Green Buildings as solution for Sustainable Housing: Role of Private Housing Schemes, Lahore, Pakistan

Abstract

Housing is a basic need of every human being. Apart from the financial and social problems faced by our nation, we encounter energy crisis, climatic changes and their impacts on a daily basis. There is an urgent need of efficient green houses for our nation to continue living in a healthy environment. This need is reflected by the congestion of our cities, increasing population and energy demand. Pakistan is one of the countries with highest energy consumption at domestic level. Sustainable urban communities are based on an approach that links economic, social and environmental issues and solutions. They are designed to be socially and economically viable, environmentally sustainable and equitable places. Rapid urbanization demands a lot of housing stocks in urban areas. This paper examines sustainable development in the housing sector of Pakistan towards green building specifically focusing on the private housing scheme developers. Their lack of vision regarding green building adaptation is perplexing. Grand Avenue Housing Scheme, Lahore has been selected as the case study area to highlight the importance of green building. Primary and secondary data has been collected from this housing scheme developer, different software like Google Earth Pro and Sketch Up Pro has been used for 3D visualization of proposed building in the case study area. Internationally, there is a lot of focus on green building construction technology. However, in Pakistan there is no research and implementation of this technology. We need to rectify this situation so that much needed energy can be saved and to promote sustainable housing.