Green Garments Factory

Bangladesh University, Department of Architecture, Dhaka

Project idea

In this current world scenario, with the energy crisis and climate change, the next step
towards better work or built environment is to be sensitive about these issues and design
functional spaces with hidden agendas. an agenda that primarily includes reduced energy
consumption and the reuse/recycle of energy.
Garments industries are a major source of economic growth for our country, still these
industries are hardly ever designed. Workers are forced to work in horrible working
conditions. Lack of safety measures, work spaces is monotonous in most cases. Proper
ventilation and thermal comfort is ignored in most cases.
As Bangladesh is facing severe energy crisis recently, current and future industries need to
improve their energy efficiency. The lack of sensitivity in use of space, energy, material etc,
very often causes inefficiency. The situation is deteriorating progressively with time, being
caused by the natural growth of the demand for power at one hand and retiring of depreciating power generation plants on the other. It should be a priority for the architects,
engineers and the designers to research and recognize how they can contribute to make
these energy consuming industries more sustainable. Hence, I chose this project to
understand how a garments industry can be improved in terms of day-lighting, comfort,
building form and skin.

Project description

Name of the project: Green Garments Factory.
Client: Knit Asia Limited.
Location: Shapipur, Gazipur.
Site area: 12.7 Acre. (5,56,540 sft)
Program:
• Knitting
• Dyeing
• Knit Garments
• Finished Store
• Raw Materials Store
• Printing
• Embroidery
• Dyeing
• Utility
• ETP
• WTP
• Dormitory
• Waste Collection
• Office
• Parking
• Training Center
• Dining
• Child Care
• Health Care
• Assembly Space

Technical information

Green Building issue:
Cost:
Very often green building is considered to be expensive as usually all kind of modern
building methods. However it saves much more money from the Moment of creating during
its lifetime as ordinary buildings.
Energy efficiency:
Green building has a great advantage of reducing both embodied and operating energy
consumption.
Water efficiency:
Water consumption is another objective in sustainable building. Water can be wasted by
drip irrigation, leaking (toilet leaking can waste up to 90 gallons per day), pool showers.
Recycling rainwater and using it for toilet flushing can save waste-water. Water saving
shower heads, ultra-low flush toilets and other conserving fixtures can minimize wastewater.
Material efficiency:
Green buildings are built from green, rapidly renewable, non-toxic, reusable and recyclable
materials as lumber, bamboo, straw, recycled metal/stone, sheep wool, compressed earth
block, concrete, cork etc.
Maintenance:
Green buildings need less maintenance. For example most green buildings don’t require
exterior painting so often. Also as far as natural sources were used during its construction,
they are not destroyed so quickly.
Temperature Regulation:
Urban heat islands are elevated temperatures mostly in urban areas, formed mostly on
surfaces where permeable and moist became impermeable and dry due to some buildings,
roads etc. Urban heat island effect is caused mostly by the heat holding properties of tall buildings and urban materials asphalt, concrete. It can be compensated by more green areas
around the buildings such as green roofs and rain gardens.
Indoor air quality:
When constructing green buildings great emphases are put on the ventilation system. It can
be powered in different ways – passively, naturally or mechanically. It doesn’t matter in
which it is powered, the most important thing that a building should have a properly
designed ventilation system in order to have a filtered and cleaner air.
Indoor environment quality:
Except poor air quality other circumstances like poor lightening, temperature variances,
furniture, carpeting, pesticides, paints and high concentration of pollutants are causing
different diseases – headaches, dermatological problems, allergies etc. The environmentally
friendly circumstances of green building create healthier atmosphere.
Improved Employee Attendance and Productivity:
Natural lightening, good ventilation, healthy circumstances all influence the health of green
structures’ occupants. People are becoming less sick, they are more productive and their
impact on work is more high and effective.
Higher Property Value:
Green buildings have low energy cost. Their use of gas, water, energy is highly reduced. A building can keep a high sale value if it contains sustainable components.