Reducing Energy Consumption Strategies in University Buildings in Egypt

Abstract

Egyptian universities had the most powerful buildings that encourage sustainable development. Sustaining university buildings had been the main concern, thus the development focused on different aspects (social, sociological, bio-life, physical, healthy surroundings, etc.). In recent times, the main problem facing university buildings has been the high consumption of energy despite the low performance. This problem affected the interior areas and spaces used by the majority of students. The issue hindered the learning environment—which should be designed to facilitate high academic performance—from achieving its purpose. Fixing the problem required finding the errors applied in the planning policy, in order to integrate low energy consumption with high performance. This paper analyzes the design strategy, low energy design strategy, and its analysis systems in order to integrate them with the analysis of four case studies in comparative methodology. This approach helps in achieving effective observation to implement principles, policy, criteria, and strategies. The method of the paper shall help with coming up with an efficient vision to create the integrated design strategy for constructing university buildings in Egypt. The solution is characterized by low-cost energy consumption that is applicable to the conditions in Egypt and is in synchronization with sustainability as a whole vision.