High-rise dwellings will be a more modest share of global green construction projects for most of the rest of this decade. Newly released survey results from development proponents and design practitioners in 69 countries reveal that 25 per cent foresee work on green high-rise residential buildings within the next three years, compared to 46 per cent with planned commercial projects. Higher tallies of new institutional buildings, existing building retrofits and low-rise housing are also expected.
The global projection for new high-rise apartments, based on 1,026 total responses, strays farther from reality in several of the countries that the World Green Building Trends 2016 report examines in more detail. More than 40 per cent of respondents from Brazil, Singapore, China and India report a pending green high-rise apartment project versus 20 per cent in the United Kingdom and just 15 per cent in the United States and Germany.
“Most countries with a lot of green activity expected in the high-rise residential sector report relatively low activity compared with global averages in the low-rise residential sector,” the report observes. “The U.S. is notably weak in both sectors, as is Poland.”
In Poland’s case, green construction efforts are predominantly weighted to commercial projects with only 6 per cent of the country’s respondents planning a high-rise residential building. In the U.S., lack of enthusiasm for green high-rise residential is partly attributed to the current spate of new apartment construction, which makes developers more reluctant to bring new multi-residential product of any calibre to market at this late stage of the cycle.
Meanwhile, the U.K. illustrates the report’s theory in reverse with 40 per cent of respondents expecting work on low-rise residential projects — well above the global average of 27 per cent. This influx of green housing appears to be needed in a country where more than 80 per cent of the residential stock has D to G status on the European Union’s mandatory A-to-G energy rating scale.
