Hybrid microclimatic village planning methodology for sustainable desert settlements; revisiting Mid -Sinai as a case study

Abstract
This paper presents a hybrid sustainable design methodology for desert settlement
development on a microclimate thermal impact basis. Sustainable development had
broadcasting and cumulative interdiscipli nary thoughts through time. Main
approaches started in the early 1980s by the UN to define the future strategies for
resources as a moral and physical commitment towards next generations . In a 4%
inhabited hot arid country like Egypt, there should be a n ew development model that
stresses on the effect of climate conditions within sustainable design process. As a
development type of desert settlements, the concept of country desert villages is
viable as it lies between both urban settled communities in north and south Sinai and
the unsettled population in med -Sinai. Such settlement/village planning ideas has
succeeded in Israel for example through the combined fields of applied research;
desert physical planning and passive solar architecture, prefabric ation and low-cost
construction methods and materials, building physics and climatology, desert
agriculture and renewable energy systems. Despite the early rise for the sustainable
development age in the 1980s, till now the two lines of sustainable physica l planning
and the radical Egyptian development discipline based on the socialist central housing
strategy didn’t meet in a hot country like Egypt. This is due to the Just to
Accommodate People methodology using only the Traditional Neighbourhood
Development fabric forms without considering the conditions of the eight climatic
classifications and different social habits of people in Egypt. This work revisits the
regional development concepts for Sinai, to select pilot development spots around
existing communities in Med-Sinai after which zero energy low-cost housing
development can be applied on a microclimate basis using a hybrid passive design
methodology. The suggested Desert Village Planning focuses on generating a
character for patterns in different regions by accommodating people in socially
acceptable houses via public participation, economic activity support for village jobs,
maintaining acceptable services with outdoor social places, diverse and compact
fabric form, prefabrication with low-cost materials and construction, and low or zero
energy community. On the other hand, numerical impact assessment for village forms
using building simulation tools solves complex aspects of these intersected fields in
different locations on a microclimatic basis .