The greenhouse effect

A GREEN building in Hyderabad has got Vadodara-based architect Karan Grover in news. Grover has designed the CII-Sohrabji Godrej Green Busin...

A GREEN building in Hyderabad has got Vadodara-based architect Karan Grover in news. Grover has designed the CII-Sohrabji Godrej Green Business Centre at Hyderabad which was rated the world8217;s greenest building by the United States Green Business Centre at Pittsburgh last month.

Grover8217;s design got a Platinum rating, credited with 57 of the 62 parameters it competed under the Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design LEED 2.0 version8212;a system of rating environmentally conscious buildings.

The business centre, on a 5 acre site, is a compact circular courtyard building and houses a permanent technology centre and conference facilities. The building will be inaugurated in January 2004.

So why all the buzz about this building?

Grover smiles. 8216;8216;It8217;s not the first time for India. We have been doing it since ancient times.8217;8217; Pointing to the jali work in a photograph of the Taj Mahal, he says: 8216;8216;This is called Venturi effect in modern buildings, it helps pre-cool air.8217;8217;

From wind towers that pre-cool the air by 10 degrees to photocells that help generate 20 per cent of building8217;s annual energy requirements, the Green Business Centre GBC is an energy efficient marvel.

Sunlight reaches every part of this centre that8217;s made of recycled and local eco-friendly materials like flyash bricks, broken mosaic tiles, minimal glass and follows a circular pattern so that minimum amount of building material is used.

nbsp;	Green Centre

		nbsp;	8226; It has two 45 feet wind towers and screen walls which provide pre-cooled air to the ACs, reducing theamount of energy needed for cooling. 8226; Photo-voltaic panels to generate solar energy, which account for 16 per cent of annual power consumption. Story continues below this ad 8226; Root zone treatment for the entire waste water generated on site. Treated water is diverted to a water body at the edge of the site. That takes care of all gardening needs.	nbsp;

The Bettum Cherla stone was local as were the workers employed in construction. 8216;8216;The root zone water regeneration system we have used in the GBC is very common in Mughal gardens,8217;8217; Grover says.

The firm has added to it. 8216;8216;We have kept minimum parking space so that people form car pools to come here,8217;8217; he says.

Going back to the roots has been part of much of his work since the days he was a student at M S University8217;s Department of Architecture. From his Gold-medal winning thesis on pedestrian precincts to his Masters on housing for the urban poor in London, to getting World Monument status for the medieval site of Champaner at Pavagadh, he8217;s passionate about them all.

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There8217;s more. He8217;s started a heritage club to attract the young, given Vadodra its first art gallery Urja and helps his wife run a school for hearing-impaired children.