Kawar Salih

It has been proven that designing sustainable buildings starts from early stages of urban design. The design of urban blocks, specifically, is deemed one of the pragmatic approaches of sustainable urban design. Studies have focused on the impact of urban block design and regulation on the outdoor thermal comfort in the semi-arid regions. However, limited studies have been found in the semi-arid regions, which examined that impact, on the indoor behaviour of buildings (specifically, the daylight quality and energy performance). Further, heating load is neglected in most studies of the semi-arid regions in which the focus is only on the cooling load reduction. The study has focused on two parameters of urban block distribution, which are the surface-to-volume ratio of blocks and their orientation with the consideration of both heating and cooling loads of buildings. In Duhok (a semi-arid city in the Kurdistan region of Iraq), daylight quality and energy consumption of various types of residential blocks have been observed using dynamic simulation. The results propose that there is a substantially higher energy demand for heating than cooling, providing attention to the heating load in semi-arid regions. Reasonably, because of the high U-values of buildings in Duhok. The findings also suggest that changing blocks’ orientation can alter the total energy consumption by 8%. With regards to the surface-to-volume ratio (S/V), an increment of 15% of overall energy consumption is noticed after doubling the ratio (S/V), though the research reveals the opportunity of decreasing energy consumption with the rise of the S/V through passive design strategies of urban blocks. Based on the results, recommendations are given for revising the design of current/future residential urban blocks to maximise indoor daylight quality with a higher S/V and more energy saving in these regions.

Global energy use has risen due to increased demands and inefficient grids in developing countries. Energy saving is detrimental in countries in which their energy supply capacity is lower than their demand. Energy Efficiency Measures (EEMs) can easily be incorporated in new buildings; however, existing buildings have limitations in geometry, orientation, and materiality which restrict their applicability. This research analyses the efficiency of applying several EEMs in the residential stock in hot semi-arid regions to reduce their energy demand. A typical residential house in Duhok, Iraq was selected as a case study. The EMMs efficiency was analysed using building energy simulation. As heating and cooling loads have similar contributions to the house thermal demand -with 56% and 44% respectively, the potential energy reduction considered both loads simultaneously. The optimal combination of EEMs can reduce the thermal load by 48.7%, while individual passive measures can only reduce the thermal load up to 16%. In urban scale, the energy reduction potential presented in this paper would represent a shift from a heating-dominated scenario to a cooling-dominated one. This in turn would aid in decreasing the energy demand during winter months in which the largest energy shortages in the city are registered.

The urgent need for housing in challenging contexts such as Middle East and developing countries contradicts with the long time required to provide adequate responses, especially in the case of severely affected cities by war and mass destruction. The city of Mosul in Iraq is a case where there is an urgent need for reconstruction, especially in the housing sector. Advanced technologies in construction present opportunities in facing post-war reconstruction challenges. Prefabrication has been used for housing delivery around the world due to its efficiency in terms of time and cost as construction time-frame and costs form the core challenges of a successful and functional approach for reconstruction in post-war cities. This paper is part of a comprehensive research that investigates the potential of adopting prefabrication in housing delivery through a BIM-based inspection. This paper inspects a developed housing prototype to examine the cost and time feasibility of the design approach and application of prefabrication. The main findings include identifying the significance of prefabrication in presenting cost-efficient and time-effective construction approach for the restoration of the damaged housing sector in the city of Mosul.

The power shortage is one of the major problems in developing countries. Kurdistan Region of Iraq suffers from this issue, like other developing countries. Especially, after the economy crises that has started in 2014. However, all its efforts for tackling this challenge has been in providing more energy supply stations and more fuel provision. Few studies have been found in the region that seek the relation between the quality of buildings and energy consumption. It is questioned if the building sector in Kurdistan is well managed and environmentally sufficient to consume minimum amount of energy since it is the largest energy consuming sector. This research will seek an alternative to decrease the energy demand in buildings instead of expanding the energy sector. This could be achieved by evaluating the quality of building sector environmentally and improving it. Providing guidelines for building’s thermal regulations, passive building design and increasing the energy efficiency of buildings by renewal means could be alternative strategies for lowering the energy consumption. Theoretical and numerical research approach have been taken in to account for finding the answer through a case study and comparative analysis. A variation of 21-29% of power consumption can be observed between buildings that have not considered energy efficiency criteria in their design and those who reflected them more in the design.

The concept of sustainable urban design has appeared in different perspectives to minimize and reduce the negative impacts of urban expansion in terms of climatic and environmental drawbacks. One of the undeniable approaches of sustainable urban design is the adoption of green urban roofs. Green roofs are seen to have a substantial role in addressing and resolving environmental issues in the context of climate change. Research investigations have indicated that green roofs have a remarkable impact on decreasing rainwater runoff, reducing the heat island effect in urban spaces, and increasing biodiversity. Nevertheless, green roofs in urban spaces as a competent alternative to nature remains a standing question. To what extent can green roofs mimic the biodiversity that is seen in nature? Moreover, to what level is this approach practical for achieving a tangible reconnection with nature, or so-called biophilia? This study attempts to discuss the essence and impact of green roofs in urban spaces based on a case study approach. The study reflected lessons from the New York High Line Green Roof regarding biophilia and biodiversity in this case study. It concludes with key lessons that can be transferred to other urban spaces with similar settings.