Comparative Analysis of the Desert and Green Vernacular Architecture in the Oases of Egypt

Abstract

Desert vernacular architecture has always been the nucleus of green architecture and sustainable buildings. This paper presents a focus on the vernacular architecture in the oases of the western desert of Egypt as a distinctive traditional architecture. The main aim of this paper is to finding out the principles of “green architecture” through a comparative analysis of both the historical and nowadays desert architecture in the western desert of Egypt. In order to represent a deep relation between traditional green and desert architecture. This paper introduces an energy survey and a comparative analysis of both the historical and recent desert architecture and the analysis of the different traditional housing unit. After that, this paper studies the local ways of construction in the western desert of Egypt. The objective of this paper is established to stimulate environmentally appropriate practices in western desert architectural design and construction through the process of the impact of materials, openings, and construction system to get better recommendation of a recent construction for a green sustainable desert unit in the oases of Egypt. The aim of this paper is to study the comparison between the historical tradition architecture and the contemporary examples of the western desert in the last decade, especially in the main five oases in western desert of Egypt: Siwa Oasis, Bahariya Oasis, Farafra Oasis, Kharga Oasis, and Dakhla Oasis, the comparison will be between three different chosen oases. These studies of western desert architecture are analyzed through different elements such as the materials of the buildings, the pattern, the facades and the construction systems, also the different environmental treatments. Finally, obtaining the best results and recommendations of sustainable and vernacular architecture that helps to get the best energy efficiency construction system of new green residential houses at the oasis of the western desert of Egypt due to the expected expansion of the governance of Egypt in the sustainable and development projects.