2. VOLUME 1 Number 12 FUTURECITIESME.COM6
contents F U T U R E C I T I E S M E . V O L U M E 1 N u m b e r 1 2
08
18
76
72
80
40
44
60
66
36
24
30 34
2610
3. "The human being is
the yardstick and
his/her well-being
is our goal"Continuing the discussion on the
importance and implications of Indoor
Air Quality (IAQ) we sat down with experts
from TROX Middle East, a recognised
global leader in indoor air technology
and world-renowned P&T Architects, to
find ways of setting better standards
and improving air quality in the region’s
construction projects.
Matthias Kasprowicz: ”The human being is
the yardstick and his well-being is our goal.“
These words from our late chairman
Heinz Trox have been the philosophy that
has guided our company from the start unto
this day. We breathe more than 20,000 litres
of air everyday, so no another natural element
is more vital to our health and wellbeing. TROX
is involved with two universities in Germany
where over a 120 students are working on our
research and development projects related to
indoor air comfort, health and sustainability. We
have always worked with our customers from the
very early stages of design. We are now bringing
this philosophy to the region with our products and
working methods. The region has seen a number
of high-profile projects where everything we see is
of very high quality but behind the scenes quality of
systems is not maintained. To change this mindset
specialfocus:Indoorairquality
FUTURECITIESME.COMVOLUME 1 Number 1218
matthais KASPROWICZ,
MAnaging Director,TROX middle East,
jASON sHILLIDAY,
sales manager,trOx middle east
Stephan Frantzen,
Architectand Managing Partner, P&TArchitects
Ahmed Mosa,
Senior Architect | Sustainability, P&TArchitects
Harry Norman,
Managing Director, Flip Flop Media FZC
4. of the air itself may be good with lots of
oxygen but how the air is blown and at what
temperature determines how comfortable
people indoors are. So it’s not just about
the quality of the air but also how the air is
distributed in the indoor environment.
Is the building design community
in the GCC aware of the affects
of indoor air quality?
Ahmed Mosa: Yes definitely. The majority
of the design community are aware of it,
for P&T, we have buildings standing for
more than 100 years; it was always and will
remain a core issue to address for us. From
our opinion, it is not an issue of awareness
for most; it is more of unorganised priorities
and this make the issue of IAQ more serious.
The most common example is Tobacco Smoke
Control. Everybody knows and aware of the
negative impacts of secondhand smoke but
still, we see a lot of places that allows smoking
indoors, to attract customers, and do not have
proper exhaust facilities; we can see that clearly
in the older buildings. IAQ is a major concern
worldwide but it shall be even bigger here in
Middle East, for multiple reasons, first we tend
to spend more time indoors with minimum
access to fresh air, then due to the weather, our
lifestyle and design of buildings. In other climatic
zones, we can often just open the window to
improve the air quality, easily and relatively
quickly. In our climate, we cannot do that in
summer months and sometimes all year because
of the type/design of buildings we currently
have - particularly skyscrapers where you may
not be able to open the windows in the top floors
safely due to higher wind speeds - our reliance
sometimes is fully on mechanical ventilation to
provide the required fresh air, which is then
limited by energy consumption aspirations.
We believe that projects need a design brief
for Indoor Air Quality. Not a generic one but a
document that specifies values for each aspect
of IAQ such as (VOC, formaldehyde, particulate
matters concentrations in indoor air); this can
be tested before handover and then tested post
construction. We think this is the best way to
tie in the architects and the design team post
construction towards operations, and that will
make good IAQ become a bigger design priority.
Matthias Kasprowicz: We are talking about
24x7 exposure to the air throughout the year in
skyscrapers. In normal residential areas in the region,
in winter we are fine when we open the windows -
we feel better. But for about five months a year we
cant open the window. I have hardly seen and air
ducting systems in any apartment or villa here where
and bring about a greater awareness of good quality
indoor air distribution systems we decided to create
the XsmartAir project. The XsmartAir project aims to
create healthier and more comfortable levels of indoor
air in the UAE and the wider Middle East region at
a later stage. We have been in discussions with the
Government and see a number of encouraging signs
so far.
When we talk about IAQ and the sick
building syndrome what are the actual
issues we are dealing with here?
Jason Shilliday: Air conditioning systems in a building
are used for heating or cooling the air within. In the
Middle East they are always for cooling. Controlling and
cooling air is expensive so one cannot always bring in
fresh air from outside and control its temperature. So a
large percentage of air within a building is recycled. How
that is done determines indoor air quality. The quality
Air conditioning systems in a building
are used for heating or cooling the
air within. In the Middle East they are
always for cooling. Controlling and
cooling air is expensive so one cannot
always bring in fresh air from outside
and control its temperature.
jason shilliday
special focus: Indoor air quality
FUTURECITIESME.COM VOLUME 1 Number 12 19
5. the return air is not going into the supply
air and the supply air is not sourced from
the rooms themselves. So there is almost
no external source of air for the building.
In this room where we are sitting, for
example, there are two supply vents and
two exhaust vents. The exhausts usually
just go into the false ceiling and not a duct.
This air above the ceiling is then sucked in
by a fan coil unit back into supply vent. This
endless recirculation of the same air gives
rise to a number of respiratory ailments and
other diseases. We have a couple of studies,
which scientifically prove the effects of bad air
systems because there is no sufficient supply of
fresh air and unsufficient air treatment. There
are adverse effects on students in schools.
There is a study by a professor from Berkeley
University called William Fisk and it has proven
that in a working environment productivity will
increase by 4% if there is a proper supply of
fresh air. Now convert that in GDP terms we are
talking of increased productivity in billions of
dirhams only in the UAE. There is another study
on room satisfaction, which shows that with only
5% supply of fresh air you have a dissatisfaction
level of 55% among the occupants of the
building. If supply of fresh air is increased to
25% the dissatisfaction levels will drop to just
8%. A satisfied staff in the office will drop levels
of absenteeism due to ill health by over 30% thus
increasing productivity and again increasing the
GdP. We are talking health, but for others it’s also
talking money in the same context.
Do you think the Government is aware
of the economic benefits of good IAQ?
Matthias Kasprowicz: That’s a very good question.
They are starting to become aware and are creating
regulatory systems to improve air quality. But we are still at the
beginning of a long process.
One of the key mandates of a project is initial
cost and often costs for regularly testing air
quality over a period of time post construction
are neglected. Is that a common trend here? What
are your thoughts on this?
Ahmed Mosa: Any given project will have different stakeholders
whom sometimes include non-technical members that are concerned
mainly by cost related matters, most of the time they will ask
questions with focus on initial costs, and you may get disqualified
immediately if the initial budget of the project is exceeded, even if
the project saves, and generates revenue on the longer term. On
that subject, we like to highlight that if we look at the costing of a
building over period of fifty years, the initial cost will not exceed
25% and the rest will be operational. But it is only this 25% that
is focussed on in the planning stages and that leads to wrong
decisions. You can buy a cheap product, get the initial testing
approved, but after one or two years of operation, no one knows
about its functioning. Initial cost is indeed very important but
operational cost must also carry its own weight in a project’s cost
considerations, therefore we shall always look at the Life Cycle
Costs (LCC).
Matthias Kasprowicz: I 100% agree with that. The problem here is
that we have mainly design and build projects, so developers have a
very limited view and they don’t really care about operations.
Ahmed Mosa: But this is the case in most global cities, short period
for return on investment is always a key objective. Therefore, I
I 100% agree with that. The
problem here is that we have
mainly design and build
projects, so developers have a
very limited view and they don’t
really care about operations.
Matthias kasprowicz
VOLUME 1 Number 12 FUTURECITIESME.COM20
specialfocus:Indoorairquality
6. personally believe that change, especially
for long term benefits, can be brought
about with financial incentives or extra
allowable leasable areas to the developer/
design team and with simplification of the
topic further to the public. When it comes to
the later, I think comparing Air quality issues
to Water Quality is the key as both goes
inside our body and crucial to our wellbeing.
Imagine if you gave someone contaminated
coloured water to drink. Nobody would touch
it because they know they would get sick
immediately. The problem with low IAQ is that
sometimes we cannot see or smell how bad it is,
its effects are generally noticeable only over an
extended period time such as Asthma. We hear
about improved IAQ so far largely in the context
of green buildings only, instead IAQ should be a
core factor, like clean water, in the primary MEP
considerations of any building project.
Matthias Kasprowicz: The problems caused by bad
air-conditioning are now self-evident - especially, in
the Middle East where we spend more time indoors
than elsewhere. As I mentioned earlier we breathe
more than 20000 litres of air every day. By contrast
we drink only two or three litres of water and eat about
a kilogram of food. So you can imagine how important
breathing good air is - both outdoors and indoors.
Jason Shilliday: From the first cost point of view in terms of
mechanical and engineering design it’s a lot cheaper to install
an air flow system with a very low fresh air flow rate because
the actual cooling capacity required of the coil is a lot less - in
villas especially. Most developers almost never factor in good
IAQ supply in initial costs.
So accordingly you, what percentage of
fresh air in an indoor system’s circulation is
considered healthy?
Jason Shilliday: In the UK, for homes about 10 to 12 litres per
second per person is considered good. It also depends on the
size of the room and the application or activity it is being used for.
Matthias Kasprowicz: This also defined by standards. The DIN
EN15251 standard specifies how many litres per second of fresh
are required in separate categories - depending on whether it
is an office environment, hotel, school, and so on. Another one
is DIN 13779 for indoor air that takes into consideration the
filtration process and the supply of outdoor air into the room
and how often the system needs to be cleaned. Filtration and
maintenance is another critical area. A developer or contractor
has to get several approvals - including approval for air supply
systems - from all kinds of Government agencies in order to
construct a building. But one or more years after commissioning
those certifications and approvals, particularly for indoor air
conditioning systems might not be able to be achieved anymore.
Jason Shilliday: There is quite a lot of research data out there on
post occupancy conditions of IAQ and more of that kind of research
should be done here as well.
VOLUME 1 Number 12FUTURECITIESME.COM 21
special focus: Indoor air quality
7. As mentioned earlier, incentives can
hold the key to creating better IAQ
systems for buildings. Where does
attention to that first need to be drawn?
Is it at the developer, contractor level,
end user or is at government level?
Matthias Kasprowicz: Incentivisation requires a holistic
approach that needs to be top down. It must come
from the government first. It needs to be formulated as a
mandatory policy requirement that will also be monitored
throughout the life cycle of a project. There must be
a mindset change in the whole construction community
including the owners and end users of the building. They
should not take a bad air conditioning system for granted.
As they don’t take a cheap carpeting for granted they should
not tolerate below par air quality standards. And this requires
people to be educated and made aware of the risks of a bad
indoor air system. It’s not normal to feel cold in one corner
of the room and warm in the other. It’s not normal to feel
dizzy and lethargic because of excess CO2 or VOCs. “Value
Engineering” is often misused to replace high quality systems
with sub standard equipment to reduce costs. In public
buildings good IAQ is responsibility that governments need
to take on if they care about their people’s well being. And its
not so difficult if you plan it. Take the capex of a building. Air
conditioning is not more than 2% of the total cost. And the cost
difference between a low quality and good quality system may
be 100% (in the extreme case) at the time of installation. But
considering the life cycle cost/benefit analysis of the building this
initial investment pays off handsomely in terms of the health and
overall productivity of the occupants. This is a point that needs to
be emphasized at ALL levels. Our company, TROX, has products
that solves all these problems and more.
Jason Shilliday: When the governments starts improving IAQ
within their own buildings then the philosophy and mindset will
start to filter down.
Ahmed Mosa: We definitely do have regulations that cover the
percentage of fresh air required indoors, they are aligned with
the latest standards from ASHRAE (62.1 & 62.2), but these are
minimum to follow. We need and can go a step further by looking at
the concentration of different pollutants. When the authorities start
spreading awareness of a better IAQ
standards, similar to what’s happening in
water, the public will feel its importance
and we will start to see faster rate of
change in the industry in general and
society as a whole.
Jason Shilliday: Due to its regional
importance the weightage of LEED points
for IAQ should be different here compared
to that in other parts of the world.
Matthias Kasprowicz: A good place to
spread awareness on the importance of
good IAQ is in schools.
But what about existing
buildings? How we can put in
place a system to improve
the air quality in existing
buildings?
Jason Shilliday: You can change older
buildings. It’s a matter of doing surveys in
the rooms of the building to find out what
the problems and working backwards
to find the solutions at the source of the
system. A good maintenance team would
be able to do this.
Ahmed Mosa: The task becomes
harder in existing buildings, surveys
are definitely mandatory to identify
problems; the action required can
be simple such as more regular
maintenance but can end with major
retrofit in mechanical systems if it does
not provide a good quality air.
Matthias Kasprowicz: This is where
good quality systems can be used
to create better indoor air quality by
optimizing distribution and circulation
using high-performance equipment for
air-conditioning systems.
The discussions concluded with everyone
agreeing that one practical way to
effectively spread awareness about the
topic would be to set up testing and
rating standards for the IAQ of every
building in the UAE. The rating could be
displayed prominently at the entrance
of all buildings. So everybody knows
exactly what they are “getting into”. Just
like energy and environment ratings are
displayed on labels of products, similar
ratings for air quality can be displayed on
buildings. Schools would be a very good
place to start this practice. l
The task becomes harder in existing
buildings, surveys are definitely
mandatory to identify problems; the
action required can be simple such as
more regular maintenance but can end
with major retrofit in mechanical systems
if it does not provide a good quality air.
ahmed mosa
VOLUME 1 Number 12 FUTURECITIESME.COM22
specialfocus:Indoorairquality
