The Role of Vernacular Construction Techniques and Materials for Developing Zero-Energy Homes in Various Desert Climates

Alrashed, Farajallah; Asif, Muhammad; Burek, Stas

doi:10.3390/buildings7010017

Cited by 43 publications

(22 citation statements)

References 30 publications

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“…Traditional dwellings, employing vernacular architectural techniques such as courtyards and wind towers, were made of construction materials including clay (adobe), coral, limestone, and wood. These have been replaced by concrete and steel built housing, exhibiting weaker thermal characteristics [44]. The modern buildings, also owing to their huge air conditioning load, have a comparatively large energy and environmental footprint.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Life Cycle Assessment of a Three-Bedroom House in Saudi Arabia

et al. 2017

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Abstract:The building sector is one of the crucial stakeholders in the global energy and environmental scenario. Life cycle assessment (LCA) is a tool widely used to evaluate the environmental performance of buildings, materials and activities. Saudi Arabia has a rapidly growing construction sector with over $1 Trillion of ongoing projects. The housing sector, annually needing over 2.32 million new residential units in coming years, is yet to entertain environmental performance of buildings in its list of priorities. The present work undertakes a LCA study of a three-bedroom modern villa located in Dhahran. Providing the structural details of the villa, an account of the 18 main construction materials in terms of quantity and application has been produced. Embodied energy of these materials has been estimated adopting 'cradle-to-gate' approach. Environmental impacts of the materials have been modeled with the help of SimaPro software. The results suggest that concrete accounts for more than 43% of the total embodied energy of the house and is also the predominant material in terms of the overall environmental impacts. Steel is the second most prominent material both in terms of quantity and embodied energy.

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Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Life Cycle Assessment of a Three-Bedroom House in Saudi Arabia

et al. 2017

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“…Sustainability concerns must be addressed in the early stages of building projects, when decisions are being made about building materials and techniques, following the life cycle concept [35]. Huge demands for energy should be minimized as much as possible before applying zero-energy home solutions [36]. As a potential example of consideration given to construction materials, a former study achieved a 20% reduction in carbon by using a design with a reused steel structure [37].…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

A Resilience and Environmentally Sustainable Assessment Framework (RESAF) for Domestic Building Materials in Saudi Arabia

2020

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In Saudi Arabia, the carbon footprint and energy use that results from using concrete in construction is a major negative contributor to the environmental effects of building materials. Likewise, the impact of annual cooling and heating energy demands has an equally prominent role to play. These demands need to be assessed and benchmarked in order that reduction targets can be set. Saudi Arabia presents its own unique context and local conditions, which creates a challenge when utilizing generic frameworks for assessing the environmental impact of domestic buildings. In meeting this aim, this paper presents a resilience and environmental sustainability assessment framework (RESAF) developed specifically for domestic buildings in Saudi Arabia. RESAF helps designers/builders to minimize the carbon footprint of the building fabric and reduce in-use energy demands of domestic buildings in Saudi Arabia. This paper shows how this framework can be used to reduce, by approximately 23%, the carbon impact from construction materials, primarily by substituting a portion of cement for pulverized fly ash (PFA) or ground granulated blast furnace slag (GGBS). A reduction of 19% in annual cooling and heating energy demand were additionally achieved throughout the building’s life, simply by increasing insulation and using triple-glazed windows. The importance of passing these alternative solutions through the resilience filter is highlighted, not least questioning whether they are really fit-for-purpose.

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“…The building and construction industry is one of the major emitters of carbon dioxide (CO 2 ), leading to global warming and climate change [6][7][8]. The building sector accounts for more than 40% of materials consumption and over one third of total greenhouse gas emissions in the world [9,10]. systems are typically composed of a hierarchical structure of nested groups-categories, indicators, and criteria [14][15][16]23].…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Water Efficiency and Management in Sustainable Building Rating Systems: Examining Variation in Criteria Usage

et al. 2019

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The building sector, due to the significant energy and environmental footprints it creates, needs to adopt sustainable approaches to help prevent global warming and climate change. Sustainable Building (SB) rating systems have been developed around the world as a method to promote sustainability in this sector. Water is one of the most vital natural resources, and is extensively consumed in the building sector. This article examines the coverage of water-related aspects in 11 prominent SB rating systems under the three key sustainability dimensions: environmental, economic, and social, using a comprehensive coverage analysis approach. Findings highlight a wide range of variation between the examined SB rating systems in terms of water attributes being assessed, water assessment criteria used, the optimal number of these criteria, and the weight assigned to them. Results also show that in general, most of the examined systems exhibit low representativeness and comprehensive coverage of major water subcategories and themes related to sustainable buildings. However, some moderate to high comprehensive coverage was found in water attributes that focus on the environmental and social aspects. The results indicate that representative and comprehensive coverage of social-related water attributes are less than that of environment-related water attributes. The results also highlighted the effectiveness of using coverage analysis techniques as a systematic and efficient way to assess comprehensive coverage of water criteria in SB rating systems.

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The Role of Vernacular Construction Techniques and Materials for Developing Zero-Energy Homes in Various Desert Climates

Cited by 43 publications

References 30 publications

Life Cycle Assessment of a Three-Bedroom House in Saudi Arabia

Life Cycle Assessment of a Three-Bedroom House in Saudi Arabia

A Resilience and Environmentally Sustainable Assessment Framework (RESAF) for Domestic Building Materials in Saudi Arabia

Water Efficiency and Management in Sustainable Building Rating Systems: Examining Variation in Criteria Usage

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