Amal Shamseldin

Sustainable development in educational environments requires a holistic approach to architectural design, balancing multiple environmental functions to optimize student well-being and energy efficiency. According to architectural standards, rectangular classrooms typically have a shallow proportion, meaning the external facade is longer than the internal sides. While this design ensures adequate natural lighting, essential for classroom visual functions, it may not fully align with the sustainability goals in regions with diverse environmental characteristics. This diversity can lead to shortcomings in other aspects of human comfort or environmental performance, as optimizing one function may negatively impact others, while the environmental efficiency of architectural spaces should not be judged solely on a single comfort criterion. A holistic study should evaluate common architectural shapes and proportions to ensure they align with the Green Architectural principles for specific locations. This manuscript compares eight rectangular classrooms with different external-to-internal wall proportions and window-to-wall ratios (WWR) to determine their suitability for Taif City, KSA schools. The case studies include variations in window sizes (10.5 m² and 14 m²) and orientations (North and South), providing a comprehensive evaluation of their impact on human comfort. Simulation results reveal that the common classroom proportion did not yield the highest green credits, suggesting it may not be optimal for all regions, including Taif City. The findings emphasize the need to reconsider standard classroom dimensions to better align with local environmental conditions and Green Architecture principles, contributing to the broader goals of sustainability and sustainable development in educational infrastructure.

Mostadam is the Green Building Rating System in the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia. Indoor thermal comfort assessment is one of the key issues in Mostadam. Controlling the thermal characteristics of the building envelope is one of the main methods to achieve thermal comfort. In Mostadam, these characteristics should comply with the Saudi Building Code for energy conservation, where the required thermal resistance value (R-value) of the above-grade walls for twelve thermal zones are unified despite their various climatic aspects. Taif city, for example, has a moderate temperature for most of the year in contrast to many Saudi cities that share the walls’ R-value. The purpose of this paper is to highlight the importance of considering a comprehensive assessment of a building across all its life stages before judging any green practice. Therefore, a simulation methodology was used for a set of models through which the impact of R-value on the building’s assessment to its different stages can be checked. Simulation results showed that half the value of the required Saudi code’s R-value can give the same thermal target in Taif city. But the higher R-value means more materials and loads, which accordingly leads to more construction costs. To decide that a conservation method is appropriate, it should be judged over the whole life cycle of the building. Thus, it is not considered appropriate if a thermal solution gives the same energy consumption during the operational building stage but more cost during the construction and demolition stages. The manuscript results in that the suitable R-value that should be used within the Saudi codes and, therefore, Mostadam for the above-grade walls in Taif city is 1 (m2 K)/W, as it maintained the targeted thermal comfort achievement with less building construction cost. It is recommended to evaluate the Saudi code values accordingly.

According to architectural standards, the common proportion of a rectangular-shaped classroom is the shallow proportion, which has a longer external room facade versus the perpendicular internal sides. Even in the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia (KSA), the same proportion is used in school projects. Environmentally, this proportion is logical when considering the role of adequate natural lighting for classroom visual functions, which could be more easily achieved if its longest side is the external one. But, the environmental efficiency of any architectural space cannot be only judged according to a single human comfort achievement, especially with the diverse environmental characteristics of places around the world. This diversity can show a defect in other human comfort achievements or other environmental issues in different ways when achieving a certain function in a unified way. A holistic study should be done for any common architectural shape or proportion to ensure their priority among other options in achieving maximum green architectural principles for a specific location before confirming and using it. The manuscript compares a rectangular classroom of different external/internal wall proportions to search for their preference to be used in Taif city schools in KSA. The compared case studies have different window variations and similarities to include their effect too. According to the overall green principles assessment, the results showed that the common proportion of classrooms didn’t give the higher green credits, which alerts us that the traditional rectangular classroom proportion is not always optimum for all regions including Taif city in KSA.

Recent developments have helped create windows that can fulfill their contrary functions effectively in addition to generating energy, which are known as multifunctional windows. Permanent maintenance is required for windows to achieve their functions properly, but the current window cleaning methods can harm and are not appropriate for the recently developed multifunctional windows. The author presents a suggested multifunctional window and sheds light on the disadvantages that could be accomplished when using the current methods to clean it. Using analytical and logical methods, this paper shows the proper way of the multifunctional window maintenance. This way depends on the self-cleaning features. The author proposes a solution for the disadvantages that could accompany that features. The main result is the validity of a successful multifunctional window that can be maintained with minimum disadvantages and maximum efficiency. Therefore, this study contributes to the window industry by presenting the proper way of maintaining multifunctional windows. Thus, future maintenance research should be redirected properly to conserve and benefit the efforts spent in impropriate directions and technologies

This paper discusses in detail the current level of awareness of the Saudi Arabia stakeholders regarding the use and application of green building rating systems. The paper used a mix of qualitative and quantitative research methods through an exploratory method that utilized an online survey targeting experts and construction stakeholders to fill the gap of previous research papers and support the argument of the increase in the level of the awareness of stakeholders in the use and application of green building rating systems in Saudi Arabia. This research aims to focus on the level of awareness of the Saudi construction market stakeholders on green building rating systems in Saudi Arabia with focus on the Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design system LEED and Mostadam. It also investigated which rating system responds to the need of the Saudi construction market with regard to energy conservation and water consumption more effectively. The methodology utilized in this research used a combination of primary and secondary data where the primary data were a survey sent to Saudi construction stakeholders where a total of 1320 respondents participated in the survey. Results from this research showed a promising number of agreements between the participating stakeholders to the level of awareness of green building rating systems in Saudi Arabia and to the willingness to use internationally recognized rating systems such as LEED and the use of locally recognized systems such as Mostadam. Furthermore, the research aims to link the results with the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) with a focus on SDGs 6 and 7. The results show a high level of appreciation and agreement to the importance of energy and water conservation in green buildings that will be using either LEED or Mostadam in Saudi Arabia and accomplish the targets outlined under the SDGs.