The role of landscape design in improving the microclimate in traditional courtyard buildings in hot arid climates

peer reviewedArab Islamic landscape design forms a unique source of inspiration for landscape architecture in barren open spaces of the Middle East. Arab Islamic gardens adopted a system marked by perfect responsiveness to environment. The design of urban landscape and gardens in Arab Islamic culture was similarly guided by the dictation of aridity. The need to provide shade, to prevent dust and to conserve water meant that urban open spaces and gardens were sheltered and enclosed. Alhambra in Moorish Spain and the Al-Suhaymi House in Islamic Cairo are two useful historical references for vernacular Islamic landscape designs. This paper presents an overview of landscape design considerations for the composition of vegetation and water and initial observations of their influence in controlling and improving the microclimate in courtyards buildings as a way of passive cooling in the Middle East region. This paper is a part of a Master’s thesis in the field of passive landscape strategies at Wageningen University. The objective is to identify the comfort improvements potential of successfully-planned and integrated landscape design in traditional courtyard buildings. The layout and plant material of Alhambra, Generalife courts and Al-Suhaymi court in Islamic Cairo are examined and evaluated. This study demonstrates that in arid environments, the landscape planning, the composition of vegetation and water and choice of planting material all have important consequences in creating thermally-pleasant environments

Overview and recommendation on urban densification potential in Liège, Belgium

peer reviewedBelgium, like many European Countries, has a serious challenge in the housing sector. The Federal planning bureau estimates the increase of population by one million inhabitants by 2030, which represent 600.000 additional family requiring accesses to new housing facilities. Population ageing (mainly due to increasing life expectancy) combined with a constant growing rate of individuals living in collective households, leads to a substantial increase of demand of collective households (Vandresse & Bureau, 2013). This highlights a substantial challenge underlined mainly in the need to live in cities, which as consequence will increase the demand for smaller housing with or without integrated services or equipment in common. Furthermore, the stringent European performance environmental regulations for the building sector require that by 2020, all new construction are zero or nearly zero energy, (equivalent to 15 kWh/m2/year), with 60% efficient on-site coverage by renewable energy. The shortage of vacant land and the increasing energy performance requirements is pushing the idea of urban densification and zero energy construction households. During the recent 6 years, there has been a trend to use timber frame constructions as a sustainable solution facing the economic and environmental crisis in Belgium. However, there is lack of knowledge on the design, construction and operation of zero energy lightweight constructions for urban densification. The goal of this research is to provide an overview and recommendation on urban densification potential in Liège Province. The focused aim is to demonstrate validated design prototypes and products of different zero energy, timber frame construction systems and composite components. Thus inform and support the decision making of policy makers, municipalities, developers, and architects and building engineers in Belgium

Benchmark Models for Air Conditioned Residential Buildings in Hot Humid Climate

peer reviewedThis study reports the results of a recent field survey for residential apartment buildings in Egypt. The aim of the survey is to create representative building energy models. Two building performance simulation models are created reflecting the average energy consumption characteristics of air-conditioned residential apartments in Alexandria, Cairo and Asyut. Aiming for future evaluation of the cost and energy affects of the new Egyptian energy standard this study established two detailed models describing the energy use profiles for air-conditioners, lighting, DHW and appliances in respect to buildings layout and construction. Using EnergyPlus simulation tool the collected surveyed data was used as input for two building simulation models. The simulation models were verified against the apartment characteristic found in the survey. This paper presents details of the building models including the energy use patterns and profiles created for this study

The Database of Egyptian Building Envelopes (DEBE): A database for building energy simulations

peer reviewedThis paper is a part of an ongoing research that aims to describe the influence of building constructions on energy consumption through a survey that is conducted in Cairo and its surrounding residential neighbourhoods. An inventory of the selected neighbourhoods envelope constructions and their characteristics is described in accordance with the new Egyptian energy standard for residential buildings. After thorough screening and classification, the constructions are digitalized and uploaded in an online open source database where constructions properties are listed, made available in .idf and .ddb formats (EnergyPlus and DesignBuilder respectively) and illustrated graphically. This Database of Egyptian Building Envelopes (DEBE) facilitates the input modelling of constructions and enables users to explore standard complying alternative constructions

Designing the Malqaf for summer cooling in low-rise housing an experimental study

peer reviewedThe malqaf or windcatcher is Egyptian vernacular archetypal device that traps the wind into the building. For centuries, the malqaf has been used as a viable solution to ensure natural ventilation. However, for the last 50 years, Egyptian practice has failed in combining traditional architectural devices into new techniques that could lead to sustainable and energy aware buildings. In Egypt, more than half of the urban peak load of energy consumption in the mean time is used to satisfy air conditioning demands alone. Therefore, the objective of the research is to develop a viable passive alternative to active cooling by exploring the potentials and design parameters of windcatchers as solution for passive cooling and natural ventilation during the summer season for low-rise housing. Experimental wind tunnel and smoke visualisation testing were conducted to compare the air flow in a scale model room with and without windcatcher on top of the roof with different orientations. The final result shows that the performance of the windcatcher depends greatly on the position, orientation and size of the inlet and outlet opening in relation to the wall ratio. The study developed a comparative matrix for examined parameters to support architects with the basic principles for windcatchers design

Benchmarking the Environmental Impact of Green and Traditional Masonry Wall Constructions

peer reviewedIn Belgium, the most common approach for nearly Zero Energy Buildings is to comply with the locally modified version of the German Passive House (PH) Standard that requires a very low conductivity of exterior walls. The conventional PH brick constructions are dominated by building materials with high environmental impact including concrete blocks, firebrick and petrochemical insulation materials that produce a great amount of greenhouse gases (GHG). Moreover, there are very few studies that assessed the holistic environmental impact of conventional wall compositions against ecological wall compositions. Therefore, this research compares a traditional Belgian representative wall against a hemp block wall, according to the PH standard. The environmental impact of each wall is quantified through a life cycle assessment. The final results indicate that the hemp wall reinforced with a wood skeleton has a much lower impact on the environment: up to 60% reduction on total primary energy, 72% on climate changes, 93% on eutrophication, 61 % on ozone layer depletion and 74% on acidification. Future work may refine the assessment process. The study provides novel and significant findings that can inform building owners, architects and contractors and encourage them to choose environmentally friendly masonry wall compositions

Energy Efficiency in the Romanian Residential Building Stock: A Literature Review

peer reviewedaudience: researcher, professionalThe building sector in Romania is dominated by residential buildings that are old and have poor thermal performance. As member of the European Union, Romania has to reach the objectives imposed by the Directive 2009/28/EC and to fulfill the requirements of the Energy Performance of Buildings Directive (EPBD) by year 2020. To reach the 2020 objectives, the old buildings from the Romanian building stock should be rehabilitated and the new buildings should be designed according to the latest thermal performance characteristics. The following paper presents the literature review of building energy performance in Romania. The purpose of the literature review analysis is to provide an overview on current building energy efficiency in Romania. The paper also presents future perspectives on implementation of high performance buildings such as the Passive House (PH), nearly Zero Energy Buildings (nZEB) and Net Zero Energy Buildings (NZEB). The reviewed publications and case studies are classified under three categories: policy and regulations, technology and feasibility. Finally, the paper presents a holistic perspective on the Strength, Weakness, Opportunities and Threats (SWOTs) of energy efficiency in Romania's residential building sector

Early Decision Support for Net Zero Energy Buildings Design using Performance Simulation

This paper aims to investigate the use of building performance simulation tools as a method of informing the design decision of NZEBs. The aim of this study is to evaluate the effect of a simulation-based decision aid, ZEBO, on informed decision-making using sensitivity analysis. The objective is to assess the effect of ZEBO and other BPS tools on three specific outcomes: (i) knowledge and satisfaction when using simulation for NZEB design; (ii) users’ decision-making attitudes and patterns, and (iii) performance robustness based on an energy analysis. The paper utilizes three design case studies comprising a framework to test the use of BPS tools. Two types of data were collected, mainly preference and performance data. The preference data were used to collect information from participants using self-reported metrics. The performance data were used to collect information on the energy performance of the final design. The energy evaluations were compared with the results of a quantitative assessment of the overall design performance. Finally the results were compared and presented. The paper provides results that shed light on the effectiveness of sensitivity analysis as an approach for informing the design decisions of NZEBs

Urban Design for Climate Neutral Neighbourhood The case of Brøset

Various gaps between science and practice have to be overcome to adapt the city to climate issues. There are various ways to bridge these ‘utility gaps’. One of them has proven to be specifically promising as a tool: using concrete climate- responsive design and planning proposals that are based on climate science insights. There is a need for specific guidance on Key Performance Indicators (KPIs) and assessment methods for climate neutral urban development. In this presentation we explore the integrated process with developers / design teams for the case of Brøset, Norway. By explaining the master plans development we show how it allowed citizens participation and raised their awareness on the Climate Neutrality Challenge. The presentation draws some learned lessons and highlights the urgency of building a consensus for project acceptance in the future.The main aim of this presentation is to show the value of designs to raise awareness and to eventually achieve implementation of climate responsive design