Aerial View Istanbul-Turkey (Halic)
Source: Wikimedia

Why only the new but not the old?

The need for better and energy efficient building products will be increasingly needed in the future. In the part of the world I live-nyc, I can attest to the development for design of this type of buildings. Most new constructions incorporate energy efficient building design practices during the design process and ask for use of such equipment and materials to achieve the energy-smart design intend. 

This implies at least two things. Along with new concepts and design ideas, sustainable building developments will continue to take place with more demand from the design firms and developers, which will place pressure on industries that supply the designers with necessary software, equipment and products that meet expectations and costs-savings predictions. This is actually nothing new. It is already taking place and will continue to do so as per market demands for new developments.

What I think is not equivalently taking place is the design and product development ideas for existing homes and buildings especially for densely populated cities. For instance, a new building design might offer a few recommendations on the utilization of the roof space for installation of PV-photovoltaic panels, or offer walls or windows customized for the new building design. Existing small buildings, homes, apartments and their owners on the other hand, are left to the faith of the average local contractor or whatever is available at the local home depots to help them upgrade their homes and apartments.

The situation is similar in other urban cities across the world. Many people in various countries left their towns and moved to the cities as the economic and industrial developments clustered in specific regions. This massive migration turned cities into metropolitans. Over many decades, buildings in new districts began to rise. Millions live in these apartment homes and they will for many more years.

The solutions that the designers come up for new building constructions will probably never reach these building apartments and their owners. As long as we continue to make designs and building products for the adoption of the renewable sources only for the new and large scale buildings or homes located in the suburbans we will fall short on transforming city-buildings into energy efficient dwellings in large urban zones. We must give a consideration to explore design options and produce concepts to find out how we can transform the existing dwellings in the densely populated urban cities to self-sustained energy smart apartment homes.