DA Head Quarters: Harbinging Change,
Showing the Way

The world headquarters of Development Alternatives (DA) lays claim to be the greenest building in the capital. Its construction has involved a wide range of resource-saving strategies, ranging from indoor climate control to rainwater harvesting and natural lighting. The idea germinated from a fervent desire to initiate a change in the construction industry, the second most polluting industry in terms of contaminating the environment. The intention here was to offer alternative solutions to age-old techniques and prove that such a change was viable, possible and economically feasible.

According to Dr Ashok Khosla, Chairman of IUCN and Founder of DA, ‘The idea for a completely green building came to us while working for over 25 years in the environment sector. It seemed natural then. With notable technical, environmental, social and cultural merit, this building is really a laboratory for sustainable construction in tropical or sub-tropical zones.’

The Chief Minister of Delhi, Sheila Dixit unveiled the green building and complemented DA for building a model which others can emulate. ‘I hope there will be several such structures using alternative ecofriendly methods and technology which will not only become the pride of the organisation and the city but indeed of the nation in a meaningful way,’ she said. The Chief Minister stressed the importance of encouraging construction of more such buildings. ‘Buildings in the capital should be green,’ she said, especially with Commonwealth Games just around the corner. She had also mentioned her government’s plans to build more energy efficient houses, especially for migrants in Delhi, to conserve precious resources like power and water.

Architect Ashok B Lall, who designed the structure said, ‘A number of environmental actors were integrated to make this building possible. Minimising energy consumption was one of our main priorities. We have cut down the use of steel and concrete cement by up to 30% as compared to conventional buildings though this is a multi-storied office building. We have also used timber from mature, harvested trees, all the way from Madhya Pradesh and for sensibly adjusting expectations of indoor thermal comfort in buildings, for the sake of planetary health. The mud and debris from the old structure at the location has been used as material for this building’s construction.’ To be unveiled during the Commonwealth Games in 2010, this stereotype that will forever change the face of the construction industry draws on building traditions that industrialisation and commercialisation has neglected in its rush towards making profit at all costs. Professor Ashok B Lall embraces tradition not because of the past, but for the sake of the future. In his own words, ‘It seeks not to revive tradition, but to redefine old methods in the contemporary context’. The project is a showcase of traditional, environmentally efficient construction materials and systems that can be economically developed for low-energy mass production and adopted by the mainstream building industry, especially in developing countries.

The commitment here is to encourage environmentally appropriate technology and fostering socio-economic equity. The world headquarters of DA illustrates seldom-seen yet reasonable ways of reducing embodied energy in buildings, equitably distributing wealth through the construction project, updating vernacular materials and forms, and curtailing energy consumption and CO2 emissions. The architects refused to accept even the best available technology for the building’s air-conditioning system; they worked with specialists to design a hybrid system estimated to be at least thirty percent more efficient than anything on the market. Innovators don’t just know when there is a better way; they are clever enough to find it, and determined enough to build it.

The new office building tests innovative, specially designed elements and components such as a hybrid air-handling unit that incorporates evaporative cooling and refrigerant-based cooling in a new way to reduce energy consumption for air conditioning by 30 per cent. Water consumption is also substantially reduced, recycled and used for irrigation or to recharge groundwater. The intention here was categorical: Not a drop of wastewater will be poured into the River Yamuna.

The headquarters resulted as a model of sustainable architecture only because the owner, architects and building users shared common values and contributed their full support to the project. Likewise, only because the people behind the project collaborated in a shared spirit of experimentation and innovation does the building exhibit such an abundance of alternatives to development.

Visitors are invited to take a walk through the DA headquarters and witness this immense change and share eco building alternatives with us from 2010 onwards. q

Mitu Banerjee
mitubanerjee@hotmail.com

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