Ali Kuscu Mosque Has Become The World’s First “LEED Gold” certified Mosque
The U.S. Green Building Council has registered Ali Kuscu Mosque, which is in the Airport City to the south of the Istanbul Airport, as the world’s first LEED Gold v4 certified mosque.
Continuing to work in line with sustainable development goals, İGA awarded with an important certificate for Ali Kuscu Mosque, the first structure at the Airport City, after applying to the U.S. Green Building Council. With the certificate issued by the U.S. Green Building Council in the category of Leed v4 Building Design and Construction“, it became the first mosque in the world to receive “Leed Gold v4” certificate.
LEED Gold Certification process, which started with target-and strategy-setting meetings, continued with the design and construction of the mosque. In this way, the targets set in line with the LEED certification process were achieved the fastest way possible.
Ali Kuscu Mosque passed all the evaluation process and earned the Gold certificate…
LEED Certification System is a long-term process starting from design to completion of a construction and covers interdisciplinary subjects. The system evaluates the buildings under several topics including sustainable land, water efficiency, energy and atmosphere, materials and resources, indoor quality of life, innovation in design and order of precedence in its local. Buildings that meet the prerequisites are officially registered as Certified, Silver, Gold or Platinum according to the scores they get in the evaluation process.
In the land of Ali Kuscu Mosque established at the Airport City, utmost attention was paid to the protection of natural life both during and after the construction. The green space ratio on the land of mosque was designed to be a minimum of 30%. The ratio of hard floors was kept low to prevent damage to the infrastructure and especially to the storm water system, and light-colored coatings were preferred on the roof and on hard floors to minimize the heat island effect.
World’s most eco-friendly Mosque…
While bike parking spots were designated to encourage the employees and visitors of Ali Kuscu Mosque to use a bike for transportation, special attention was paid to use water-saving faucets and sanitary wares in the mosque. These choices were based on EPA (Unites States Environmental Protection Agency) standards. All the energy systems in the mosque were audited in accordance with the “commissioning” procedures specified by LEED. Also, it has been determined that the systems work in conformity with the desired performance criteria during both assembly and usage.
While particular importance was given to energy efficiency in the lighting and mechanical systems of the mosque, the amount of carbon footprint that was zeroed has been equivalent of the mosque’s annual energy consumption. Furthermore, efforts were made to maximize the use of daylight in mosque during the design process. In this way, it was intended to reduce the electricity consumption for lighting and use the positive effects of daylight in indoor spaces on the visitors
First mosque prioritizing the Zero Waste policy…
Continuing to work with the mission of Zero Waste, İGA recycled a large part of waste that was produced in the construction of Ali Kuscu Mosque. All domestic and recyclable waste which was generated during the construction process were regularly monitored. While the sustainable and environment-friendly construction materials were especially preferred in the mosque, more than 20 types of materials certified by EPD (Environmental Product Declaration) were used within the scope of the project. In this way, the use of environmentally and financially preferable products that also allow measurement of environmental effects of the production process was promoted.
While the mechanical ventilation system in Ali Kuscu Mosque’s indoors was designed to be 30 percent above the fresh airflow determined by ASHRAE standard for excellent air quality and visitor comfort, the whole process was specified with indoor temperature values in accordance with the ASHRAE standard. Thus, the level of comfort for visitors is maximized.