Dubai, now famous for its ambitious and modernistic projects, is yet again churning out another architectural marvel – The Giant Pearl. This ambitious piece of architecture by Schweger Associated Architects located near the Jumeirah Palm, is actually touted to be a city inside a city and a product of three and a half million man hours of labor.
Not only is the entire project grandiose, as this huge 20 million square foot area would be an amalgamation of commercial, residential, retail and social services all rolled into this one massive Giant Pearl project, but is also a sustainable and energy efficient structure. Firstly, a lot of commuting would be reduced as the people will have the two most important facilities of having both workplace and home within reach, translating into lesser vehicular pollution.
Furthermore, the project hopes to be accredited with the LEED Gold Certification. However, many doubts are being raised about the carbon footprint of this huge concrete structure. However, on the contrary, it is believed that concrete measuring 60,000 cubic meters has already gone into the project, which does not make the structure eco-friendly as concrete is not an environmentally-safe material.
Furthermore, the industrial application of concrete in such massive building projects leads to a lot of wastage which cannot be reused upon hardening. There will also be a gross wastage of water that is also used in the concrete-making process. Water pollution is also bound to happen if the water from the concrete seeps into the ground water and flows into the rivers, eventually harming the environment.
Via: GreenProphet
