District Cooling and Architecture

1. Impact of District Cooling on
Architecture and Urban Design
Dr. Yasser Mahgoub
Head of Department of Architecture and Urban Planning,
College of Engineering, Qatar University
ymahgoub@qu.edu.qa

2. Contents
The Impact of District Cooling on Architecture
and Urban Design/Planning
• District cooling and the creation of new
architectural forms
• District cooling and future urban design
projects
• District cooling as a sustainability strategy

3. Introduction
• This presentation argues that District Cooling Systems (DCS)
are changing architecture and urban design professions.
• Their impact is exceeding their known advantages of energy
saving and rationalization of resources.
• They provide opportunities for new urban design and
architectural forms.

4. Introduction
• “District” cooling addresses
districts containing large
number of buildings and
not individual buildings.
• They promote New
Urbanism and Mixed-use
compact design
approaches and avoid
Urban Sprawl.
• In short, they encourage
the development of Smart
Cities.

5. DISTRICT COOLING SYSTEM (DCS)
What is District Cooling
System (DCS)?
DCS is a centralized cooling
system which provides
chilled water to the air-
conditioning system of
user buildings for cooling
purpose. The central chiller
plant supplies chilled water
and conveys it to the user
buildings via underground
chilled water pipe network.

6. Benefits of DCS
Benefits to Society
(a) Highly energy-efficient enables energy saving up to 35% compared with
conventional air-cooled air-conditioning systems.
(b) Environmentally friendly system as it consumes less electrical energy
and hence produces less greenhouse gases and contaminants to the
environment.
(c) Noise, vibration, and thermal plume are also resolved as no chiller plant
is required in the end-user building.
Benefits to End-users
(a) Reliability and Quality are superior to conventional air-conditioning.
DCS's ensures stable cooling supply to the end-user building at all time.
(b) Save plant room space with an average of 70% for end-user building.
(c) Meets growth of cooling demand and extended service hours easily.
(d) Saves initial cost as no need to build its own chiller plant.
(e) Saves maintenance and operation cost due to less serviceable
equipment and higher efficiency.

7. Introduction
• District Cooling Systems
have well known
advantages:
– Saving energy,
– Preserving Resources
– Reducing Environmental
Impact
• It rationalizes production
and distribution of cooling
energy to different users and
building types.
DCS
Energy
EnvironmentResources

8. Introduction
More advantages:
• Elimination of large number
of stand alone equipment
and machinery from
facades and rooftops.
• Reduce the need of spaces
for technical rooms inside
buildings.
• Reduce noise pollution
produced by machines and
equipment.

9. Introduction
More advantages:
• Opportunity to install
renewable solar energy
collectors on roof tops.
• Opportunity to install green
roofs on buildings.
• Optimized maintenance and
operational cost.

10. New College of Engineering Building, Qatar University

11. Introduction
• On the other hand, it
provides opportunities for
urban designers and
architects to design new
environments and
buildings.
• Architects are able to create
new tall buildings and
skyscrapers with distinctive
forms and vanity heights.

19. Introduction
• Urban designers are
considering district cooling
as essential strategy for
future urban development
schemes.
• It will allow the return to
more climatically viable
solutions of compact and
mixed use developments.

20. Introduction
• Ventilation and cooling
systems have always
impacted the architectural
design of buildings and
urban design of settlements
and cities. Old Doha
Old Kuwait

21. Introduction
• Traditional ventilation and
passive cooling systems;
such as wind towers
(badjeers) and wind
catchers, were distinctive
identity features of
traditional buildings.

22. Introduction
• District cooling can ensure
sustainability on the
building and urban levels.
• Due to climatic conditions,
the demand for cooling will
continue to increase in the
countries of the Gulf region.
• Better utilization and
improvement of design
decisions can be achieved by
considering the potentials
provided by district cooling.
Sustainability
Environmental
Economic Socio-
cultural
Context

23. History of District Cooling
• District cooling has its roots in the early 1800s when proposals
were made to distribute clean, cold air to buildings through
underground pipes.
• The Colorado Automatic Refrigerator Company was established in
Denver in 1889.
• In the 1930s large cooling systems were built in the Rockefeller
Centre in New York City and the United States Capitol buildings.
• In 1960s, the first commercial district cooling systems were installed
in the USA in commercial areas near cities.
• In 1967 Europe obtained its first district cooling system. Climadef
began supplying district heating and cooling to the La Défense
office complex in Paris.
• In 1989 Scandinavia obtained its first district cooling system in
Baerum outside Oslo.

24. History of District Cooling in Qatar
• In November 2003, Qatar’s United Development Company (UDC) and
UAE’s National District Cooling Company (Tabreed), along with some local
Qatari investors, founded the Qatar District Cooling Company as a joint
venture with the intention of providing district-cooling services to the
public, commercial and industrial sectors of Qatar. Currently, Qatar Cool is
the leading commercial provider of district cooling services in Qatar.

25. History of District Cooling in Qatar
• Qatar Cool owns and operates cooling plants covering the West Bay and
The Pearl-Qatar districts with the combined capacity of 197,000 tons of
refrigeration. In terms of reduction of emissions the plants have
eliminated around 490 million kilograms of carbon dioxide from the
atmosphere in the past five years, which is equivalent to removing over
93,000 vehicles from the roads or planting 13 million mature trees.

26. QatarCool

27. QatarCool

28. QatarCool

29. History of District Cooling in Qatar
• In 2010, the Company inaugurated the world’s largest district cooling plant
‘The Integrated District Cooling Plant’ (IDCP) at the Pearl-Qatar. IDCP will
service more than 80 apartment towers, beachfront villas and
townhouses, shopping complexes, offices, schools and hotels throughout
the Island, ultimately supplying 130,000 tons of refrigeration to the
Island’s 45,000 residents.

33. History of District Cooling in Qatar
• Two other plants are fully-operational in West Bay, To date our West Bay
plants have a combined connected load of just over 76,921 tons of
refrigeration (TR) serving 50 of the towers. Additionally, Qatar Cool built a
dedicated district cooling plant for AL Gassar resort and St. Regis hotel
providing 10,000 TR for the property.

35. Future Directions and DCS
• Vertical Cities
• Mammoth Enormous Complex Architecture
• High-Density, Mixed-Use Complexes
• Green Sustainable Architecture (LEED/GSAS)
• Transit Oriented Development (TOD)
• Urban Energy Conservation
• District Energy

36. Introduction
MUSHEIREB HEART OF DOHA
District Cooling System is a vital part of the strategy to provide an energy efficient approach to the Musheireb project.

37. King Abdullah Financial District, Riyadh, Saudi Arabia
1.6 million m2, 34 high-rise complexes, 900,000 m2 of office space, apartments for 12,000 residents, 62,000 parking spaces,
hotels, metro stations and mosques.

38. De Rotterdam, Rotterdam (NL)
The largest building in the Netherlands. A Vertical City.

39. Thank you.