Sherry Ayittey urges architects to design buildings to capture sunlight

Regional News of Thursday, 22 March 2012

Source: GNA

Ms Sherry Ayittey, the Minister of Environment, Science and Technology, on Thursday appealed to architects to design buildings that could capture sunlight into the interior parts to help reduce the heavy burden of electricity.

She explained that with the cost of electricity rising, there was the need for buildings to be designed such that the roofing, windows and doors could capture sunlight during the day for the bulbs to be turned off to save energy.

Ms Ayittey made the call when addressing the opening session of the Annual General Meeting (AGM) of Ghana Institute of Architects (GIA), in Accra.

The meeting would brainstorm on past achievements, challenges and chart a good path for the architecture industry.

It is on the theme: The Architect and National Development and sought to discuss areas that would help the industry to design buildings that could withstand the test of time.

Ms Ayittey said it was sad to observe that though there were a wide range of credible professional bodies with the requisite expertise to contribute to the sustainable and harmonious development of the built environment, there was rapid deterioration of the natural environment over the years.

She said the serious problems confronting human settlements and the continuous deterioration in the country was the failure of practitioners in the development of the built environment involving planners, architects, engineers and environmental and social scientists.

Ms Ayittey said since both urban and rural communities were vulnerable and could be adversely affected by the high risk of future climate change it was advisable to promote participatory and stringent land use and planning services as well as zoning codes.

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Sherry Ayittey urges architects to design buildings to capture sunlight