On Monday, March 10^th the American Corner in cooperation with the architectural and building engineering departments held a “Green Building Day” in the Palestinian Korean IT Institute of Excellence from 10am – 1pm.  The event was held to celebrate the arrival of the American sustainable scientists from Arizona State University’s Global Institute of Sustainability Dr Harvey Bryan. Many professors and faculty as well as students of the building and architecture departments attended including the Dean of the Faculty of Engineering and IT, Dr Amer El-Hamouz, the heads of both the architectural and building engineering departments, Dr. Khaled Qumhiyah and Dr Mutasim Baba, Dr Haithem Al-Ratrout, Dr Mohammad Ata Yousof, Dr Hasan Al-Qadi, Dr. Sameh Mona, Dr Asad Arandi, Dr. Muhannad Haj Hussein, and Mr. Waseem Salameh among others.  The American Corner Nablus Director, Alia Gilbrecht, opened the ceremony by welcoming the guests.  Alia also outlined the activities and programs the American Corner Nablus runs under the strong leadership and supervision of An Najah Vice President of International Development and External Affairs, Dr. Kherieh Rassas. 

The Dean of Faculty of Engineering and IT, Dr. Amer El-Hamouz, then discussed the workshop that the “Green Building Day” marks the beginning of.  Roughly 45 top students from both the architectural and building engineering departments will participate in a three day long intensive training with Dr. Harvey Bryan on sustainable building and design.  Following this training, the students will work in groups of three over the next six weeks to design scale models of sustainable buildings that meet strict green building criteria.  The scale models will then be reviewed by a judging committee made up of sustainability experts and leaders from across the West Bank.  The scale models will also be presented at the Earth Day Convention in Ramallah and displayed in an exhibition at the American Corner in the New Campus Library. 

Dr. Harvey Bryan lectured on "Recent Trends in U.S. Green Building Practices." During his lecture, Dr Harvey discussed the history of green buildings in the United States, how buildings are measured for sustainability, problems with the field, and the progress different states have made towards quality green buildings policy and performance.

Dr. Mutasim Baba, Head of the Building Engineering Faculty and member of the Palestine Higher Green Building Council, discussed the history of green buildings in Palestine.  The PHGBC just last year published the official green building guidelines for Palestine and there are currently four green building projects in Palestine in the process of being implemented.

Dr. Sameh Mona, assistant professor of architectural engineering and member of the technical committee of PHGBC, discussed the realities of green buildings, implementation, and strategies.  Dr. Sameh presented examples of large scale “green buildings” around the world and questioned how sustainable they are. 

Lastly, Dr. Mohanned Hussein presented an overview of green architecture along with current misconceptions of the field as well as how stakeholders could benefit from green buildings. Dr Mohanned then discussed three primary areas of challenge to sustainable architecture in Palestine: the current lack of a comprehensive legislative framework or any real formal engagement in the field, the breakdown in communication and understanding between green designers/architects, and the lack of pilot projects or models for a reference point. Currently there are several different green building projects in Palestine in the process of getting green certificated by the PHGBC.

Following the four presentations, many students raised some interesting and challenging questions to the panelists about many of the realities and issues sustainable building practices present in Palestine.