Observing the drastic impacts of climate change to be expected in Iran on the one hand and examining the huge potentials on mitigation in this country on the other hand, the Project will define adequate solutions on mitigating climate relevant factors in new urban settlements within the given and described political, social, technological and economic structures. Due to the prevalent poor quality of current residential buildings and the exorbitant pressure on the urban housing market, improvements in this sector will have significant effects on the energetic situation. The involvement of high-ranking political actors, companies and academia who directly influence every-day planning and construction practice in Iran will secure strong impact on implementing energy-efficiency in the built environment.
Hashtgerd — local small scale business
Knowledge, Technologies and Performance
The technical-scientific and procedural innovations of the Project are to be expected through the systemic production of urban structures by integration of the required fields: urban development concepts will be interwoven with object planning and adjusted with energy and water infrastructure technologies. This will include a multi-scale approach on various levels - from the entire city to the single object - in order to achieve an overall optimization and advancement of the existing systems. Since intersectoral approaches today are not prevalent in Iran, the project aims at creating flagship projects in order to make new approaches of technical and procedural innovation visible. The bilateral work on real long-term planning and building projects will especially build up capacities and knowledge on the Iranian side.
Applicable Instruments, Tools and Methodologies
Due to the Project approach basing intensively on the development and implementation of Pilot Projects and an orientation towards testing planning and management methodologies, tools and instruments, the application potential is high from the Project’s outset. Products in three groups will be created:
Implemented Products derived from all Pilot Projects such as technologies (e.g. efficient HVACs supported by solar energy), objects (e.g. optimized residential buildings) and urban spaces (e.g. “low rise - high density” urban design).
Consulting Products such as methodologies for sustainable planning and development of new urban fabric, infrastructures and buildings documented in rules and manuals.
Scientific Products such as conclusions on the possibilities of integrating planning and infrastructure development for considerable increases in energy-efficiency to be disseminated through publications and conferences.
Parand New Town, Iran
Capacity Building, Integration and Networking of Institutions
Due to comparable cultural, climatic, geological, political and religious framing conditions and the similar challenges of fast growing urban agglomerations, the Project actively aims at transferring results applied within the Project to other countries in the MENA region. In the longer term the Iranian partners will initiate “south-south” knowledge transfer to the adjoining countries. This approach is supported and coordinated by a specific coordination unit at TU Berlin’s Faculty VI, the “West Asia North Africa Coordination Unit” (WANACU). WANACU’s operational goal is the development and support of cooperation activities in and together with the countries of Western Asia / Northern Africa. Its integration in the Project management will foster capacity development in Iran and of regional networking with other countries. The Project’s internal integration is safeguarded by Project Centers on each side, a joint Project Steering Committee accompanied by a high-ranking Project Advisory Board.
Socio-Economic, Integrative and Overall Sustainability Aspects
Results of the first Project phase (2005-2008) have shown that the guiding principle of sustainable urban development is crucial to achieve the vision of an “energy-efficient city”. This is especially due to complex and reciprocal ecological, economic and social problems in Iranian New Towns. Therefore, the Project incorporates technical questions into measures of capacity building, awareness raising and environmental, management and economic assessment tools considering the whole life cycle of the urban structures to justify ecological, social and economic sustainability. The large German-Iranian Project consortium with a high variety of involved disciplines and the strong project management through central Project Centers in Berlin and Tehran respectively ensures the application of this ambitious approach.
