Inauguration of Qatar Olympic committee stadiums for achieving GSAS 4 Stars

Doha, Qatar - Wednesday, January 28th 2015 [ME NewsWire]

    100% Greywater Recycling & Reuse
    30% Lower Energy Consumption
    20% Recycled Content Materials

As an institution that is working tirelessly to promote environmentally responsible energy and resource efficient building best practices in the MENA region, today in a press conference at Ali Bin Hamad Al-Attiyah Arena, Qatar Olympic Committee & Gulf Organization for Research & Development inaugurates Qatar Olympic committee stadiums for achieving GSAS 4 stars. Ali Bin Hamad Al-Attiyah Arena & Lusail Sports Arena are the first in the MENA region & the world to achieve sustainability high standards 4 stars based on GSAS rating system.

The inauguration was announced by HE Sheikh Saoud Bin Abdulrahman Al-Thani, Secretary General of the Qatar Olympic Committee & Dr. Yousef Mohammed Alhorr, GORD’s Founding Chairman. GORD assessed the detailed design and audited the construction of the sport facilities to ensure the accomplishment of GSAS 4 Stars rating for the facilities.

GSAS Sports is used to rate sports facilities of all types and sizes during multiple phases including design, construction, operations and legacy use. Sports facilities ratable by GSAS include any buildings or venues that are designed to host a sporting event which support activities for athletes/competitors, support staff, and spectators. Spectators are the intended audience for the sporting event and facility.

In this occasion, HE Sheikh Saoud bin Abdulrahman Al-Thani commented: “we are proud of this achievement, which is unique in being achieved for the first time in sports facilities in the Middle East, and that in turn promotes Qatar's National Vision 2030. The perception stands for preserving  the basic environmental  values, with a clear message to the international community that the State of Qatar seeks to harness all the possibilities to promote sport in the perspective of the protection of Environment.’’

Dr. Yousef Alhorr said: “Qatar Olympic Committee stadiums to achieve GSAS 4 stars was a great challenge since we have to take into consideration many stringent standards such as; reducing energy & water usage, preserving natural resources, indoor environment & management & operation.” HE added: “we’d like to thank Design Firms, Construction companies & GORD for great efforts placed to achieve high sustainability standards. We’d like to dedicate this success to the sports community locally and internationally.”

Inaugurating Qatar Olympic committee stadiums is the result of great efforts & synergy between all parties who worked hard to achieve QOC objectives of having sustainable sport facilities as role model on a global level & implementing green building best practices based on highest standards of global sustainability assessment GSAS.

GSAS Sports is used to rate sports facilities of all types and sizes during multiple phases including design, construction, operations and legacy use.  Sports facilities ratable by GSAS include any buildings or venues that are designed to host a sporting event which support activities for athletes/competitors, support staff, and spectators.  Spectators are the intended audience for the sporting event and facility.

The various types of sport facilities include outdoor stadiums, indoor arenas, and outdoor courses. Of the three building types related to sports facilities, each has a specific makeup of building and course functional components such as outdoor competition area, indoor competition area, swimming pool hall, ice rink hall, fitness suites, locker facilities, retail spaces, offices, restaurants, common areas, laundry, public bathrooms, animal facilities, competition venue related landscaping and sports facility related landscaping.

GSAS Sports may contain varying standards for certain criteria depending on operational conditions and whether the measurement is intended for peak or non-peak usage.  Peak usage is defined as the maximum event capacity of the facility.  Non-peak usage refers to periods when the facility is not hosting a major event.  Additionally, GSAS Sports will rate the project on its original design intent as well the facility’s intended legacy use.

GSAS Sports measurements were determined through the detailed evaluation of the building type, functional components, operational considerations, and scale considerations.  Measurements and scoring ranges were determined according to this streamlined process in order to create an unbiased rating system for any and all sports. Due to the system framework flexibility and comprehensiveness, it has the capacity to rate sports facilities worldwide after making appropriate adjustments.

Projects Highlights

Owner: Qatar Olympic Committee

Building Type: Multi-Purpose Sports Hall

Uses: Main competition arena caters for Basketball, Volleyball, Badminton, Gymnastics, Handball and (Ice Hockey for Ali Bin Hamad Al-Attiyah Arena)

Structure: Combination of structural steel and reinforced concrete, with Glazing and insulated Aluminum panels as a building’s envelope

Venue
   

Lusail Sports Arena
   

Ali Bin Hamad Al-Attiyah Arena

Site Area m2
   

395,000
   

44,000

Building Foot Print m2
   

50,000
   

16,000

Gross Floor Area m2
   

126,000
   

40,000

Seating Capacity
   

15,800
   

7,700

GSAS Sports categories

GSAS Sports scheme consists of eight categories and 50 criteria. The following chart summarizes the categories and their associated weights.

The eight assessment categories are:

    Energy - (E)   24%
    Water - (W)   16%
    Indoor Environment - (IE) 16%
    Cultural & Economics - (CE)             13%

   

    Site - (S)         9%
    Urban Connectivity - (UC)             8%
    Materials - (M)         8%
    Management & Operations - (MO)             6%

Features of Category Site & Urban Connectivity

Pedestrian walkways and cycleways have been provided throughout the site to ensure people can walk or cycle to and from the site, as well as exploring the external site areas. In the evenings and at night, all walkways and cycleways are adequately lit to ensure pedestrian safety and comfort.

Features of Category Energy

Designed to reduce energy consumption by more than 30% compared to similar conventional buildings, to combat climate change and reduce air pollution through several measures and techniques.

    Efficient envelope is designed to reduce cooling demand by using fritting, shading and bright colored finishes to minimize heat island effect. The ratio of opaque walls to glazing is optimized to reduce heat gain
    Energy recovery units are installed to reduce energy consumption of HVAC systems by utilizing the exhaust air to pre-cool fresh intake air.
    Efficient chillers, fans and water pumps consuming less energy are used in comparison with compared conventional units
    Lighting energy is reduced through the use of long life bulbs & LED lighting and occupancy sensors (Ali Bin Hamad Al-Attiyah Arena only). Lighting power density has been reduced by 36% compared to conventional buildings
    Renewable energy photovoltaic panels with total area of 515m2 are installed to produce 45,000kWh/annum
    Thermal solar water heating system is installed on the car park sheds to produce hot water needed for indoor uses (Ali Bin Hamad Al-Attiyah Arena only)

Features of Category Water

Designed to reduce water consumption of occupants through employing a number of different strategies as follows:

Internal Uses Conservation Measures:

    Water efficient fixtures are used to reduce the overall potable water demand
    Greywater System captures and treats the water from hand-basins and showers to reuse it as the water supply for toilet flushing
    Leak detection sensors are installed in public toilets on each floor and in the pump rooms with alarms to alert maintenance of potential leakages to shut off the water supply

External Uses Conservation Measures:

    Recycled greywater is used for landscape irrigation purposes
    Rainwater runoff from the building roof is captured and collected into storm water tanks and used in the irrigation system
    Condensate water which is generated from the air conditioning systems is also collected in the storm water tanks to be used in the irrigation system
    Rain sensors are used in the irrigation system
    Through minimizing the grass (lawn) areas, the irrigation system uses only drippers instead of sprinklers to minimize the use of the water
    The Landscape plans use native plants and adaptive plant species to reduce the irrigation water. Bark mulch are used to reduce the water evaporation

Features of Category Materials

    27% of construction materials are responsibly sourced materials with consideration of social responsibility ISO 26000, Quality Assurance ISO 9001, and Environmental management ISO 14001.
    20% of construction materials constitute recycled content materials, which reduce the need for virgin materials.
    90% of construction materials and construction expenditure contribute the national economy by engaging local resources.
    The Project’s façade and structural systems are designed to be easily disassembled during decommissioning of the project so that each element can be recyclable or reusable for other purposes.

Features of Category Indoor Environment

Designed to improve indoor environment for human comfort and health through careful considerations for thermal comfort, ventilation, illumination level, daylight and glare control.

Features of Category Management & Operations

    The use of Intelligent Building Control System to control and monitor building systems, cooling, ventilation, lighting and smart meters.
    Solid Waste Management strategy calls for the provision of recycling bins at every waste disposal location, thus enabling source segregation of waste, which could be residual waste, dry waste, or organic waste.

Contacts

Gulf Organisation for Research & Development

Salah AlAyoubi - Head of Marketing & Corporate Communications

Tel: +974-4404-9007

Email: s.alayoubi@gord.qa