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Bioclimatic housing design to desert architecture: A

case study of Ghadames, Libya
a b
Jamal Alabid & Ahmad Taki
a
Leicest er School of Archit ect ure, De Mont f ort Universit y, 80, Wellesley House, Wellingt on
St reet Leicest er LE1 6HP, Unit ed Kingdom
b
Art , Design and Humanit ies, Leicest er School of Archit ect ure, Leicest er, Unit ed Kingdom
Published online: 06 Oct 2014.

To cite this article: Jamal Alabid & Ahmad Taki (2014) Bioclimat ic housing design t o desert archit ect ure: A case st udy of
Ghadames, Libya, HVAC&R Research, 20: 7, 760-769, DOI: 10. 1080/ 10789669. 2014. 953872

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 HVAC&R Research (2014) 20, 760–769
Copyright 
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ISSN: 1078-9669 print / 1938-5587 online

DOI: 10.1080/10789669.2014.953872

Bioclimatic housing design to desert architecture: A case

study of Ghadames, Libya
JAMAL ALABID1,∗ and AHMAD TAKI2
1
Leicester School of Architecture, De Montfort University, 80, Wellesley House, Wellington Street, Leicester LE1 6HP,
United Kingdom
2
Art, Design and Humanities, Leicester School of Architecture, Leicester, United Kingdom
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This article assesses the most common architectural and environmental strategies in Ghadames housing in Libya. Preliminary data
were collected through field surveys undertaken in July 2013, the hottest and driest season in Ghadames. The surveys investigated the
indoor thermal environment and efficiency of energy use in Ghadames housing. The actual mean vote scale was used to investigate
occupants’ thermal feeling coupled with recording physical environment and also actual measurements of a number of existing houses.
Additionally, objective surveys were conducted to (a) verify the subjective data, (b) provide an overall view of the residents’ life style
in the old town, and (c) understand the most significant techniques employed in old dwellings. The subjective survey “questionnaire”
distributed among nine new and eight old houses shows that the majority of respondents is satisfied with the number of architectural
issues in modern housing design. This general satisfaction excludes the inherited identity of the traditional architecture embedded
within the society. On the other hand, occupants are more satisfied with old buildings in regard to indoor environmental conditions,
energy consumption, and construction materials. The occupants of old houses expressed their thermal satisfaction with the indoor
comfort conditions, but the predicted mean vote, based on measurements and ISO 7730, implied discomfort (hot).The survey also
carried out interviews with a number of locals, underlining their personal impressions and preference toward the change of the
existing built environment. Findings indicate that, occupants’ satisfaction and perception toward the built environment have not
been achieved in new housing developments of Ghadames owing to the lack of understanding of the sociocultural needs of the local
community. In addition, a 3D digital model was created for the old town and imparted a full understanding of the building dynamics
and physics, explicating the complexity of the compactness of its urban morphologies. The results also showed subjects were feeling
neutral to slightly warm in old buildings even when indoor air temperatures reached 32◦ C.

Introduction
Building form has been researched from many different per-
spectives concerning either indoor thermal conditions or seek-
ing low energy consumption. Sociocultural value is also an
important parameter to consider in this context. The unaware-
ness of bridging the gap between old and new building struc-
tures in Ghadames led to the dissatisfaction of their local
inhabitants. Housing stock and new housing development in
Ghadames thoroughly imitate a Western style. It demonstrates
the issue of poor adjustment of this new housing to existing
social and environmental conditions. Nevertheless, there is an
effort to maintain the continuity of the cultural identity of the
region by retrofitting the existing façades, but unfortunately,
there was no intention to improve the quality of the indoor
Received April 29, 2014; accepted August 5, 2014
Jamal Alabid, MA, is a PhD Student, Researcher and Senior
Lecturer. Ahmad Taki, BSc, MSc, PhD, is a Principal Lecturer,
Coordinator, and Programme Leader.
∗
Corresponding author e-mail: alabid 1981@yahoo.com
Color versions of one or more of the figures in the article can be
found online at www.tandfonline.com/uhvc.
environment. This gap between old and new building typol-
ogy in Ghadames has not yet been bridged by studying the
perception of beauty and logic beyond structure and func-
tion. In addition, excessive consumption of energy in modern
buildings throughout the year is evident due to inadaptable
building construction to existing environmental conditions.
Sustainable buildings are those designed to have a little or
no hazard to natural and built environments as defined by the
Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development
(OECD) Project (John et al. 2005). In desert architecture,
where surrounding conditions are extreme, the way of express-
ing sustainability is somehow different, having to deal with
limitations in resources particularly within the operational
base. The design process at any stage economically has to
conserve energy to be considered sustainable without com-
promising human social needs (Alahmad and Brink 2011).
The Building Certificate Programme (LEED) categorized five
major indicators for sustainable design: sustainable sites, ma-
terials, and resources; water efficiency; and energy and indoor
environmental quality (Wargo 2010). The traditional archi-
tecture of Ghadames shows a unique urban structure that
provides comfortable and livable places for residents, com-
bining compactness with minimum exposure to surroundings
without impinging social privacy (Ealiwa 2000). Several
 Volume 20, Number 7, October 2014
design principles have sustained this type of architecture
for more than 600 years, among them the adaptation to
surrounding environmental conditions. Furthermore, occu-
pants adopted very special ways to deal with such extreme
environmental conditions, for instance, using different inner
space in locations according to different seasons. Thus, the
harmony and congruence at the level of urban context can
be seen clearly with the similarity in form and shape, scale,
and size, as well as in space organization and distribution of
elements, including materials and colour. These aspects have
great psychological impact on resident’s satisfaction with the
environmental performance of such built environments.
Objectives of the research
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The main purpose of this article is to evaluate the architectural
and operational issues in the desert architecture of Ghadames,
and as such, the research work has been divided into a number
of stages. The first stage covered a preliminary study describing
the problem and scope of the research through direct observa-
tions, interviews, and discussions with local people. The sec-
ond stage was a survey carried out by the author during a site
visit to investigate buildings, locations, and the record of mi-
croclimate conditions. Drawings and photographs were taken
to visualize documentation to create a 3D architectural model
for the old town, analyzing several aspects, such as housing
construction, issues of tradition, functions and its relation to
sociocultural conditions, as well as structure and materials.
Overview of Ghadames architecture
Ghadames is well-known as “The Jewel of Libyan Sahara”
and is approximately 650 km southwest of Tripoli on the junc-
tion of the borders of Tunisia, Algeria, and Libya on a lat-
itude of 30◦ 08N and longitude of 9◦ 30E with an altitude of
approximately +300 m (Elwefati 2007). The city is one of the
sub-regions of Ghyrian, “the mountain city,” also situated in
desert plateau, like a cliff between the immense sand-dunes
of the Libyan Sahara desert and the coastal mountains called
“Jebel Nafusa.” The climate of the region characterized with
Fig. 1. Aerial view of old town and master plan of new town.
761
hot and dry conditions with maximum temperature may ex-
ceed 50◦ C in summer and drops under 0◦ C at mean daily
temperatures of 43◦ C–49◦ C on hot days and 17◦ C–24◦ C in
temperate seasons (Al-Zubaidi 2002).
The old town, with its settlements located down the oasis,
built on almost 7 km2 of land, consists of three main neighbor-
hoods with more than 1300 houses, mosques, markets, public
squares, and baths, structured in a highly compact and dense
layout as shown in Figure 1. The traditional architecture of
the town is unique in its building form and layout, which rep-
resents a good pattern of well-sheltered spaces protected from
extreme and harsh climate conditions (Ealiwa 2000). Build-
ings are adjacent to each other, and such a vicinity creates a
pleasant environment, both socially and environmentally. The
pedestrian passages, semi-open, and shaded alleyways play an
important role in social interaction (Chojnacki 2003).
The new town is a modern urban structure built on a
plateau, southeast of the oasis, characterized by an open mas-
ter plan of rectangular plots and wide straight streets located
at a rather high altitude. Most buildings are isolated struc-
tures, detached and semi-detached with one or two stories.
The outdoor open spaces are distributed randomly in rather
large areas between buildings. Such an urban structure does
not offer shade for streets, which are heated quickly during the
day and surrounded by cold air overnight (Chojnacki 2003).
Residential building design in Ghadames
Old houses
The spatial design of the old houses demonstrates an out-
standing composition of variety of spaces graduated from
fully-shaded rooms on the ground level to exposed spaces on
the top floor, such as the kitchen. The house very often consists
of three stories, beginning with storage and a buffering zone
on the ground floor, then a central hall with a mezzanine level
for a number of bedrooms on the first floor, and finally the up-
per floor containing the kitchen and summer shed. All in all,
majority of houses stand wall-to-wall on four sides, with adja-
cent houses leaving small courts to light up the alleyways and
encourage air movement to ventilate internal spaces. Figure 2
shows a plan and section of traditional house.
 762
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Fig. 2. Plan and sections in old house in Ghadames (Ealiwa 2000).
© De Montfort University. Reproduced by permission of De
Montfort University. Permission to reuse must be obtained from
the rightsholder.
New houses
The new housing design predominantly consists of at most
one or two stories, with an average area of 200 m2 and plot
of 500 m2. External openings are increased in quantity and
size, and like Western houses, they include garages, outdoor
gardens, and separate stairs, as shown in Figure 3. These resi-
dential buildings were developed impetuously without under-
standing the local built environment or the community’s needs.
The field survey
Preliminary data were collected from field surveys in 8 old
buildings, representing 32 subjects. These surveys were car-
Fig. 3. Typical new house in Ghadames (Ealiwa 2000). © De
Montfort University. Reproduced by permission of De Mont-
fort University. Permission to reuse must be obtained from the
rightsholder.
HVAC&R Research
ried out in summer 2013 to investigate the common architec-
tural and operational issues in traditional desert architecture
in Ghadames. The number of buildings surveyed was limited
in this study due to the current situation and problems en-
countered in Libya. These houses are naturally ventilated and
remain unoccupied throughout the year apart from summer,
and they were selected to represent different locations in the
old town with slight differences in layout and size. Mean-
while, a subjective survey was employed by interviewing a
number of local residents who were living in the old town and
currently live in the new town, investigating their perception
toward the indoor microclimate and other aspects relating
to social and cultural needs. Given the impossibility of physi-
cally covering the entire sample frame or population in the old
town, a simple random sampling method has been employed
in obtaining the necessary data and information crucial to
the analysis, using random point sampling by drawing a grid
over a map developed by the local authority. This approach
ensured that the sample was unbiased and that each unit of
the population had an equal chance or probability of being
represented.
The Questionnaire
A group of 32 local residents were chosen to complete the
questionnaire as a preliminary study to (a) test the validity of
the questionnaire and (b) enable collecting data from respon-
dents concurrently with recording the environmental variables
(air temperature, surface temperature, globe temperature, air
velocity, and relative humidity). The questionnaire is divided
into seven sections discussing general and personal informa-
tion, sociocultural issues, thermal comfort and general impres-
sions of occupants, living indoor conditions and quality, ar-
chitectural design issues (interior and exterior contentment),
residents’ general feeling toward the built environment, and
occupants’ thermal sensation and preferences. All questions
have been translated into Arabic and randomly distributed
among a group of architects or professionals.
Equipment
To calculate the predicted mean vote (PMV), as presented
in ISO 7730, basic environmental parameters were measured
and two personal parameters were estimated. Air tempera-
tures were recorded using radiation-shielded thermocouple
(type T, copper/constant). These values were logged every 15
minutes, and average values were calculated every hour. All
records were taken in between 11:30 a.m. to 3:00 p.m. in July
2013. Air velocities were measured using an Omni-directional
anemometer. The mean globe temperatures were measured
using a standard globe thermometer, and mean radiant tem-
peratures were then calculated. The equipment used in this
study complies with the criteria given in Standard ISO 7726.
Relative humidity was calculated by recording dry- and wet-
bulb temperatures using the psychometric chart. Light meters
were used to record natural lighting levels.
 Volume 20, Number 7, October 2014
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Fig. 4. Natural ventilation and lighting in old house.
Findings
Environmental design and vernacular techniques
Natural ventilation and lighting
The site visit to a number of old houses, coupled with personal
observation and recording indoor environmental conditions,
led to significant understanding of the integration of natural
ventilation and lighting systems into buildings. The very
compact urban morphology of the old town aptly created
well-shaded indoor/outdoor environments while allowing
internal spaces to be naturally ventilated and lighted. Figure 4
illustrates how the old houses are ventilated and lighted
through mainly the uppermost aperture as well as small voids
located in different rooms that are often opened to small
light wells. It is observed that a cross-flow ventilation system
was applied in old houses during summer days, as shown in
Figure 4. At nighttime, the outdoor air temperature drops
creating, a reverse stack effect, where air enters the house
from the rooftop. There are porous and blind shutters used
to shut or open the uppermost void, depending on outdoor
climate conditions. Mirrors and hanging metal-crafts are
used in the living room to reflect and increase the amount of
light into surrounding rooms.
Heavy mass structure and microclimate
The thermal mass is an effective passive technique to reduce
heating or cooling loads in a building, particularly in hot
Fig. 6. Gravity-fed water system used in old town of Ghadames.
763
Fig. 5. Local construction materials.
arid climate architecture (Krüger et al. 2010). Ghadames’s
old dwellings adopted such a technique using local masonry
materials with thick walls and roofs up to 70 cm. The thermo-
physical properties of these constructional materials and the
way they were constructed effectively work as a bioclimatic
thermal modifier. In addition, these materials are well treated
before use in construction, such as maintaining the mixture
of molding mud bricks for a few weeks and sun drying. The
wood extracted from palm trees was also treated to ensure its
sustainability and avoide later invastion by insects. Old houses
were built using a bearing wall system. On the ground floor,
the walls are 60–70 cm thick and gradually decrease in thick-
ness on the first and second floors, approximately 30 cm on
the top floor. Roofs are the only exposed area of the house to
outdoor conditions; therefore, it was carefully treated to avoid
heat penetration. Thus, it is composed of a number of layers,
with a thickness of over 40 cm, as shown in Figure 5. The ther-
mophysical properties of the used materials are proved to be
thermally efficient. It has been found that the thermal conduc-
tivity of sun-dried clay bricks ranged from 0.2–1.8 W/(m.K),
gypsum 0.17 W/(m.K), and wood 0.13, on average. The spe-
cific heat of these materials are 0.20, 1.09, and 2.0 kJ/kg K,
respectively. All these factors as related to constructional ma-
terial properties, besides the building mass, play a key role in
providing pleasant indoor thermal conditions.
 764 HVAC&R Research

Table 1. Sample of measurements and occupants’ perception in a typical old house.

Air temperature, Surface temperature, Air velocity, Relative humidity Metabolic Clothing
Location Ta (◦ C) Tsur (◦ C) Va (m/s) (%) rate rate AMV PMV

Living room 32.2 31.7 0.04 40 1.0 0.55 0.71 2.12

Basement 29.2 28.1 0.02 58 1.2 0.55 0.42 1.30
Alleyway 30.7 28.3 0.5 49 1.45 0.55 0.285 1.51
Upper roof 38.6 39.1 0.65 26 1.4 0.55 2.30 4.13

Values were taken from ASHRAE (2013).

Water Architectural modeling

Eyin Alfaras, “the horse eye,” is a natural spring that the urban The urban morphology of Ghadames settlements
structure of the old town was built around as a key element
Compactness as an urban morphological structure became
for settlement existence in such a desert land. Figure 6 shows
a controversial approach for sustainable development in hot
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how local builders took advantage of the location of the water

climate regions; yet there is no agreement on the degree of
source, utilizing a gravity-fed system through sub-canals to
compactness that would deliver plausible quality for the in-
supply the whole city with clean water for domestic and non-
door environment. The urban typology of the old Ghadames
domestic use. Those canals pass underneath the three main
settlement is very compact to the extent that open courtyards
neighborhoods toward the farms, distributed efficiently with
are rarely found. All buildings are adjacent to each other, leav-
no waste for domestic and public facilities (mosques, public
ing small light wells between them. The 3D model was created
baths) and the surrounding green belt. However, the system
for part of a neighborhood in the old town, initially using
is not functionally limited at providing usable or drinkable
SketchUp software and then rendered using 3ds max 2013.
water; rather, it plays a major role in contributing to humid-
This model shows in detail how the whole urban fabric works
ify and cool the indoor air, particularly in summer. Such a
as one complex to protect the indoor environment from di-
phenomenon is obvious at the ground level, more specifically
rect exposure to outdoor extreme climate conditions. Figure 8
in alleyways. A sample of typical relative humidity and air
shows how dense the urban structure of old settlements is and
temperature values is shown in Table 1.
its relationship with the surrounding green belt.

The architectural design of old houses

Mutual shadowing and self-shading
The contiguity of houses minimizes the exposure to sun,
which, in turn, provides shade for people to rest, meet, and
walk comfortably, as it offers a high level of indoor/outdoor
privacy. Roofs are predominately the external facade exposed
to the sun where heat is greatly gained; therefore, it has dif-
ferent façade elevations to provide the mutual shading phe-
nomenon within the same house and between adjacent build-
ings, as shown in the SketchUp model in Figure 7. The kitchen
is placed on the roof to increase mutual shading and also to
dispose of heat and smoke outside the house.
Figure 9 illustrates the design principles behind constructing
an old Ghadamesian house. These architectural details show
how social life is valued, especially at the privacy level, where
women mainly use the upper floor paths to comfortably move
around buildings. Besides the minimal exposure to the sun, a
prudent use of land can clearly be seen.
The architectural design of new houses
Figure 10 shows a typical two-story house in the new city
consisting of an outdoor yard, three bedrooms, a kitchen, a
bathroom, and a living room. It is observed that these types

Fig. 7. Drawings of mutual building shadowing in old town.

 Volume 20, Number 7, October 2014
Fig. 8. 3D model of compact urban morphology of old settlements
of Ghadames.
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Fig. 9. Architectural details of old house.
765
of Western detached and semi-detatched houses are fully ex-
posed to the outdoor environment and do not respond to such
climate conditions or the social norms of the local community.
Actual measurements of physical environment
Indoor environmental conditions were measured in July
2013, coupled with a subjective survey examining occupants’
thermal perception as they were sitting in different locations
within the old town (living room, basement, alleyway, and
public shaded square). In summer, most people spend nights
sleeping on the roof; therefore, bedrooms were ignored in the
survey during this season. The thermal comfort scale used to
examine subjects’ thermal sensation has been widely applied
and is known as the actual mean vote (AMV), anchored
by +3 (hot) and –3 (cold), with 0 being a neutral feeling
 766
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Fig. 10. Architectural drawings of new house.
in the ASHRAE scale. The measurements of the four basic
environmental parameters were made ate the same time as
the respondants were completing the questionnaires; these
values were taken every 15 minutes, and average values were
calculated every hour. Each AMV value represents an average
vote of seven subjects. Outdoor air temperature was 38.6◦ C
with 26% relative humidity, while the alleyway and basement
were the coolest places at 30.7◦ C and 29.2◦ C with 49% and
58% relative humidity, respectively.
Subjective survey
The questionnaire was completed by 32 subjects (9 families
with an average of 3.5 members), representing 8 old buildings
and 9 new buildings, to compare their individual perception
toward the old and new built environments. The age of
subjects ranged from 18 to 63, almost 65% were between 30
to 45 years of age, and they overwhelmingly were educated
people. About 30% of respondents spent more than 10 years
in new houses with 76% of them living in one house;
meanwhile, more than 95% have a single family house in
new buildings. The average number of family members for
the samples chosen were 3.5, ranging from 1 to 9 persons,
while 75% numbered between 2 and 7. Old houses used
to have predominantly an average of between five and ten
HVAC&R Research
members. Table 1 shows that subjects were feeling neutral to
slightly warm, even when the indoor air temperature ranged
between 29◦ C and 32◦ C. It can be seen that there are clear
discrepancies between PMV and AMV. This shows that
Fanger’s model is invalid for accurately predicting the thermal
comfort in such environments; adaptation effects may explain
this. These results agree with Ealiwa et al.’s study (2001).
Social interaction and lifestyle
Results show that the majority of neighbors in the old town
were either relatives or descended from the same tribe. Sev-
enty percent of neighbors in the old town met daily, while 56%
met occasionally in new houses due to (a) change in lifestyle,
(b) independence in family life and dispersed urban housing
layout, and (c) no close relationship between neighbors. The
number of public facilities (schools, mosques, public squares
and baths, markets) inferred that 77% of respondents agreed
with their convenience and availability in the old town, but
15% did not agree, saying that a number of important public
facilities, such as hospitals and public transport, are not found.
In the new town, almost 62% of subjects are not satisfied with
the convenience and service of public facilities irrespective of
its availability. With regard to the privacy aspect, 81% totally
agree that the inner courtyard room in a traditional house is a
perfect private family space. The majority of people considers
 Volume 20, Number 7, October 2014
Fig. 11. Control of indoor environmental conditions.
traditional solutions, such as female uppermost paths, public
squares, and public baths, to be more practical for all kinds of
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social activities, as they maintain a high level of privacy (par-
ticularly for women), are safer areas for children to play in, and
are more convenient to practice cultural and religious rituals.
Indoor living conditions
Regarding natural ventilation and lighting system, old house
residents indicated that they prefer natural ventilation, which
is considered to be more important than natural lighting for
the majority of them, where natural lighting seemed to be a
neutrally important factor. Sixty-eight percent of respondents
voted to have a control of the amount of air and its velocity as
well as lighting via shutting or opening the uppermost floor
aperture, while 17% did not agree, vindicating their views to
the extreme outdoor conditions. Figure 11 indicates that a
considerable number of occupants in new houses was satisfied
to use artificial lighting and mechanical ventilation as long as
they are affordable and available throughout seasons.
In the new town, artificial lighting has to be used despite
the increase in large-sized external openings that are hardly
opened due to undesirable hot dusty wind in summer. The level
of noise was slightly higher in the new town, as respondents
voted on their dissatisfaction scale, which may be due to the
use of transportation and the changed rhythm of life. Figure 4
illustrates air movement and daylight access into buildings
Fig. 12. Architectural and operational issues in old and new houses of Ghadames.
767
either through alleyways or the small voids located in rooms
that opened to small light well courts showing the appropriate
selection of their locus. Figure 11 gives an indication that the
shadow level in the old town is higher, particularly outdoors, as
a result of mutual building shades between adjacent buildings.
On the other hand, occupants living in the new town were more
satisfied with the applicability of external openings (doors and
windows) in spite of being slightly used.
The Architectural Design and Operational System
It can be seen from Figure 12 that the majority of respondents
is happy with the new interior design and layout of new houses
and considered them to be more efficient and compatible
for new their lifestyle. Almost 75% agreed that old houses
in general have a high level of privacy for residents due to
the full segregation between genders and minimum visual
exposure to outdoors. Nevertheless, subjects indicated that
window blinds in modern house have to be shut most of the
time because of glare severity and scorching sun during the
day and the to avoid impinging family privacy by outsiders.
Nevertheless, the design of modern windows and doors is
preferred in terms of eye aesthetics and usability. Fifty-eight
percent of respondents consider the outdoor yard of the new
house as a suitable playground for only short periods of time
in the year; thus, it is infrequently used by the family as it
lacks privacy. Meanwhile, a minority (22%) implied that such
 768
an outdoor yard has great function, which provides a degree
of privacy as semi-private family space.
Nonetheless, the majority of respondents (85%) agreed that
the layout of the old house, particularly the function of the
indoor yard (living room), plays a key role in daily family life
but does not meet today’s community needs. With regard to
landscape design, 64% of respondents did not agree with the
availability of green public squares and the use of public and
private parking in the new town, especially in summer time,
as they are neither convenient enough nor well designed to be
used on hot days. Furthermore, almost all subjects indicated
that pedestrians were not taken into account in the urban
street design of the new town. Construction materials play a
great function in maintaining the indoor microclimate within
the comfort zone, considering its thermal mass behavior that
delays heat transfer into interiors for almost 11 hours.
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Thermal sensation and personal preference
The objective survey only took place in the old town and
was carried out through interviews rather than questionnaires
due to (a) the difficulty to switch air conditioning off for in-
vestigation at new houses due to extreme outdoor conditions
and (b) the main focus was on investigating the architectural
and operational issues in traditional architecture in such cli-
mate conditions. In old houses, in “living rooms” with natural
lighting and ventilation, subjects were assessed in terms of
their thermal perceprtion toward their indoor environmental
conditions. Figure 13 indicates that most subjects felt neutral
to slightly warm. However, the survey showed from the prefer-
ence scale that 68% of residents prefer to be cooler and 30% did
not want change in their indoor thermal environment. Each
point in Figure 13 represents an average of seven respondents.
Occupants’ general impressions toward surrounding built
environment
A number of variables affected the occupants’ levels of satis-
faction toward their houses in both old and new buildings. In
general, subjects are satisfied with the design of new houses re-
garding house layout, the size of rooms, circulation, windows
and doors, infrastructure, and utilities (electricity and water
supply), as shown in Figure 12. Meanwhile, the majority were
dissatisfied with these variables in old buildings. On the other
hand, there are certain elements that satisfied occupants in
relation to traditional buildings, including the affordability of
Fig. 13. Subjects thermal sensation in old houses.
HVAC&R Research
houses, energy consumption, indoor thermal conditions, con-
structional materials, lifestyle and social interaction, and the
entrenched identity of the locally built environment.
Discussion and conclusion
This study examined the environmental performance of desert
architecture and operational techniques employed in housing
in Ghadames, Libya. Preliminary surveys were conducted in
summer 2013 to investigate the locally built environment in
terms of building physics, users’ thermal perception, and gen-
eral satisfaction. The core of this study is to understand the
capability of locally built architecture to provide a platform
from which to neatly integrate good architectural and oper-
ational techniques into new housing designs. The following
conclusions can be derived from the study.
1. The disparity in the architectural design of old and new
Ghadames housing can be clearly seen as a significant
element in approaching occupant comfort. The design
of new houses was shown to be preferable for residents
with regard to house layout, size of rooms and openings,
number of rooms and stories, infrastructure, and utilities
as compared to that in old houses. On the other hand, the
majority of respondents was satisfied with the architectural
style and inherited traditional elements, the level of noise
and shaded places, and the availability and convenience
of public social facilities, such as public baths, squares,
mosques, markets, and public shaded sittings. The design
of unity and similarity in building shape, form, size, layout,
materials, and texture and the distribution of elements
in the old town created one complex structure in which
individual buildings are difficult to distinguish. This
monolithic form has great impact on the local community
social structure. The building typology adopted in old
dwellings showed an efficient use of land, as the building
lot of an old house is less than 50 m2, while a plot of
500 m2 was allocated for each house in the new town.
2. The findings of field surveys concerned with indoor
living conditions and thermal environment showed that
operational issues were preferable in old houses; natural
ventilation and availability of day lighting, viability of
local construction materials, indoor thermal conditions,
and energy efficiency strategy were among those issues.
Meanwhile, new houses indicated the energy-profligate
lifestyle of residents to the extent that occupants would not
intolerate switching off the air conditioning even during
the field surveys. The AMV was used to assess people’s
thermal perception toward the indoor microclimate, which
showed plausible results. The PMV scale was denoted to
be invalid for assessing human thermal comfort in such
climate conditions, and adaptation effects may explain this.
Occupants highly consider the vernacular built environ-
ment as a good example of human settlements sustained
for a long period of time and providing inhabitable shelters
that aptly adapt to extreme climate conditions. Yet, the
study inferred that locals acclimated to surrounding
conditions in the old town despite low relative humidity
levels and rather high temperatures. Furthermore, new
 Volume 20, Number 7, October 2014
housing development should take into consideration the
most environmental restraints inhabitants confront with
outdoor conditions by integrating passive architectural
solutions to lessen the effect of such barriers.
3. Results also indicated that social interaction has deterio-
rated with the advent of Western-style architecture due to
several factors, such as inferior privacy level, lack of con-
gruence at the urban structure scale leading to socioeco-
nomic stratification in communities, and detached housing
having repercussions upon local lifestyle. In light of such
understanding, old settlements in Ghadames fulfilled the
sociocultural needs of the local community, paying spe-
cial attention to indoor and outdoor privacy. The capa-
bility and applicability of both old and new Ghadames
housing to meet today’s community needs were evaluated.
In general, neither traditional nor modern architecture in
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Ghadames city fully met local community needs. Thus, the
harness and integration of the passive design features of
indigenous architecture into new housing designs in an ex-
pedient way could lead to radical transformation toward
sustainable development in Ghadames and, similarly, to
the architecture in hot climate regions.
4. Finally, the 3D virtual model of the old town brought a
clear understanding of the nature of the traditionally built
environment and community lifestyle. The model repre-
sents only part of the neighborhood due to time limita-
tions and the difficulty in surveying such compact and
complex settlements. It demonstrates the building struc-
ture, typology, materials, and compactness degree as well
as space organization and distribution of old dwellings.
This research concluded with a number of significant find-
ings that explore the relationship between building physics,
occupants’ behavior, and the built environment. The socio-
cultural aspect of the local community has a great impact
on the distribution and organization of space at both the
building and city scale. Thus, the outcomes of this study
would benefit architects in producing building designs that
would promote human comfort, social-cultural sustainabil-
ity, and occupant preferences while minimizing energy con-
sumption using passive design strategies learned from the
vernacular architecture.
Acknowledgment
The work could not have been achieved without the assistance
of local people in Ghadames who not only participated in
769
the work but also offered a generous hospitality during the
field visit. Special thanks go to Mr. Nabil Al-Sharif for his
assistance over the whole visit to the city and also to the
volunteer subjects involved in this work.
Funding
This work has been financially supported by the Libyan Min-
istry of Higher Education, and the authors appreciate their
support.
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