A Discussion of the Application’s Possibility of the Earth-Sheltered Building Type in Egypt: Implementation Guidelines

Abstract

The Earth-sheltered building type is spreading all over the world in the last decade as an eco-friendly building’s style, and as a passive energy saving technique. Most previous researches regarding this type are discussing the energy savings’ and measuring the “heating/cooling loads” reduction extent. This research is discussing the subject from the urban point of view, and the application’s possibility for the housing projects in the Egyptian deserts. Adopting the quantitative method followed by the qualitative analysis; the research quantified the results of a questionnaire survey, and used the chi-square test to analyze the significant results, in order to be able to generalize the results to the community. Followed by some urban design considerations and applicable recommendations related to this type according to the questionnaire survey results. The practical discussion argued the application’s possibility at the housing sector in the Egyptian deserts through discussing the motives behind thinking of the application in the housing sector at the Egyptian deserts; and the application’s optimal performance constraints. The research recommends using this type of buildings for housing in the developing projects of the new communities in the Egyptian western deserts, like ”Toshka”. Moreover, in the new touristic resorts, and in the small and middle-sized projects.