The building façade becomes an integral part of the concept for adaptation of the building to the climate conditions; it should be able to respond and adapt its properties and components with the immediate environment.In the hot and dry climate in Algeria, the contemporary building design, materials, and techniques applied do not properly address the local climate conditions and the final energy consumption. Contrary to this, in traditional building practice, the local materials and passive strategies are used, which responded to the environmental context.This study is focused on improvement of the cooling energy consumption of the contemporary buildings in Biskra City, Algeria. The traditional climatic façade solutions are investigated in order to adapt them to the contemporary buildings. To define and optimize the solutions, dynamic simulation with Vi-Suite add-on Blender 3D software was used. The results show a significant reduction in the cooling energy consumption, which confirms the use of the traditional techniques that can considerably improve the building efficiency.

As it is clear, worldwide buildings are the largest consumer of the final energy consumption. In Algeria, it has been reported that 33% of the overall energy consumption was attributed to buildings. This is due to the design and constructional techniques of the residential buildings, which do not address the local climatic condition. To assess this situation, the study is focused on analyzing the existing residential buildings in Algeria, in terms of energy, thermal, daylight, and indoor air quality performance, using a dynamic simulation software. Typical building design in a hot and dry climate was selected. The results revealed that the existing residential buildings do not comply with the energy-efficient design standards. It was concluded that further strategies should be applied in this sector, in terms of building design, materials, and façade configuration.

Abstract:Day-lighting studies in buildings play a major role in indoor environmental investigation and can be conducted at the early stages of building design. Window position significantly affects day-lighting performance. This paper assessed the impacts of the window position on the visual comfort through two main factors; daylight factor and light uniformity in the hot and dry climate zone. In this study different window positions have been examined to achieve optimal visual comfort, using a dynamic simulation through Vi-suit plugin for Blender 3D software that controls the external application Radiance software. The results revealed that the window position at sill start from 1.4 m of a room characterized by (4.30 m × 3.00 m × 3.00 m) is the best compromising solution that complies with the daylight factor and light uniformity standards in the indoor environment. The findings of this study provide a more detailed and comprehensive analysis of the window design for architects/designers in the early building design stages in the hot and dry climate region.

Modern buildings in Algeria consume a huge amount of energy and deliver modest thermal comfort, due to their design which does not address the local climate conditions. In contrast, it is commonly recognized that vernacular architecture is climate-responsive and environmentally friendly architecture. This study aims to assess the thermal performance of vernacular architecture in the hot and dry climate of the Ziban region, Biskra. It was achieved by describing the main passive strategies in this architecture, later performing field hygrothermal measurements on two different houses in this region. The results revealed that the thermal effectiveness of these vernacular houses depends on the interaction of all their vernacular passive strategies from architectural to urban scale.