Emerging Towers in Bayraklı: Sustainability as a Branding Strategy or a Tool for Local Development?

Authors: Ash Ceylan Öner and Burkay Pasin (İzmir University of Economics, Turkey)
Year: 2015
Source type: article (published August 5, 2015)
Raw file: raw/articles/oner-pasin-2015-emerging-towers-bayrakli-sustainability.md

Summary

This study examines emerging high-rise towers in Bayraklı, İzmir (designated by local government as a high-rise development zone) to question whether sustainability is used as a "greenwash" branding strategy or as a contextual element well-embedded in architectural design and urban planning. The authors find that "sustainability has become a principle embraced and advertised in the building scale as an environmental concern more than it is embraced in the urban and social context." The paper critiques the narrow definition of sustainability in high-rise literature (focused on ecological design and green architecture at individual building scale) and calls for attention to long-term effects on social, cultural, economic, and resiliency contexts of cities. The research method is a descriptive case study through semi-structured interviews with design teams and real estate professionals, media analysis, and consideration of local municipality reports.

Key Claims

• Sustainability trends in high-rises: "Sustainability and eco-friendly towers have been among the most discussed topics of contemporary high-rise building design. High-rise buildings have been an important part of the modern economy with their concentration of human capital and branding value for the urban context."

• Ill-defined sustainability: "In existing literature, sustainability of high-rises is defined mainly through ecological design and green architecture principles in individual building scale. However, sustainability in the case of high-rises remains an ill-defined term, as there is neglect of further long-term effects of these buildings on the social, cultural, economic, and resiliency contexts of cities."

• Greenwash gap: "When not integrated with the broader urban context, sustainability falls into the gap to be perceived as 'greenwash', which stands for a superficially-employed concept used as a fashionable branding strategy."

• Research question: The study questions "whether or not sustainability is used as a greenwash branding strategy or a contextual element that is well-embedded in architectural design process and urban planning decisions."

• Two components of sustainability: "In terms of sustainability, we focus on environmental and social components. Actually, these are both interlinked concepts." Social sustainability "has gained significance in the recent years in architectural discourse in relation to the fragility of the social systems and the relationship between human domination and environmental degradation."

• Environmental design parameters: "In tall buildings, the environmental aspects of design based on wind and solar exposure, integration of recycled materials, use of greenery in the buildings and around the sites, use of grey water, indoor air quality, and waste management are commonly used to achieve comfort zone of the residents with reduced impact of developments on the environment."

• Rating systems: Environmental elements "are also included in ratings to obtain international-based certificates such as LEED (Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design) or BREEAM (Building Research Establishment Environmental Assessment Methodology)."

• Social sustainability parameters: "Creating publicly-shared spaces, rather than keeping the buildings as gated complexes, and locating the buildings in easy access to transit stops are issues that reinforce social sustainability, but how much of these are employed remains to be a matter of choice on the side of the developers and designers."

• Brundtland Report definition: "In 1987, the United Nations World Commission on Environment and Development's report titled 'Our Common Future', commonly known as the Brundtland Report defined sustainable development as 'development that meets the needs of the present without compromising the ability of future generations to meet their own needs'." Three components: environmental, economic, and social (equity) — the 3E Model.

• Built environment impact: "The built environment consumes half the energy used worldwide and buildings are responsible for more than half of all global climate-change emissions." High-rise buildings "consume more energy and have higher carbon footprints compared to other building types, but on the other hand these buildings offer a more compact form of urban habitation."

• High-rise definition: EMPORIS defines high-rises as buildings higher than 35m or more than 12 stories; skyscrapers as 100m+ or 40+ stories.

• Urbanization trend: "Since 2007, the urban population of the world has exceeded the rural population and the predictions are that, by 2050, approximately 66 percent of the world's population will be living cities." High-rise living and working "would become more and more significant in relation with environmental and economic concerns, such as reducing the impacts of transportation and dealing with increasing land prices."

• Sustainable architecture context: "Sustainable architecture only makes sense if the surrounding urban context is sustainable as well." In Europe, "the tendency is to connect these high-density settlements with existing transportation nodes. London is a prime example."

• Asian mega-cities: "Asian mega-cities have high population densities compared to other regions, thus high-rise living is both a necessity and a trend in Asian cities." Hong Kong planners initiated "infrastructure-led development in 1972" — nine new towns, all self-sufficient with residential, commercial, social spaces, connected with mass transit. Singapore followed similar "constellation cities" strategy with 23 new towns.

• Historical evolution:

  • Pre-late 19th century: Passive techniques for illumination and ventilation
  • Post-WWII: Shift to mechanical environments (A/C, climate control)
  • 1970s energy shortage: Return to passive heating/cooling (Foster, Rogers in Europe)
  • 1980s: McDonough's self-sufficient solar homes; toxicity of materials (off-gassing)
  • 1990s: LEED, BREEAM rating systems emerge
  • Late 1990s: Ken Yeang introduces bioclimatic design principles (low-energy, passive, better user comfort; sky gardens, water reclamation)

• Bioclimatic vs. ecological: "Yeang broadens the definition of sustainable high-rise building design by distinguishing bioclimatic and green (ecological) approaches. Bioclimatic design is seen as an intermediate approach to reaching the ecological stage. It is based on the utilization of the local climate and focuses on the immediate surroundings; whereas the ecological design considers the building and its impact on the environment in a more holistic way, taking into consideration all man-made and natural activities."

• Contemporary promotion: "In the contemporary era, sustainability in high-rises is getting more popular as city officials, planners, and architects promote compact cities against low-rise suburban sprawl in order to reduce energy consumption and climate-change emissions."

• Design parameters (Table 1):

  • Environmental: Climatic comfort (wind control, natural ventilation, solar control, solar energy, photovoltaic cells, passive/active thermal control)
  • Social: Integration (social interaction, liveability, water/waste maintenance, rainwater collection, co-generation plant); Accessibility (public spaces, central districts, public transportation)

• Bayraklı context: Designated by local government as high-rise development zone. Study focuses on five case study buildings (completed and under construction).

• Key finding: "The results indicate that sustainability has become a principle embraced and advertised in the building scale as an environmental concern more than it is embraced in the urban and social context."

Connections

Concepts: sustainability
Authors: foster-hal
Related source notes: mahmoud-2014-iconic-architecture-publicizing-cities, giannakopoulou-2020-olympic-gigantism-sports-venues

Direct Quotes

"When not integrated with the broader urban context, sustainability falls into the gap to be perceived as 'greenwash', which stands for a superficially-employed concept used as a fashionable branding strategy."

"In existing literature, sustainability of high-rises is defined mainly through ecological design and green architecture principles in individual building scale. However, sustainability in the case of high-rises remains an ill-defined term, as there is neglect of further long-term effects of these buildings on the social, cultural, economic, and resiliency contexts of cities."

"Sustainable architecture only makes sense if the surrounding urban context is sustainable as well."

"The results indicate that sustainability has become a principle embraced and advertised in the building scale as an environmental concern more than it is embraced in the urban and social context."

Open Questions

• How does the Bayraklı case relate to Sklair's analysis of iconic architecture in East Asian cities — is sustainability the new "enigmatic signifier" replacing cultural depth?
• What is the relationship between "greenwash" branding and the "Bilbao effect" — are both forms of commodified cultural/ environmental capital?
• How does the finding that sustainability is advertised at building scale but not urban scale connect to Johnson's critique of CCTV — is the icon always disconnected from context?
• Does Ken Yeang's bioclimatic approach offer a genuine alternative to greenwash, or is it itself co-opted as branding?