Green Concepts and Vocabulary 51

Industry executives like Bob Schroeder, Industry Director (Americas)

for Dow Corning’s construction business, echoes this sentiment and says,
“Today, sustainable design has been recognized by the industry and the pub-
lic as critical factors in achieving high quality architecture and benefiting
the building owners - the companies that occupy these structures and the
wider community.” Additionally, a substantial number of mergers and acqui-
sitions are taking place allowing firms to reposition themselves in emerging
markets and gaining added expertise while developing new relationships.
Moreover even with a depressed economy, green design has become a fix-
ture and is here to stay. It no longer suffices for owners/institutions/agencies
to just talk about green. There is a strong incentive to implement elements
of green design into new and existing construction projects.
While most design professionals consider great architecture to be a
delicate balance of form and function, we nevertheless find high-rise
buildings being constructed on a global scale with increasing ferocity,
often with little concern for due diligence, the environment, or aesthet-
ics. What is transpiring from this unusual green building upheaval, is the
emergence of several interesting trends such as the building of spectacular
landmarks as exemplified by the Sydney Opera House (Fig. 1.6), and Burj
Dubai (Fig. 1.7) which is the highest building in the world and which
was recently awarded CTBUH’s Highest Award: “Global Icon”. It was
also awarded the “Best Tall Building” award. Bill Baker, Chief Structural
Engineer for Burj Khalifa and SOM Partner says, “Burj Khalifa is a game
changer. This incredible team of architects, engineers, consultants and
contractors has been able to create something that goes far beyond what
has been done before.We are extremely grateful to the CTBUH for creat-
ing this prize for the project and recognizing the Burj Khalifa’s impact on
the art of tall buildings.”
The towering Burj Khalifa skyscraper is the center of a large scale,
mixed-use development comprised of residential, commercial, hotel, enter-
tainment, shopping, and leisure outlets with open green spaces, water fea-
tures, pedestrian boulevards, a shopping mall, and a tourist-oriented old
town. The design of the tower combines historical and cultural influences
with cutting-edge technology to achieve a high-performance building. Its
massing is manipulated in the vertical dimension to induce maximum vor-
tex shedding and minimize the impact of wind on the tower’s movement.
Also of note, on New Year’s Eve, there was a huge fire which engulfed the
63-storey Address hotel which is located near the Burj Khalifa tower, ahead
of a New Year’s Eve firework display.