Recently, in Hanoi, the Association of Consulting Engineers VBI (Germany), in collaboration with the Ministry of Construction, organized the seminar "Energy saving solutions and the application of new energy and green architecture."

The seminar is part of the project to share information, knowledge and experience in diverse areas of using energy effectively and synchronously. The program is not only useful for bilateral cooperation but also contributes to professional exchange with Vietnamese colleagues on the constructions of Germany.

At the conference, many delegates agreed that, in Vietnam, there were few building materials regarded as energy saving. Currently, Vietnam is implementing a series of projects on non-fired, energy saving and environmental friendly building materials,. However, to bring the issues of energy saving into life, decisions from the State, such as construction rules, with the support from consumers, are required.

According to VBI experts, managers, companies, architects and engineers in Vietnam still have limited experience and capacity in planning the energy efficiency and applying renewable energy to serve the urgent needs of economic development in Vietnam.

Vietnam has abundant sources of renewable energy such as sun and wind, but the utilization to serve production activities is very limited. Most of the buildings, factories and offices are using air conditioners and electric light very wastefully. Meanwhile, if there are effective measures in building architecture, we can fully utilize natural energy sources such as sun and wind as alternative energy while ensuring the best and the most effective use for buildings.

The conference also stressed the issue of designing construction covers to ensure energy efficiency, including window systems, modern roofs, and materials. The design is based on the starting point, rough building principles, construction principles, completion and assembly principles. Mr. Torsten Illgen - chief architect of Vietnam Inros Lackner Co. LLC, said: "In all of our designs, device is always the last solution." Thus, energy conservation and being environmentally friendly is a matter of top priority of this program.

Within the next two years, it is estimated that 1600 Vietnamese architects and engineers will be trained to enhance professional knowledge in this field. All courses are taught by experienced experts, engineers and consultants in the fields of architecture and construction design consultancy of leading companies in Germany. At the end of the course, the trainees will have the knowledge of energy efficiency in buildings. Then, they can train and share such knowledge to Vietnamese colleagues without the help of German experts.

By Minh Duc