The city’s first green building, Paryavaran Bhawan in Sector 19 has won second prize in Housing and Urban Development Corporation limited (HUDCO) awards 2014.
Paryavaran Bhawan is first of its kind energy efficient green building of Chandigarh. This state of the art building has many green building features like earth air tunnel forced ventilation system for the lower two floors and evaporating cooling for top three floors.The other features include naturally lit and ventilated building for comfortable ambience, central landscaped and courtyard planning to encourage the solar passive measures and maximising ventilation.
A senior official of the UT Administration said that HUDCO, a public sector Company, under the Ministry of Housing and Urban Poverty Alleviation (MoHUPA) has awarded second prize to Paryavaran Bhawan in green buildings categories across the country.In HUDCO awards 2014, there were five categories having two prizes in each category. The first prize was for Rs4 lakh and second was for Rs2 lakh.
The categories included disaster resistant housing, new and innovative town design solutions/eco-cities, conservation of heritage, green buildings and landscape planning and design.
An official said that the Paryavaran Bhawan designed by UT Urban Planning Department was constructed at a total cost of Rs1145 lakh having total plinth area of 87,674 sq ft. It houses the offices of Chandigarh Pollution Control Committee, Department of Science and Technology, Department of Forests and Wildlife, and Department of Environment.
The terrace has reflective white tiles, to reflect back heat and thus reduce the need of artificial climate control measures. A water harvesting system has also been installed in the building.