Back from parcel planning to future heritage of urban courtyard: The 5th generation of Egyptian cities as a sustainable design manifesto for neo-arid neighbourhoods

Abstract

As housing represents about 60% of cities land use and cities are responsible for 39% of global carbon emissions, this work investigates the emergence of a new generation of Egyptian cities having urban identity and architectural character revealed through climate responsive urban neighbourhood planning adjunct to its housing design in arid regions, while promoting heritage resembled qualities and eco materials. The methodology of planning and designing such cities’ neighbourhoods, by connecting Urban-Building-Materials-Renewables (UBMR), has been manifested so that it can be disseminated for arid regions. A comparison between conventionally designed back to back parcel division planning that formulate dot patterns, with the courtyarded clustered free planning and energy plus designed neighborhood in Cairo, Egypt took place. A multi objective workflow assessment method was applied using ENVI-met V4.0 for urban microcimate simulations, Radiance for annual cumulative radiation and Energy-plus for urban energy use intensity to quantify different environmental sustainability measures and persuade decision-makers of the suggested design paradigm shift. Further, life cycle cost (LCC) analysis took place to correlate and quantify assessment measures of applied environmental and socio-economic sustainability systems, such as the Building Integrated Photovoltaic (BIPV), low-cost Stabilized Compressed Earth Blocks (SCEB) construction that support envelope passive design, affordability, and housing diversity. Combined UBMR solutions showed improved comfortable outdoor areas by 47.8% during extreme summer afternoon, increased annual solar energy generation potential by 13.87% and the energy-efficient envelope reduced cooling energy consumption by 28.9% while reducing cost of construction by 95.5%. As of socio-economic sustainability, all measures showed an evidence of preferability for the court-yarded clustered urban form attributed to the low-cost construction that offered more affordability over 50 and 100 years with green industrial and construction mechanism that empowered job opportunities, more housing designs’ diversity that can be generated per each cluster, and more walkable streets according to pedestrian comfort maps. Modeling the 3D recipe of environment consciousness while retrieving the socio-economic flavor values of ancestors' free planning renewed the architectural character and urban identity picture, as if getting back to heritage free planning that generates courtyarded urban clusters could evolve a future class climate responsive Neo-Arid city.