A Process for Providing Environmentally Conscious Housing in the UAE

Housing has become a core theme in the United Arab Emirates (UAE). Recent reports have marked a shortfall in the required supply of middle-income housing, thus suggesting significant efforts to address the current imbalance. It is believed that several reasons have contributed to the current shortage of affordable housing, including the low adoption of prefabricated construction techniques resulting in higher construction costs, as well as lower financial returns; therefore, making such developments less attractive for developers. However, there are several projects that have proven to be successful in utilizing precast concrete towards practical and economical value, in addition to providing a viable solution to meet the expectations for efficient housing delivery with regard to quantity and quality. In this research, we propose a comprehensive process that combines a design and production model to enhance the actual practices and mechanisms of the precast concrete development. This paper proposes various stages of logic design implemented in an architectural process with the aim of reaching the highest level of sustainability in UAE housing while reducing the cost of construction, and the time of delivery

Design and delivery of national housing in the UAE: an alternative approach

The provision of national housing to citizens in the United Arab Emirates (UAE) is considered a crucial topic. Over the past four decades, the process of developing national housing has emerged into multiple housing programs and schemes, all with the same aim of offering affordable and high-quality housing to citizens, in addition to meeting the needs of local families regarding spatial configurations while maintaining cultural values. However, despite all these efforts, the question has always remained: are the offered housing practices suited for family needs, socioeconomic trends, and environmental challenges? This study aims to offer an alternative approach for the design and delivery of national housing practices in the UAE. The proposed process is structured based on the following ethos: first, a conceptual approach for design flexibility toward offering customization while maintaining contextual and cultural qualities for inhabitants; second, a computational design strategy for facade optimization that illustrates the significance of incorporating environmentally conscious design strategies in response to local climatic conditions toward enhancing overall building performance; and third, a hybrid production model that relies on a prefabricated building approach that combines precast concrete systems with 3D printing technology. The efforts described in this article represent a significant phase of an ongoing research endeavor that explores how technological capacities could help rethink national housing in the UAE

A Note on the Architectural Layout of the Early Islamic Church on Sir Bani Yas Island, UAE

It has been suggested that the church on Sir Bani Yas island, dated to the seventh–eighth century, originally had a tower rising over its south-eastern room. This would be a unique feature as other hitherto known churches in the Gulf dated to the early Islamic period did not have towers. One of the arguments for the existence of the tower has been the increased thickness of the northern wall of the south-eastern room. However, close examination of the remains reveals that the increased thickness of this wall is in fact related to the rectangular apse of the chancel. Other arguments used previously to support the claim that the church had a tower are critically assessed in this paper, which concludes that the Sir Bani Yas church had no tower and that its chancel had a rectangular apse, yet another architectural feature it shares with other early Islamic Gulf churches