Research, in the field of studying the effect of orientation on the ambient temperature of residential buildings, is still in its early phases despite the leaps made by studies and experiments. Most climatic studies focused on studying residential buildings as to: orientation, building materials use, thermal behavior, etc. This was done by theoretical studies and few on-site measurements. Studying orientation of residential buildings by simulation is rare in the Arab world. The present generation of climatic design tools should rely more on digital presentation by computers, in order to aid designers make sound design decisions based on visible results. Thus, the computer carries out all calculations relieving designers from their heavy burden. Due to the scarce use of simulation software in the climatic assessment of residential buildings; the study aims at studying the effect of orientation on the thermal performance of spaces in residential buildings at New Assiut City, Egypt. To achieve this aim, the research is done by the analytical and applied methods, using the simulation software Thermal Analysis Software, from the climatic analysis of New Assiut City - as well as identifying the prevailing residential patterns, and detailed study of the selected residential building, identifying the software used, and analyzing the simulation results for ambient room temperatures of the cold and hot periods - for different orientations of the selected model. The research ends with a number of results and recommendations. Such results may be applied in hot desert areas. Main Subjects

Research, in the field of studying the effect of orientation on the ambient temperature of residential buildings, is still in its early phases despite the leaps made by studies and experiments. Most climatic studies focused on studying residential buildings as to: orientation, building materials use, thermal behavior, etc. This was done by theoretical studies and few on-site measurements. Studying orientation of residential buildings by simulation is rare in the Arab world. The present generation of climatic design tools should rely more on digital presentation by computers, in order to aid designers make sound design decisions based on visible results. Thus, the computer carries out all calculations relieving designers from their heavy burden. Due to the scarce use of simulation software in the climatic assessment of residential buildings; the study aims at studying the effect of orientation on the thermal performance of spaces in residential buildings at New Assiut City, Egypt. To achieve this aim, the research is done by the analytical and applied methods, using the simulation software Thermal Analysis Software, from the climatic analysis of New Assiut City - as well as identifying the prevailing residential patterns, and detailed study of the selected residential building, identifying the software used, and analyzing the simulation results for ambient room temperatures of the cold and hot periods - for different orientations of the selected model. The research ends with a number of results and recommendations. Such results may be applied in hot desert areas. Main Subjects

Energy efficiency is an important issue that has been considered by many construction sectors. Recently, the research attention is focused on the thermal performance of the wall envelope, in particular, for its high energy consumption. This paper conducted a literature review highlighting the recent studies and research approach and methodology on the building wall envelope. Results indicate that climate, insulation and orientation are the key factors that should be considered on wall envelope design and installation.

The main goal of this study is to undertake the three methods of life cycle assessment (LCA), the environmental performance (EP), and the building information modeling (BIM) to determine the environmental performance and impacts of two window frame materials: aluminum and wood. This study has been carried out in a proposed project at the Assiut University campus. The LCA has been conducted by assessing materials and processes involved in manufacturing the two window frame types using the SimaPro. The LCA scope of this research covers from cradle to the gate with a designated system boundary. The network flow has been drawn to produce one kilogram of aluminum and wood; the quantities data were gathered from the BIM (using Autodesk Revit). Selecting the database is carefully picked from the Ecoinvent dataset to be closer to Egypt's manufacturing processes. Afterwards, the IMPACT 2002+ with midpoint and endpoint calculations has been used. Finally, the LCA results have been compared with the EP results (using DesignBuilder) to determine the best choice between the two materials. The integration analysis shows that the aluminum industry has higher negative environmental impacts and environmental performance than the wood industry. The total midpoint results of the two materials are found to be 29.6 for aluminum, and 7.57 the wood. Turning to the endpoint results, human health and resource depletion impacts are the most significant results. The human health scored the highest value, with 13.9 for aluminum and 3.51 for wood. A novel framework for integrating LCA, BIM, and EP for a proposed building during the early phases of a project has been conducted in this study. The presented study can be used as a model for integrating comparative analysis on other proposed projects as the LCA applications in Egypt are scarce due to the absence of a reliable database. This study has introduced a value applying an approach to select the appropriate life cycle inventory database from the Ecoinvent dataset. The research findings contribute to choosing the most suitable window frame materials with the most energy-efficient effect and the least environmental burden. Moreover, it can help the concerned legislative bodies and the decision-makers.

The energy consumption of fully glazed office buildings is very high due to the heavy cooling loads in summer. Therefore, building designers resort to the High-Performance Glazing System (HPGS) solutions to reduce solar heat gain and save energy. However, the selection of most sustainable HPGS is considered a complicated process because the one criterion decision method - which building designers still tend to use - cannot solve this complexity. Multi-Criteria Decision Making (MCDM) analysis can solve this problem and rank the alternatives. In this paper, the Analytic Hierarchy Process (AHP) - one of the MCDM methods - is applied by SuperDecisions software to rank three proposed HPGS alternatives for an existing office building in New Cairo, Egypt as a case study in a hot desert climate zone. Four criteria of sustainability (energy, environmental impacts, cost, and occupant comfort) are assessed and a new weighting method is applied based on LEED rating system to prioritize the alternatives. The ranking results show in the first place the Photovoltaic glazing system followed by the Low-E and Electrochromic glazing systems, respectively with a negligible difference. The Life cycle cost criterion is the major influencer on the ranking results according to the applied sensitivity analysis.

In hot desert climates, the office buildings with high-performance glazing systems (HPGSs) provide better indoor thermal and visual comfort to the occupants due to the advanced coatings which prevent the undesired heat gain and daylight. However, these systems save energy in the use phase; it could consume more energy in the pre-use and post-use phases. Furthermore, the use of advanced materials may have negative impacts on the environment. Therefore, this paper selected the comparative life cycle assessment method as an environmental measuring tool to compare the energy consumption and the environmental impacts of three HPGSs with that of the conventional clear double-glazing system. The results show that the photovoltaic glazing system (PVGS) has the lowest energy consumption and the lowest environmental impacts, followed by the electrochromic glazing system (ECGS) and the low-E glazing system. In the use phase, both PVGS and ECGS achieved the highest energy savings, 87% and 25%, respectively. The use phase has a major contribution to the energy consumption and environmental impacts, while the pre-use and post-use phases have insignificant contributions in this study. The results could support decision-makers in choosing the most environmentally friendly HPGS for their projects.

In the hot desert climate zones, the energy consumption of fully glazed office buildings is too high due to the heavy cooling loads. This problem forced architects to use the High-Performance Glazing Systems (HPGSs) which reduce the solar heat gain and save energy. Despite the high initial cost, the HPGSs are supposed to be economically feasible in the long term. This study investigates and compares the economic feasibility of three HPGSs for an office building in New Cairo. In terms of life cycle cost (LCC), the Low-E, Electrochromic, and Photovoltaic glazing systems are compared to the Clear Double-Glazing as a conventional system. Furthermore, the three economic indicators; Net Present Value (NPV), Internal Rate of Return (IRR), and Payback Period (PBP) are analysed. In conclusion, the Low-E Glazing System has the lowest LCC because of the low disposal cost. Moreover, the Low-E glazing has the highest NPV, IRR, and the shortest PBP (15 years). Due to the high initial and maintenance costs, the Photovoltaic Glazing System has a higher LCC. The Electrochromic Glazing System is not economically feasible due to the highest LCC, the lowest NPV, the lowest IRR, and the longest PBP which exceeds 30 years.

Setting eco-rehabilitation plans for cultural heritage buildings require robust guidelines and assessment mechanism to account for the reuse scenarios as well as the construction and demolition waste management plans (C&D-WMPs). This is problematic with the existence of numerous environmental assessment methods. Nevertheless, it is noted that the majority of building rehabilitation practices pay more concern towards the physical properties of materials rather than their environmental value. Hence, this study provides insights for using two different assessment methods in this regard; ‘Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design’ (LEED) and ‘Life Cycle Assessment’ (LCA). The study adopts a cross-comparative quantitative methodology using a practical case study analysis- ‘Richordi Berchet’ palace - the oldest historic LEED Gold certified building. It investigates the efficiency of LEED materials’ credits to support sustainable building reuse and set C&D-WMPs. Noting that these credits operate in quite a simplistic and abstract manner based on materials’ physical properties; weight, area or volume, hence, the LCA method is used to account for their environmental profile expressed in embodied carbon and embodied energy. This pinpoints cases where the use of LEED measurement criteria provides acceptable results and others where the use of LCA is necessary to yield reliable results-noting that their marginal percentage difference is estimated to be ±15%. This indicates the mutual benefit of integrating LCA to support LEED materials credits in such a way that achieves relevance and reliability of eco-building rehabilitation plans. This aims at bridging the gap between researchers and practitioners’ best practices. It also provides insights for green building rating systems developers to consider the environmental value of sustainable rehabilitation guidelines and set reliable measurement and evaluation mechanism.

Since buildings and their construction materials exploit natural resources as well as the effect on energy consumption and carbon dioxide emissions, evaluating building materials is needed to have more sustainable buildings. This study proposes a methodology to define the proper selection of green building materials that can be used for building façades; whilst taking its thermal performance and energy efficiency into account. Additionally, the study compared the energy consumption for six conventional materials for two types of buildings (Educational, Residential) in four climate zones using a simulation program (DesignBuilder). It included also the embodied carbon and equivalent CO 2 for different types of used external façades materials. The evaluation and results is an important step to identify the suitable material that could be replaced with green material and determine how it performs in terms of simulation results and matching with the proposed criteria. The results show enhancement of thermal comfort when replacing a conventional material Brickwork with an environmentally friendly one (Autoclaved Aerated Concrete Block). Moreover, it has a positive impact regarding sub-criteria (from the proposed framework). However, the proposed green material couldn't achieve the expected performance regarding energy performance (as it achieved a minor enhancement from 3245.07 to 3239.1 KWh, U-value for both materials is close) or embodied energy (as the increase of kgCO2 from 758 to 1649.3 due to cement which is one of its ingredients).

This paper aims to measure the footprint for construction materials and construction and demolition waste (CDW) environmental impacts for a case study building in Egypt through the complete Life Cycle Assessment (LCA) of the building ‘from cradle to grave’. The LCA measures eight impact categories, including carbon emissions and energy demand. Our analysis demonstrates the relative importance of life cycle stages; construction processes and materials manufacturing that make the largest contributions to the buildings’ environmental impacts. The results show that the material manufacturing stage is the most critical stage because of its high contribution (about 70%) of the total environmental impacts. On the other hand the disposal stage contributes (about -10%). The results can help engineers and construction industry stakeholders in Egypt to use more sustainable construction materials and change their CDW management practice.