Gulf Daily News Sunday, 23rd July 2017
3
Cool homes plan for a hot climate Email: gdnnews@gdn.com.bh
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where you’re oriented, where “It’s whatever allows you to the north and south is on your reduce energy consumption, land,” she explained. CO2 emissions, co-operate “In summer we have the with your environment and sun at an 88-degree angle in spend more time outdoors.” the sky, so you need to place She says such designs your windows and ventilation can still incorporate luxuriaccordingly. ous features that “These all reduce many in the reenergy consumpgion have grown tion and are not accustomed to, expensive because, but acknowledged when you’re buildpublic awareness ing a house, you can was needed – as choose your orienwell as social actation and where to ceptance of new, put windows and or reinvented, doors.” concepts – so peoMeanwhile, the ple could make region’s harsh cliinformed choices mate means apwhen it came to n Ms Deraz proaches adopted designing homes. elsewhere in the world are not “It’s a matter of showing viable. people how much money “Sustainable architecture they’ll save (through sustainin general suits your environ- able architecture),” she said. ment and climate,” said Ms “But you have to be able Deraz. to show them graphs, which “What’s sustainable here means you need studies and isn’t what’s sustainable in En- expertise.” gland or in Brazil. laala@gdn.com.bh
By LAALA KASHEF ALGHATA
FORWARD-THINKING approaches to designing homes in the Gulf, making them better suited to the region’s soaring temperatures, have been tabled by an expert in sustainable architecture.
One is literally groundbreaking, since it involves building homes partially below ground level. Others go back to Bahrain’s architectural roots to revive practices long forgotten in the rush to build modern properties, but all aim to reduce reliance on air-con- n A graph showing the temperature of the earth throughout the year in Bahrain and Saudi Arabia’s Eastern Province at depths of 4m, 5m, 6m, 8m and 10m ditioning – in turn slashing carbon emissions and helping people trends. sorting to renewable energy – save money on That could be such as solar panels to power electricity. something as air-conditioning – should be They have simple as a prop- the “last step” when it came to been drawn erty’s orientation thinking of ways to conserve up by archito reduce expo- power while keeping houses tect Noor Desure to the sun, cool. raz based on types of building “We have to find out exactly research she materials, thickconducted in ness of walls, use Bahrain and of courtyards to Saudi Arabia’s create a cooler Eastern Provenvironment and ince, which better ventilation are feeling the exemplified by heat from clitraditional wind mate change. towers. She found “No-one told basement-levour ancestors el dwellings there was a lot of could reduce sun on the south temperatures façade and that inside homes there needed to by as much be a thicker wall as 8C during there and no winsummer, due n A proposed model for a home in the Gulf that incorporates dows,” said Ms to the cooling lower ground floor living, courtyards and downdraught Deraz, an Egypcooling to reduce the temperature of the property effect of the tian who was born earth. and raised in Al While Ms Deraz does not “That was without adding Khobar. envisage people living un- ventilation, so it’s possible that “They figured it out and derground, she does suggest it could have dropped to 32C.” knew they needed to build usincorporating lower ground The findings are based on ing cooling materials.” floor levels. simulations conducted by Ms However, Ms Deraz said “I wanted to come up with Deraz for her thesis while such practices were phased out an idea to bring cooling into studying an MSc in Architec- following the discovery of oil in the building without using ture and Environmental Design the 1930s and the construction electricity, so I studied the at Westminster University, in of Western-style compounds by earth’s profile in Al Khobar London. companies such as Aramco and and Bahrain,” Ms Deraz told Bapco, which influenced local Applied Science University in Partnership with: Conference the GDN. trends. “Because of the underShe was invited to present Yet she pointed to how strucLondon South Bank University Cardiff Metropolitan University ground water, it stabilises her results this month at an in- tures built to traditional specthe temperature. ternational conference on sus- ifications were still effective College of Administrative Sciences College of Engineering “It’s between 20C to 22C tainable urban development. against the heat decades later. B.A. (Hons) Management and Business Studies B. Eng. (Hons) Architectural Design Engineering underground in this region, The Passive Low Energy “When you go into these B.A. (Hons) Accounting and Finance B. Eng. (Hons) Civil and Construction Engineering which makes it a cooling at- Architecture (PLEA) confer- houses today they’re still standmosphere. ence took place in Edinburgh, ing and still work the way “I wanted to see how Scotland, and brought together they’re supposed to,” she said. much temperature we could hundreds of experts in the field. “Those thick walls keep it reduce and, on a normal Other approaches outlined cool, as do the wind towers, the summer day, it was 45C out- by Ms Deraz for the region orientation and the windows. Applied Science University side. include a return to traditional “The courtyard was essenThis advertisement has been issued Contact us: as per the approval of the General ASU_BH “By just going slight- techniques largely abandoned tial in traditional architecture (+973) 17728777 / 16018888 / 16018866 (+973) 17728915 Secretaries of Higher Education Council. ASU_BH ASU_BH ly underground, the tem- due to widespread availability because it was shaded by the P.O. Box 5055 Info-british@asu.edu.bh www.asu.edu.bh / Engineering Approval No ( 1213-17 ) perature (of the dwelling) of air-conditioning, cheap elec- house surrounding it.” dropped to 37C. tricity and modern construction In fact, Ms Deraz said re-
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