Ministry of Construction encourages energy efficient building designs

09/04/2013

As scheduled, the organizing committee of the “1st energy-efficient building design competition” organized by the Ministry of Construction would hold an award ceremony on March 23rd.

As scheduled, the organizing committee of the “1st energy-efficient building design competition” organized by the Ministry of Construction would hold an award ceremony on March 23rd. This is the first contest for massive constructions with floor areas of over 2,500m2, which contributed to energy efficiency and sustainability.

According to the organizing committee, after a year of competition, 10 projects were selected with 01 first prize, 02 second prizes, 03 third prizes and other 4 encouragement prizes.

All awarded projects achieved 5 main targets including environmental design, energy efficient design, effective technical design, guaranteeing the standards of comfort and satisfaction as well as the adaptability and sustainability. Some projects were not highly appreciated in spite of having an impressive technical solution, for example the lighting and air-conditioning system or electromechanical equipment use, since the competition aimed at energy efficient designs. Most of awarded constructions were hotel and resort constructions which combined successfully technical measurements, power conservation methods and excellent energy management programs such as practical staff training, energy saving plans and a power consumption platform. Additionally, an energy audit was held frequently to evaluate the efficiency of energy use, to determine the electrical losses which helped to look for an optimal energy conservation solution.

Among 30 competitions, the number of office buildings, departments, shopping malls, hotels and school constructions made up 50% but several of them won the prize due to the lack of investment portfolio and an active management schedule.

Nguyen Cong Thinh, Department of environment and technology, Ministry of Construction, a member of the organizing committee expressed that in order to make it easier to identify and distinguish the competitors, it was necessary to devise a different marking scheme and to set up differentiated criterion for each types of constructions.

The competition had great effect on the public. Along with other recent contests of energy efficient buildings, energy management models and green constructions organized by different organizations and administrative organs, “energy-efficient design contest” attracted the attention and participation of many building design consultants, suppliers as well as investors in the energy consumption and conservation problem. It was likely that the Ministry of Construction would hold another power saving design contest for professional architects and design consultant companies. This contest was also the main planned target of the Ministry in energy use and saving efficiency in the period 2012-2015, which was already ratified by the Vietnam Government.

By Thanh Thao

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