Advisory Council
Eric Noir
Design For Abundance
Eric Noir is advocate and ambassador of sustainability in the built environment in Africa. This work, under the auspices first of his company GREEN by DESIGN and subsequently with WSP GREEN by DESIGN, has consistently demonstrated his commitment and extraordinary achievements for the betterment of the African continent through redressing the social injustices of the past, and embracing the sustainability imperative of the future.
In 2002, Eric founded GREEN by DESIGN, becoming WSP GREEN by DESIGN, which recently celebrated 12 years of green building excellence with numerous achievements and firsts and through continued innovation, has been the forefront of the sustainable built environment in Africa.
Eric has been recognised by his peers as the leading voice in innovation for the sustainable built environment in Africa, through several awards, including 10 SAPOA awards and 12 greenstar certifications in South Africa. eric and his projects are breaking new ground for environmental sustainability applied to the built environment. As a pioneer of green building design in South Africa, eric has shared his knowledge and passion with the built environment professionals with whom he has worked and led. He has mentored, trained and developed key competencies in the sustainability space, both within his business space and in the broader African community becoming a true thought leader in sustainability.
Combining skills of urban design, architecture and engineering with his innate ingenuity, eric's initial work as an urban designer was on four public bathhouses in Katlehong, Tokoza and Vosloorus between 1996 and 2000, using solar hot water and greywater recycling systems.
The BP head office at the V&A Waterfront was his first major commercial green building, which became the commercial benchmark for green building at the turn of the century. His first greenstar certified green building was the Nedbank Phase II building in Sandton.
Eric's experience as lead sustainability consultant is crowned by his masterpiece, the Vodafone Innovation Centre in Midrand. The Vodafone Innovation Centre is the greenest certified building in Africa, the first to receive a 6 star Green Star rating from the Green Building Council of South Africa, and is still, today, the highest scoring greenstar certified building in Africa.
Winning the design competition for the Wangari Maathai Institute for Peace and Environmental Studies in Nairobi is characteristic of eric's contribution to the continent.
Eric's consulting to professional teams and client bodies on matters of sustainability in the built environment bears testimony to his integrated and trans-disciplinary approach to design; he is acutely aware that no particular discipline can address sustainability issues on their own: it is always a team effort!
Eric noir is one of the founding directors of the Green Building Council of South Africa where, along with other South Africans, he is eager to lead the country in practically addressing the sustainable imperative for the built environment by thinking differently about architecture, engineering, design, urbanism, and providing independent third-party peer reviewed certifications. In a continent which has to prioritise social and development issues, eric has consistently led his peers, architects, engineers, urban designers, as well as land and property developers to share the crucial vision - what once seemed a commercially un-viable quantum leap - the vision of green design.
In 2002, Eric founded GREEN by DESIGN, becoming WSP GREEN by DESIGN, which recently celebrated 12 years of green building excellence with numerous achievements and firsts and through continued innovation, has been the forefront of the sustainable built environment in Africa.
Eric has been recognised by his peers as the leading voice in innovation for the sustainable built environment in Africa, through several awards, including 10 SAPOA awards and 12 greenstar certifications in South Africa. eric and his projects are breaking new ground for environmental sustainability applied to the built environment. As a pioneer of green building design in South Africa, eric has shared his knowledge and passion with the built environment professionals with whom he has worked and led. He has mentored, trained and developed key competencies in the sustainability space, both within his business space and in the broader African community becoming a true thought leader in sustainability.
Combining skills of urban design, architecture and engineering with his innate ingenuity, eric's initial work as an urban designer was on four public bathhouses in Katlehong, Tokoza and Vosloorus between 1996 and 2000, using solar hot water and greywater recycling systems.
The BP head office at the V&A Waterfront was his first major commercial green building, which became the commercial benchmark for green building at the turn of the century. His first greenstar certified green building was the Nedbank Phase II building in Sandton.
Eric's experience as lead sustainability consultant is crowned by his masterpiece, the Vodafone Innovation Centre in Midrand. The Vodafone Innovation Centre is the greenest certified building in Africa, the first to receive a 6 star Green Star rating from the Green Building Council of South Africa, and is still, today, the highest scoring greenstar certified building in Africa.
Winning the design competition for the Wangari Maathai Institute for Peace and Environmental Studies in Nairobi is characteristic of eric's contribution to the continent.
Eric's consulting to professional teams and client bodies on matters of sustainability in the built environment bears testimony to his integrated and trans-disciplinary approach to design; he is acutely aware that no particular discipline can address sustainability issues on their own: it is always a team effort!
Eric noir is one of the founding directors of the Green Building Council of South Africa where, along with other South Africans, he is eager to lead the country in practically addressing the sustainable imperative for the built environment by thinking differently about architecture, engineering, design, urbanism, and providing independent third-party peer reviewed certifications. In a continent which has to prioritise social and development issues, eric has consistently led his peers, architects, engineers, urban designers, as well as land and property developers to share the crucial vision - what once seemed a commercially un-viable quantum leap - the vision of green design.