Building permits for 4.13 million sq ft approved

The Zoning Authority/Development Control (ZADC) of Dubai Technology and Media Free Zone (DTMFZA) has approved new building permits for around 4.13 million sq ft built-up area in Dubai despite the recession, according to a senior official in an exclusive to Emirates Business. "From January to June this year, around 4.13 million sq ft of built-up area (BUA) has been approved as building permits for new projects in the free zones.

"Meanwhile, we are revising the details of our bilingual publication titled The Illustrated Building Codes, which will hopefully be completed by end-2010," said Issam El Alaoui, Head of Building Compliance and Regulations, Building Control, ZADC.

"When it is finalised, it will be implemented by the Zoning Authority across all new projects in the free zones. It will comprise five parts, which will focus on minimum requirements in terms of guidelines related to accessibility, circulation spaces, building elements, exterior spaces and sustainability on projects so that it is user friendly for all. We have also created codes, which can be used pre, during and post construction."

He added the development of these regulations have had the full backing of Ali Buruhaima, Deputy Director-General of DTMFZA and Mohamed Al Bahri, Director at ZADC, which have helped this initiative to continue.

The regulations will also add some user codes for existing issues in existing buildings. "This will be our next project and the book will have three chapters on regulations for existing buildings that address design issues related to escape routes for emergencies, accessibility and sustainability. We are trying to request owners to assign a contractor to make the changes and rectify such issues on their existing buildings," he said.

Meanwhile, the ZADC is also tightly co-ordinating with Civil Defense for the details of egress during a fire. "I must say the Civil Defense is tackling many new issues and they constantly communicate with us on matters such as tenants who install false partitions and codes on exit doors [people forget codes in case of fire and will get stuck instead of being able to escape].

"Another crucial detail that we are working on is creating areas of refuge [where people with disabilities will be taken to wait to get rescued since they cannot take the lift or stairs] in a fire," said El Alaoui .

He emphasised that one of the main efforts in the book is to ensure that the illustrations are being detailed in a straightforward manner. "The aim is to widen the details and make it more accessible for the end users in a project. Information might be repeated since some people get confused with too much of cross references in books as well as the sudden references of the term "exceptions". They also might not understand too much of technical detail," he added.

"We will have many illustrations since a picture can speak a thousand words. This kind of a guide will make it accessible to everyone, even a client who can really check the dimensions and get really involved in the construction.

"It will also give new to Dubai architects and engineers guidance to possibilities for solving issues related to performance based codes for unusually designed buildings," he said.

The book will have international codes and follow the German codes in accessibility. "We are trying to pick the best practices in all and make sure that there is a consistency when actually implemented in a project," he said.

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