Hassan Radhi

Developing Standards for Low-Energy Buildings in the Gulf States

Abstract Energy standards impact upon building performance. This paper presents a framework to develop energy standards for buildings based upon established benchmarks. The framework first optimised building design, and then used the outcome to develop energy standards for office buildings. Energy-10 was used to model and achieve energy performance targets by optimising the energy design of a single storey-building model. The outcome of optimising the model provided the basis for developing two types of energy standards—prescriptive standards and performance standards. As the developed model may not fit with other sensitivities and elements of building design, a performance scale was provided in order to present optimum and close-to-optimum designs. It was intended that this study would show how the building design optimisation, structured towards established benchmarks, could support the development of energy standards. The applicability of the performance scale is demonstrated through a case study from Bahrain.

Assessing the environmental and economic impacts of cladding systems for green buildings

Abstract: This chapter first introduces the role of cladding systems towards a green future in the building sector. It then gives a brief description of the use of the eco-efficiency concept in the assessment of green cladding systems. This chapter presents a systematic assessment of a real case study from Bahrain. The ultimate purpose of this chapter is to provide a common understanding of the importance of carrying out an eco-efficiency assessment and how that assessment can benefit the appraisal of green cladding systems and therefore the design decisions made in developing various scales of green buildings.