Craig Laidlaw

DUBAI, UAE, 23 October 2019: There has been greater market appreciation of high-performing insulation solutions, particularly within facades, said Craig Laidlaw, Head of Business Development for Structural Insulation, Kingspan, who added this can be attributed to the enhancement of U Values in Green Building regulations, such as Dubai Municipality’s Al Safaat programme and Abu Dhabi’s Estidama programme. “Our U Value study with Mott Macdonald reflects this, where greater use of insulation leads to a direct correlation of a reduction in building energy consumption as well as carbon emissions,” he said.

Laidlaw said that while there has been a general move towards innovative, high-quality construction products, as can be observed in many projects in and around the UAE, the rapid advancement of technology can often be a bottleneck for the adoption of new solutions. “[Technology] is always one step ahead of the building regulations, as technology is constantly developing in many areas,” he said. “Therefore, the regulations are always playing catch up with the technological advances, which can be challenging [when it comes to] demonstrating compliance with the building code.”