Sustainability in traditional houses in the UAE: potentials and improvement of buildings abilities

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Abdelmonem, M.G. ORCID: 0000-0002-8271-0924 and Leohlein, G., 2007. Sustainability in traditional houses in the UAE: potentials and improvement of buildings abilities. In: Second International Conference of Dubai Conservation, Dubai, United Arab Emirates, March 2007.

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Abstract

Traditional houses in a particular community are considered the most suitable way of life for its own people. It has been made and developed out of local, available and sustainable materials and matching its context whether climatic, social and even economic contexts. In their path to modernity, most of developing countries have dropped their history and traditional products to import those which created and developed from the west, inserting them in a totally unmatching environment. That insertion creates separation between individuals and their built environment especially their own houses; the most intimate spaces; in addition to the high cost of related services and systems needed to overcome the differences between inserted buildings an and their natural context.
UAE in general and Dubai in Particular, has its own heritage and traditional buildings which were created originally from available material and matching their own context. Rather, it has never been developed to match the progressive needs of the community. These houses while producing a sustainable environments and social context can be developed in a manner to provide sustainable response to progressive needs of modernity and to minimum energy consumption as well.
Studying week points of old structures, such as short time deterioration and lack of services and technology, will be the start to propose adaptation and addition of modern technology to model an adapted version of old structures that satisfies current needs and overcome mistakes been experienced while implementing western style communities in a hot arid climate with no impact of social, culture aspects.

Item Type:	Conference contribution
Creators:	Abdelmonem, M.G. and Leohlein, G.
Date:	2007
Divisions:	Schools > School of Architecture, Design and the Built Environment
Record created by:	Jill Tomkinson
Date Added:	16 Jan 2018 16:00
Last Modified:	16 Jan 2018 16:00
URI:	https://irep.ntu.ac.uk/id/eprint/32454