Preliminary communicationTraditional and vernacular housing was developed in close relation between the functional needs of the occupants, the culture, climate, and other aspects of the living and built environment. Over the course of the last decades, most developing countries, including Libya, have experienced a rapid economic growth and increase in population, leading to the increase in construction of contemporary single family houses influenced by western models. The paper analyses aspects of thermal comfort in traditional single family houses in mountain (city of Gharyan) and desert regions (old city of Ghadames) in Libya with an aim to investigate advantages of the vernacular concepts in contemporary design. The study will establish valorisation criteria by researching structures, materials, internal arrangement, roof, openings and other aspects that influence sustainability. The results will be used in the fields of architecture, urban design and building industry in Libya, since the knowledge of traditional concepts and elements sustained through a long period of time will be valuable in building healthy homes and saving non-renewable energy in contemporary structures.

Aim of this study is to identify the important motivators of green design adoption in building projects of Libya. Green buildings are unpopular in Libya and are still in their early stages. This might be because of various reasons. Hence, this study focused on identifying major motivators of green design adoption. A total of 24 motivators identified from the literature review were investigated through questionnaire survey. Statistical analysis was carried for analysing 74 collected questionnaires sets with SPSS software Package. It is found that the 24 motivators considered in this study play an important role in pushing the adoption of green design in Libyan building projects. The results provide evidence that top five ranked motivators for green building adoption as ranked by the experts, include; control of climate change, providing improved comfort, health, and well-being of occupants, providing lower annual energy cost, increasing indoor air quality; and increasing indoor air quality; respectively. This study adopted a quantitative approach for collecting data. The targeted respondents were only within the capital Tripoli. As to the climatic change, global warming and lack of resources, the ‘green’ design issue has trended into a measurement in the construction industry. In Libya, rapid growth of developments has contributed significantly in greenhouse gases omission to environment. This has motivated the practitioners to adopt green design concept in building projects. This study has highlighted the key motivators of green design adoption in building industry of Libya which will enable the practitioner for moving forward to take advantage of those motivators for encourage the implement of green buildings. Finally, this study has suggested that international building standards and assessment tools should be adapted as guide to produce the laws and guidebook for green buildings practices in Libya.

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