Though Vietnamese people have been aware of the importance of the green architecture, the worldwide tendency remains far from becoming popular in Vietnam.

Green buildings just the dream of Vietnamese people

The phrases “energy saving buildings” or “eco urban areas” and “environment friendly urban areas,” used to talk about the green architecture tendency in the world, have become more popular to Vietnamese people. It is not by chance that the phrases have been used by real estate developers in their advertisement campaigns as the outstanding features of their products.

Nguyen Truong Luu, Deputy Chair of the HCM City Architect Association, said on Saigon giai phong that when advised to build green houses with large area of verdure, friendly to the environment and every saving, most of his clients are convinced that green architecture is the best solution. However, they would give up the idea when considering the construction estimates.

A green construction work is always much higher than the costs of normal construction works. A power saving lamp is also 10-15 times higher than a normal lamp, while an unburned brick is 20 percent more expensive than a normal brick.

Luu said that to date; only two out of his tens of clients have accepted to spend more money to have green works.

Luu is not alone. Other architects in the architecture association have also been in the same situation. Very few of their clients choose green architecture just because of the overly high costs.

An architect, who asked to be anonymous, said sometimes he can persuade his clients to spend more money to have green construction works, but it’s nearly impossible to persuade the investors of the state budget funded projects to set up green works. In general, these projects need to follow the strict regulations in state management, which always requires a full and particular account and thrift practice.

Also according to the architect, what architects can do is just focus on the solutions in work layouts, i.e. they need to give advices on the places to set up the items of the buildings, so as to take full advantage of the sunlight and natural ventilation for the buildings. 

Meanwhile, other matters relating to the construction materials, lightening equipment prove to be without the reach of architects, because this depends on the investors’ financial capability.

Khuong Van Muoi, from the HCM City Architect Association, said on Thoi bao Kinh te Saigon that the costs for green construction works are always 30 percent higher than other works.

What to do to encourage green buildings?

According to Nguyen Trong Hoa, Head of the HCM City Institute for Research and Development, one of the reasons which makes green architecture unattainable, is the lack of a reasonable mechanism for the implementation.

The government has instructed some state budget funded projects to use unburned bricks instead of burned products to protect the environment. However, there has been no legal document that shows the implementation of the decision. It’s clear that unburned bricks are much more expensive than normal products. Meanwhile, no adjustment has been made about the unit prices applied to state budget funded projects so far.

In other words, according to Hoa, the green architecture does not imply the architecture style of a house or a building, but this should be seen as the combination of many different factors, from the programming to designing and construction. 

He stressed that in order to develop green architecture, it’s necessary to have reasonable policies. Especially, the State needs to give reasonable financial supports.

Source: VNN