Journal Critique

by

Marlo R. De Leon

Submitted to the College of Arts & Science (CAS) in Partial Fulfillment of the
Requirements for the Course
Research Methods for Architecture (RES100P)

Malayan Colleges Laguna

2T / 2021-2022
INTRODUCTION

The Journal entitled “Architectural Designs and Thermal Performances of School Sports-Halls”
which is published in 2003 by Abd El-Wahab M. Adel El-Kadi and Mona A. Fanny focuses on
how building sports hall on the roof of the schools help the thermal condition of the structure,
save unnecessary spaces and helps the student to spend their time by playing on those sport halls
for their physical fitness rather than doing other things. Both of the authors are from Egypt and
their case study is on Cairo, they describe the climate there as a semi-desert climate condition.

Their study presents the current design of most of the government-run school playgrounds in
Cairo, Egypt and shows how existing playgrounds sustain this function. Constructing a sports
hall on the roof of the building is one of the solutions presented to overcome existing
deficiencies. The study also introduces the use of mechanical ventilation with the contributions
of different heat-gain sources.

The specifications for a children's playground must take account of a strategy for energy
conservation and thermal comfort for the various activities. A playground of an Egyptian
secondary high-school is considered their case history. The school could help the community by
providing a sports facility for youth to play and enjoy themselves. This could take place after the
normal school hours and during the weekends and the school holidays.

It is fairly clear as explained from the paper’s abstract that their issue is not quite simple but they
provided a solution that benefits the environment, the students and the thermal condition of the
facility. The author’s goal is to solve their problems by using architectural designs and providing
the proper specifications of each in order for the project to be efficient and functional.

With such a very efficient solution at hand, the author summarizes the research by concluding
that for every location of the school and considering their respective climates, they provided
different specifications of windows and walls, and the materials used for each climate whether it
is with or without air-conditioning to achieve thermal comfort based on the needs of the users
within the building.
DISCUSSION

The paper focuses on one of their two solutions on providing a sports hall on the school
depending on the condition of the school and the spaces available around its vicinity. They chose
to discuss the development of re-functioning of the roof spaces at the top floor level of the school
as a both playground and a sports hall, this solution is appropriate when no spaces available as a
playground.

The author took the following considerations when designing the structure because their goal is
to make the new building structurally independent, the reason for this is because the existing
structure cannot hold excessive loads and it is not designed for such building extension. After all
of the inspection and considerations, they will now apply efficient materials for the comfort of
the users.

As I read the paper, I can say that efficiency and space saving are the strength of the study. It
clearly shows that they calculated every details of work to be done and they know the proper
materials that will be used on their proposed sport hall extension. They even have solutions on
different climates depending on the location of the school by providing proper ventilation, and
putting heat and sound insulations. The results on the paper says it all, they really considered
every factor that will help them improve on building these extensions.

There are many factors to be considered in building this kind of extension. The journal did not
thoroughly explain how many days or months will it take to finish the project because vacations
on middle school are limited only, the student’s classes will be disturbed once the time frame of
building this project is not properly calculated. Another factor is the project cost, considering that
this paper is published in 2003, based on the paper the total project cost is 3 million Egyptian
Pound. That cost so much back in the day, they cannot provide many extensions for every
schools if the costing of the project is very expensive.

For my own suggestion or recommendation, they need to consider the price per pieces of the
materials that will be used and then it will be the basis on how many can they produce on the
budget given by the government (if the government will provide the funding). Lastly, the time
frame. They must consider also the time frame of the whole project and when is the best time to
build because most of the time, the schools are occupied by students.
CONCLUSION

The authors really invested their time, knowledge and money in creating playgrounds and sports
hall in schools regardless of the limited spaces around the site. They focused on the comfort and
the benefits of the users by providing one of many solutions in order to overcome existing
deficiencies. It took them years to observe and study the climates of different location of the
schools during winter, rainy seasons and summer for them to know the proper materials that will
be used for the specific extension project. Studying the proxemics which is the study of human
use of spaces is a big factor also in creating a roof top extension, their goal is to serve the needs
of school without harming the environment. The structural consideration is on point, for me this
is the most critical part of making extensions when the foundation of the existing building can
not handle the computation of loads. Thermal criteria of the sports hall are also being
investigated in order for it to serve the intended activity. Schematics of the concepts along with
the schematic diagram is well explained for the interior plan of the extension.

As I evaluate this study, it is feasible and efficient. Combining this study with the technologies
we have in the modern days will produce a “green architecture” concept because it also promotes
to save energy in schools. Lastly, the cost for this kind of project nowadays is cheaper because
many construction companies provide a pre-fabricated construction materials.