Building recycling for a sustainable city
THERE IS a flurry of new buildings and infrastructure construction activities all over the Kingston Metropolitan Area (KMA). There should be an equal appreciation for new buildings in some instances and recycling of older building in others. Many older buildings can be recycled by retrofitting them for an urbanising KMA.
New construction activities are squeezing the water table under the Liguanea Plains. The plains are composed of alluvia material formed over time by sediments deposited by rivers. This sort of geology means that the KMA’s built environment resources are not on any substantively strong ecological foundation. This is not evident by assessing the weight of buildings and infrastructure that are being erected over these plains over the past two decades.
The issue here is not with the construction of new buildings and going high-rise to increase density. Local modern mode of construction does not seem to include any alternative material to lessen the weigh of these buildings and infrastructure on the soft watery underbelly of the plains. The average six-storey residential apartment building made of reinforced concrete might weigh anywhere between 8,000 and 12,000 tons, given differences in design, details, usage and location (as a factor of different load types).
Some commercial and administration buildings might weight north of 80,000 tons. For example, the building occupied by The Gleaner Company along North Street might weigh up to 160,000 lb/ft3. The fact is that concrete weigh on average between 150 lb/ft3 – 200 lb/ft3. When these figures are multiplied by the building stock of the KMA, then a clearer picture is painted as to the stress they exert on the water table. The consequences of this are well documented.
Older buildings, on average, have far less weight on the plains. Many of the older buildings within the KMA are better designed and built with ecological characteristics long before Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design certification. Some of these buildings have withstood past natural disastrous events that the newer ones have suffered from. Increasing urban heat island effect, through the increasing concretisation of the KMA, is rendering the need for more air conditioning usage in buildings. Many of these older buildings are much greener than the newer ones being built.
TOP CHOICE ALTERNATIVE
Strategies for building recycling were applied on the Carib 5 building in Cross Roads. The theatre was retrofitted without changing the building’s original footprint. All upgrade and modernisation works were done within the existing shell. This strategy of building recycling is now being applied to the New Kingston Shopping Centre.
A structure is only truly sustainable if it remains in use for a long enough period to justify the initial resources invested in its creation. While developers and contractors must be ‘encouraged’ to invest in energy-efficient buildings, this falls short of a holistic, sustainable approach to urban development. As such, adaptive reuse and recycling must also be a top choice alternative.
As Jamaica’s primate city, the KMA is at a crossroads. Increasingly, more people from the 1.6 million between Clarendon Park and Morant Bay, and the 1.4 million from the rest of Jamaica, are dependent on the space and services within the KMA. The KMA must grapple with increasing density demands and find solutions for sustainable development.
The KMA is a major part of Jamaica’s climate change and climate departure equation. There is need to reduce carbon emission and heat islands and conserve cultural significant structures. While building recycling might not always be the ideal alternative, it is clear that any comprehensive approach to sustainable urban development must involve the creative reuse of what already exists.