Singaporeans readily acknowledge that they have three kinds of weather: hot, hotter and tropical. In the Philippines, we have only two kinds: dry and wet. During the dry season, temperatures and humidity go up. During the wet season, people deal with torrential rains and destructive floods.
As we learn to adopt green design, whether driven by legislation, corporate policy or well-intentioned environmentalism, there is one aspect in the building industry that seems to be a disconnected issue—fire safety.
Voluntary green building measures continue to be increasingly popular in many countries for the past decades. Starting with the most elementary strategies like providing insulation and window overhangs, many countries have moved on to more sophisticated green measures.
If you picked up a box of cereal or a canned good in the grocery, you will readily find in the label valuable data such as ingredients and nutrition facts. For many shoppers this information helps them make the right decision especially as it pertains to their health.
It is very convenient for many of us to assume that childhood obesity is a major health problem mostly prevalent in developed countries such as the United States.
Many building owners invest heavily on impressive entrances and lobbies by installing very expensive floor finishes to attract tenants and buyers to patronize their buildings.
Public libraries have come a long way since the early days when it was simply a place for borrowing books closely monitored by a librarian whose only task it seemed was to point to a sign that said “Please maintain silence.”
OUR WORLD now faces four major challenges. These challenges include climate change, the fuel crisis, financial crisis and food crisis.
Choosing A construction material for a building is a dilemma for any designer. The right decision can have a positive or negative impact on the success of a project in terms of cost, schedule and overall quality. The construction industry accounts for half of all resources used worldwide, which calls for building designers to use caution in the choice of material.
Next to climate change, poor planning is getting the flak when it comes to environmental disasters. Poor planning is blamed for many things that have gone wrong in our country. From flooding to bad site location to poor land development and design, the list goes on. Corrupt politicians and incompetent developers who are responsible are clever enough to steer away from the blame game. In the end, the people are the losers because they are the ones who bear the consequences of bad decisions.
CLIMATE CHANGE is everyone’s favorite punching bag. Many are quick to put the blame on climate change for just about anything that’s going wrong. Some people in government admit that it is difficult, if not impossible, to solve the many environmental problems plaguing our country due to the complex nature of climate change.
THE IMAGES are all too familiar on television and the newspapers. Clusters of shanties with many dirty, starving children playing; scavengers digging in garbage dumpsites scrounging for trash convertible to cash; traffic-congested roads with all types of smoke-belching vehicles and many high-rise buildings here and there.
