ABSTRACT
The site of Al Ain Civic Centre consists of major vacant lands and scattered development. This site is facing many issues such as car dependency, disconnectivity, low-density development, poor quality of life, and lost identity. Even though Al Ain city is well known for its green and open spaces, yet still such spaces cannot serve this site efficiently. This is because of the poor connectivity among open spaces and oases in Al Ain. One of the suggestions is to provide major connectivity plans and functional open spaces to solve such a situation and revitalize the area as a requirement made by Abu Dhabi Urban Planning Council. This is achieved through the demonstration of green fingers in a way that collects/integrates the site as a whole with the surroundings. As a result, introducing green fingers is part of planned solutions as well as a requirement by the Abu Dhabi Urban Planning Council. Another issue is the major breakage that is represented by Al Slimi wadi. This wadi is known for its transverse site as well as its disconnected pedestrian walkways. Hence, connecting the two areas by a pedestrian bridge is one of the solutions presented in this research. More importantly, the site is considered to handle a neighborhood development with a challenge that aims to preserve, maintain, and protect the traditional Emirati housing. This kind of housing was demonstrated in Fareej form with all its required elements such as courtyard houses, Sikkas, barahas, and maidan. The project turned out to represent a master-planned community. The site claims to work as a zero-car neighborhood, with allocated accesses that lead to a parking space and a golf cart rental station. In conclusion, this neighborhood site plan/the design of this neighborhood can provide an efficiently designed urban plan that is highly walkable, friendly, accessible, and simultaneously protects the environment for its users. The concepts of connectivity and proximity are applied successfully while maintaining the heritage side and Identity of Al Ain.
ABSTRACT
Buildings in Iraqi cities such as Baghdad and Mosul suffer from several problems such as the application of new materials in modern buildings that changed not just the identity of architectural heritage but also the quality of thermal comfort in façade design. This, unfortunately, adds to the damage regarding environmental sustainability and cultural values away from adaptable solutions to improve energy efficiency in building performance. One of the measures that must be taken to correctly plan in harmony with the Iraqi cities is to ensure the environmental control as part of the overall performance of building façade to maintain an active, healthy indoor environment while preserving the propriety of facade design elements, screen pattern, order and details. Therefore, there are many sustainable trends that vary in their usefulness such as biomimetics examples inspired from natural models in which form and function dictate one another. This is in order to maintain the integrated design relation between transparency, function, and elegance in the overall performance of façade elements. The research question is, how important is the choice of material in developing a sustainable element that revives environmental control while preserving the identity and values of façade design? The main goal of the research study is to identify the role of advanced technologies and the choice of smart glazing materials to revive the quality of thermal comfort in a way that not just sustains the identity of facade elements socially and culturally, but also to be responsive to the changes of climate conditions. Therefore, this research utilizes more than one technological tool such as Revit as a BIM tool with the application of smart dynamic materials such as Photovoltaics and Electrochromic in order to restore part of the design expression and enhance the building performance through its elements in contemporary façade design and its details. In this work, it can be seen that applying a set of technological tools allows to clearly illustrate the impact of smart dynamic materials to improve the quality of design and comfort while protecting the identity of contemporary façade elements when compared to static or traditional materials, aesthetically, and functionally.
