Alrafia: Safeguarding the Environment for a Sustainable Future

The concepts of sustainable design and green architecture represent new approaches and methods in the world of design and construction. There is a global trend that makes future buildings sustainable in design through advanced methods and technologies that contribute to reducing the environmental impact and at the same time working to reduce costs, starting with operation and maintenance costs, which contributes to providing a safe and comfortable Omani environment. Therefore, there is a global and international trend in adopting the concept of sustainability in The urban sector because of its positive dimensions on all environmental, social and economic levels.

Recently, there are no longer boundaries between the environment and the economy, since the beginning of the emergence and spread of the concept of sustainability, which made it clear that ensuring the continuity of economic growth depends on the challenges and pollutants facing the environment that lead to the destruction of its vital systems and the depletion of its natural resources. Therefore, the concept of green architecture strengthens this connection between the environment and the economy, because the effects of urban activities and buildings on the environment have clear and obvious economic dimensions, including energy consumption and intense reliance on artificial air conditioning devices, while neglecting natural ventilation methods.

Green professional practice

When we consider our environmental situation and our limited natural resources for a long time, we realize that our need to apply the concept of green architecture is a necessity, as such buildings depend primarily in internal lighting methods on daylight and sunlight, which saves the energy consumed by lighting.

Rather, they also exploit natural energy sources such as sunlight. Wind energy produces energy, which reduces environmental impacts and provides sustainable urban projects.

The standards and concepts of sustainability in the world of contracting and construction are not a scientific or practical luxury, but rather a new scientific method that enhances professional practice in design, supervision and implementation to create urban facilities of a sustainable nature.

Activating and applying the concepts and practices of sustainability and green architecture in construction can only be done by qualified architects and engineers in the field, which leads to finding innovative solutions to environmental and economic problems in a functional and effective manner.

New environmental standards for construction

Green architecture is a global functional and applied trend, as it has begun to take shape significantly among architects and engineers involved in the construction sector in advanced industrial countries.
Indeed, over the course of successive decades, these contributions have influenced the creation of standards for sustainable green architecture by promoting modern technologies that can advance the urban sector, and more sustainable methods.

In order to find environmental and economic solutions to the problems facing the construction sector, it was necessary to change the traditional rules and adopt modern methods that enhance environmental awareness.

Such changes are required to bring about a revolutionary breakthrough that enhances the culture of sustainability through design, implementation, supervision, and every engineering mechanism that is followed in the urban sector.