Towards Sustainable Housing: Sample Design Strategies for Gaza

Abstract

In the light of successive wars against Gaza since, it has suffered from unprecedented destruction, with tens of thousands of housing units either severely damaged or completely demolished. The humanitarian crisis has intensified, prompting urgent calls for sustainable and context-sensitive reconstruction solutions. This paper aims to present an alternative design proposal for units that were completely destroyed in the strip taking in account the environmental, climatic, social, cultural issues of Gaza’s community. The methodology adopted a module of unit formed from four L- shape buildings which are forming a central courtyard between; each unit is linked with the neighboring units by a main and a secondary axis to facilitate movement from and between. Then a simulation of the proposed design was made on Design Builder software to verify the design approach. The results of the analysis confirmed the positive effect of the passive techniques used in the design such as the courtyard, the wind catcher and the mashrabiya.