjab Minister for Industries, Commerce and Investment (ICI), Sheikh Alauddin has said the designing and constructing the energy efficient buildings is necessary to save energy and overcome issues like global warming, environmental pollution.
He was speaking at the 2nd International seminar titled "Energy Efficient Building Design" arranged by the Architecture Department of Lahore College for Women University (LCWU) as chief guest, here on Friday. This challenge can well be met by the building professional, engineers, architects, academicians and research scholars, he said.
The other speakers included Vice Chancellor Dr Rukhsana Kousar, Professor Dr Norbert Lechner and Dr Salman Azher of Auburn University, Alabama USA, Vice Chancellor of University of Engineering & Technology Lahore, Dr Fazal Ahmad Khalid and its head of Architecture department, Dr Arif Khan. The minister said that 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.
Dr Norbert Lechner 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 A Khalid threw light on the role of traditional housing concepts for energy conservation with contemporary issues of design and construction methods. Dr Salman Azher 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.