ZEMCH 2015 - International Conference Proceedings | Page 401

International Conference | Bari - Lecce, Italy Session V - VI SUSTAINABILITY IN NATURE: LESSONS FOR YAS ISLAND HOUSING COMMUNITY IN ABU DHABI Nada El Bana1, Marwa Yousuf1 & Hasim Altan1 1 Sustainable Design of the Built Environment, Faculty of Engineering & IT, The British University in Dubai, Dubai, UAE, [email protected] / [email protected] / [email protected] Abstract While the United Arab Emirates is leading in urbanization, Abu Dhabi is growing exceptionally faster. With the increase of developments, sustainable measures are the most neglected when it comes to design and procurement of building projects. Yas Island housing community is a mass development consisting of 488 villas in Abu Dhabi. Considering the summer season temperatures reaching around 35 degrees Celsius, the project failed in tackling problems that could improve the residents’ thermal comfort both indoors and outdoors. However, in order to come up with a creative solution, yet a functioning design, mimicking nature, e.g. a group of insects, and how they adapt according to environmental conditions, could well be the key to innovation and well-founded solutions. Termite Mounds, i.e. mound-building termites, have a fascinating yet complicated structure that brings all the termites into mounds that could be referred to as a city in nature. The main advantages of studying termite mounds are their structure, materials, strategies, ventilation system, orientation, and lighting tactics that could lead to energy savings, if implemented correctly. In the paper, a community housing scheme has been studied and its performance is assessed through computer simulations in terms of daylighting and ventilation strategies. The aim of this study is to assess a natural living organism and to mimic its greatest mechanism for improving a selection of 14 villas within a sustainable community that could be carried out on a mass scale for the future developments. Whilst this paper mainly focuses on sustainable developments in the UAE, it could be also argued that many of its outcome is of relevance to several countries and regions, especially those of the same social and harsh environmental conditions like the UAE’s. Keywords Sustainable Development, Biomimicry, Termite Mound, Ventilation, Daylighting, Shading System 399