Sura Al-Maiyah

Low energy refurbishment strategies for health buildings

Public health buildings contribute significantly to UK carbon emissions. New build initiatives have received more attention than the considerable opportunities to reduce carbon emissions within the retained health estate. The research reported here has considered the environmental performance of a typical medium rise, medium depth, concrete-framed, late 1960s acute hospital following low energy environmental design interventions. The interventions are made to optimize daylighting and natural ventilation/cooling whilst reducing overheating caused by summer time solar gains. Three options are investigated: advanced natural ventilation using plena and exhaust stacks; fan-assisted natural ventilation in which fans are used in the exhaust stacks; and mechanical ventilation/cooling with heat recovery. Computer simulations have been carried out to predict the influence on thermal performance (overheating risk) and energy consumption of each of these options on the original design. For each case, current weather data, and future weather data for the years 2020, 2050 and 2080, have been used.

Daylight for Strategic Intervention in Historic Towns: The Cases of Cairo and Edinburgh

There is a growing concern about the effects of intervention projects on heritage sites, in particular the way renewing building materials affect the sense of place. In one city, old Cairo, the implementation of renewals has instigated a cultural debate on whether the changes have negatively affected the identity of the area. Similarly, the 2005 management plan of the old town of Edinburgh has also indicated that one of the major challenges the site faces is the erosion of Edinburghs unique sense of place and outstanding townscape through the loss of local materials, inappropriate intervention, and the introduction of inappropriate materials.

Turkish D-Light: accentuating heritage values with daylight

Historic buildings have their own cultural identity, which is often related to their aesthetic qualities such as period characteristics (geometry, size, colour, form and shape), materials and construction. Daylight is one of the primary elements contributing to the distinctiveness of the visual environment of many historic buildings, but is rarely considered as one of the components that shape the character of a building when adaptive preservation schemes of historical buildings are planned. Many historic buildings were originally designed to accommodate activities different to their new use and preserving the quality of daylight that originally contributed to their visual identity is a challenging task. Maintaining the ‘day-lit appearance’ of a building can be particularly problematic if the building is to be used as a museum or a gallery owing to the artefacts’ conservation requirements. This work investigated the opportunities of maintaining the original ambient conditions of renovated historical build...

Turkish d-light: accentuating heritage values with daylight

Historic buildings have their own cultural identity, which is often related to their aesthetic qualities such as period characteristics (geometry, size, colour, form and shape), materials and construction. Daylight is one of the primary elements contributing to the distinctiveness of the visual environment of many historic buildings, but is rarely considered as one of the components that shape the character of a building when adaptive preservation schemes of historical buildings are planned. Many historic buildings were originally designed to accommodate activities different to their new use and preserving the quality of daylight that originally contributed to their visual identity is a challenging task. Maintaining the ‘day-lit appearance’ of a building can be particularly problematic if the building is to be used as a museum or a gallery owing to the artefacts’ conservation requirements. This work investigated the opportunities of maintaining the original ambient conditions of renovated historical build...