Residential facade developments in Abu Dhabi: Simulation of sustainable key concepts

Abstract

Abu Dhabi, the UAE’s capital, is experiencing rapid development of residential buildings in terms of quantity and construction style; however, the building façades of these modern units barely reflect the importance of sustainable concepts carried out through traditional houses through urban growth. In such extreme weather conditions as in Abu Dhabi, it is essential to create a pleasant indoor environment in a residential building, while regulating solar gains and reducing energy consumption on mechanical cooling. If not properly addressed in the façade design, the intense heat and glare, air leakage, and lighting loads will affect the performance of the interior spaces of housing units. Throughout the traditional settlements till modern housing developments, the façade design of residential buildings in Abu Dhabi addresses many changes from a design perspective such as materials in use, opening sizes and shapes, and shading elements with additional architectural features from which some resulted in high sustainable performances. This study aims to establish an understanding of sustainable housing façade design key concepts in Abu Dhabi within a structured housing development timeline from traditional settlements to modern residential buildings. The research extended with a case study on recent housing developments in Al Raha Beach area. The study showed that achieving sustainable goals has priority in recent façade designs and various design elements are integrated into the facades to challenge Abu Dhabi’s harsh climate conditions. Later in the research, three residential buildings from the case study were selected for solar radiation analysis on the South façade. The simulation was run using Ladybug and Grasshopper software to review the environmental impact of the concepts used in the South façade treatment. This research shows that from traditional to modern façade designs in Abu Dhabi there are several key concepts yet to be developed in order to achieve high sustainable performances in residential units. The case study and the simulation highlight the importance and necessity of sustainable façade design to be applied in response to the climate and orientation for better thermal comfort. Keywords: Weather hazard, Atmospheric radiation, Environmental impacts, Energy consumption, Review