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Applying Zero Carbon Architecture Strategies to Mitigate Climate Change in

the Middle East and North Africa (MENA)

Article · January 2017

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Applying Zero Carbon Architecture Strategies to Mitigate

Climate Change in the Middle East and North Africa (MENA)

Seyedeh Mahsa Ghamkhar1, Seyedeh Melika Ghamkhar2

1- Master’s degree of Architecture, The Department of Architecture at Tabriz Islamic art University,
Bachelor’s degree of Civil Engineering, University of Tehran, mahsaghamkhar@yahoo.com

2- Master of Architecture Student, Shahid Beheshti University, melikaghamkhar@gmail.com

Corresponding author email: mahsaghamkhar@yahoo.com

Abstract

Climate change, as a hazardous phenomenon threats the quality of life deleteriously. This dangerous challenge which has
emerged as one of the significant results of modern era, can become a grave problem in future years. In fact, this global
issue has appeared as a direct consequence of misapplication of industry and emission of greenhouse gasses (GHG). Today,
MENA (Middle East and North Africa) is a vulnerable region which is seriously in danger of climate change. The barren
lands and wide deserts in combination with low annual precipitation and incessant air and water pollutions caused by the
industrial activities of developing countries in this region has influenced the climate of MENA adversely. In this study the
expected impacts of climate change on this region are investigated.
Zero carbon architecture as a pioneer potent architectural style which can mitigate the perilous effects of climate change is
profoundly investigated in this paper. Furthermore, numerous functional architectural solutions which are compatible with
MENA climate are described for decreasing greenhouse gases and eliminating fossil fuel consumption for buildings’
operations. Also, multiple instances indicate that applying active and passive green architecture principals will hinder
climate change detrimental effects.

Keywords: Climate Change, MENA, Zero Carbon Architecture, Zero Net Carbon, Greenhouse Gases
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1. INTRODUCTION

Climate change as a proceeding disaster of new era adversely impacts on many aspects of life on the earth such
as ecosystem, water reservoirs, human’s health, social and economic issues. Therefore, the earth will undergo a
crucial condition if the governments do not pay ape attention to this issue and do not prepare adequate
functional schemes in order to prevent its progress. Noticeable increase in temperature, changing the amount of
precipitations, drought and drying lands are the consequences of global warming and climate change.[1] Main
causes of climate changes are categorized as below:
1.1. Greenhouse effect
The greenhouse effect which is the direct result of greenhouse gases emissions makes the atmosphere keep heat.
Greenhouse gases (GHG), such as water vapor (H2O), carbon dioxide (CO2), methane (CH4) and nitrous oxide
(N2O) absorb the entering heat and avert it to come back to space. In fact, these gases act like a blanket which
prevents heat from evading to space which leads to global warming and climate change. Already these
greenhouse gases are abundantly released by nature and industrial activities of mankind. For instance, CO2 is
one of the conspicuous greenhouse gas which takes part in climate change. CO2 is emitted naturally via carbon
cycle by human and animal respiration, volcanic eruptions and etc. it is also produced by human activities such
as applying fossil fuels (coal, natural gas, oil, gasoline, diesel) in industry and ordinary life. Fossil fuels are
mostly applied in generating electricity, transportation, industrial activities and residential- commercial usage.
Furthermore, certain land use changes such as deforestation, land clearing for agricultural activities and
degradation of soils emit CO2 too. Already the human activities emit more than 30 billion tons of CO2 into the
atmosphere yearly. The present CO2 amount in the earth’s atmosphere is more than it has been in 800000 years.
[1] H2O vapor is the most frequent greenhouse gas existing in the earth’s atmosphere which plays a pivotal role
in greenhouse effect. CH4 is another blatant heat-trapping gas which is produced by both nature and human
activities. Wet lands, agricultural activities, transportation systems, excavation of fossil fuels, residential usage
of natural gas and biomass burning release large amounts of methane. In spite of being more transitory than
carbon dioxide, methane is more effective in trapping heat through atmosphere. Also, N2O as a prevalent
greenhouse gas is released by applying fertilizers in agricultural activities and biomass burning.
1.2. Aerosols
Particles and aerosols in the atmosphere which are produced both by nature (such as volcano eruption and
marine plankton) and human activities (such as combustion of fossil fuels and burning biomass) are
contributing in global warming and climate change. For instance black carbon (BC) is one of the solid particles
which increases the snow’s absorption of sunlight and plays as a catalyst in melting the snow.
1.3. Reflectivity
The amount of reflected or absorbed sun light effects on the entering energy to the planet’s system. The amount
of reflected solar radiation depends on the earth surface and the atmosphere. In fact, light-colored surfaces and
objects such as snow, clouds and light-colored building facades reflects large amounts of sun light to space
while the dark-colored surfaces and objects such as oceans, forests, soil and dark-colored building facades
absorb more sun radiations which leads to warm earth’s land, water and atmosphere.

2. Climate Change Impacts on MENA

Climate change in MENA (Middle East and North Africa) is a potent hazard which can alter the region to a
barren lifeless land by dwindling water resources, expanding arid lands and increasing temperature. Greenhouse
gases emission and land surface changes induce climate change which leads to increase temperature, reduce
annual precipitation and shrink the water reservoirs. In fact, global warming as a direct result of climate change
adversely impacts on hydrological cycle which leads to lack of water and famine. [2] Already, many parts of
MENA are experiencing drought such as Zayandeh-rud, a semi-arid river basin located in Isfahan-Iran which
has been dried in the past few years. [3] MENA inherently combats lack of water resources drastically due to its
location on the earth and the exacerbating results of climate change will aggravate its environmental condition
as a habitable place. [4]
According to jeopardizing effects of climate change in MENA which includes both environmental and social
problems, applying functional solutions in order to deter malign results is required. Notwithstanding global
endorsements and governmental endeavors the climate change is a critical issue yet which needs to be taken
under consideration seriously. Climate change combating requires a strong cooperation between governments,
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civil engineers, water resource specialists, architects, designers, investors and individuals as the habitants on the
earth.

3. Zero Carbon Architecture

Applying innovative zero carbon architectural strategies in MENA can intensely reduce the hazardous impacts
of climate change in this region. Since buildings are significant participants in both producing greenhouse gases
and reflecting solar radiates into space, architectural solutions for reduction of GHG emissions corresponded to
building industry and augment of sun light reflection mitigate the catastrophic climate change results. Actually,
building operations consume various types of energy intensely and improvement of life standards and
population growth beside the aggravating effects of global warming and climate change increase energy
consumption in this field noticeably. Already buildings energy consumption release approximately 33% of total
annual CO2 emission. [5] Therefore, applying efficient strategies which reduce the energy consumption in
building industry from the excavation phase to operation and maintenance period is an urgent need. Zero carbon
architectural strategies enhance reducing energy consumption, decreasing GHG emission and increasing sun
light reflection by means of both passive and active systems. The most important strategy in designing zero
carbon buildings is to design buildings which do not demand fossil fuels during their life time in order to
prevent GHG emission.
Zero carbon architecture plays a pivotal role in saving the environment for next generations by designing and
constructing sustainable ecosystem-friendly buildings and infrastructure facilities. Paying precise attention to
energy-based challenges of buildings is as significant as paying attention to building aesthetics in zero carbon
architecture style. The earth belongs to all of us, therefore all of us have responsibility in guarding our planet.
Regardless of being passive or active, any architectural strategy which enhances decreasing CO2 emission
without damaging the environment is considered as a zero carbon architectural strategy. Zero carbon
architecture strategies and technologies are ecosystem-friendly and do not harm the environment being durable
enough to be applied for many years. Zero carbon architecture strategies are categorized as below:

3.1. Eco Design

Echo design relates to all types of sustainable design strategies which provide building required energy via
passive systems without damaging the environment. The main objective of applying passive strategies in
designing a building is to reduce the need of consuming energy for initial requirements such as heating, cooling
and ventilation as much as possible. MENA consists of many developing countries which are challenging
serious economic and social problems due to their augmented population and scarce natural resources. On the
other hand lack of water reservoirs, dryness, increasing temperature and calamitous consequences of climate
change and global warming exacerbate MENA’s general condition. Therefore echo design as a low cost
architectural strategy can help reducing electricity or fossil fuel requirement for building energy-consuming
operations such as heating, cooling, ventilation and illumination. Some of the architectural passive strategies
which are adaptive to MENA’s hot arid climate and prevent unnecessary energy consumption are described
below:

3.1.1. Wind Scoop (Wind Catcher)

A wind catcher, as its name denotes, is a sustainable architectural element which induces efficient natural
ventilation in a hot climate. It is designed to catch the wind in dominant direction and release fresh air into the
building along its vertical shaft. In fact, wind catchers are functional building components in modifying heath
and adjusting temperature due to their passive operating system which reduce the high demands of energy
consumption for active ventilation in a building intensely. Figure 1 shows the vernacular type of wind catchers
located in Dubai- United Arab Emirates which are constructed on roof tops in order to ventilate the air naturally.
Applying wind catchers in arid climates such as MENA requires taking both vernacular and sustainable
architectural disciplines under consideration. Wind catchers should be designed multi-directional when there is a
possibility of blowing wind in various directions. Experimental wind tunnel studies on multi-directional wind
catchers in Yazd-Iran demonstrates that two-sided wind catchers have the most efficient performance. Also this
investigations indicate that the wind catchers with rectangular cross sections operate much more effective than
any other geometrical shape. [6,7] Figure 2 shows the high-tech designed wind catcher located in Masdar City-
United Arab Emirates (a zero carbon city in MENA) which is a conspicuous symbol of sustainable modern
designed wind catcher.
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Figure 1. Traditional wind catchers in Dubai-UAE and Figure 2. Modern high-tech wind catcher in Dubai-UAE

3.1.2. Double Skin Façade (DSF)

Double skin facades are applied in order to avoid solar radiations and prevent entering undesirable heat into the
buildings. This strategy enhances the building to experience a mitigated entering heat in hot climates like
MENA. In fact, in this method the environment-facing skin of the building performs as an obstacle against
direct sun light. Furthermore, the space between two doubled skins of the façade helps natural ventilation of the
building. The outer skin of the façade can be designed in diverse patterns and different materials such as glass,
brick and PTFE while the inner one is frequently composed of glass in order to provide proper site view. Figure
3 shows the responsive double skin façade of Al Bahar tower in Abu Dhabi- United Arab Emirates. The exterior
layer consists of 1000 umbrella-shape shading devices and is programmed to open and close during the day in
order to adjust the entering sun light. Beside the obvious advantages such as reducing glare and modifying day
light penetration, this smart double skin façade decreases 50% solar radiation gain which leads to reduction of
CO2 emission by 1750 tons annually. Figure 4 shows the filtered entering sun light of Al Bahar tower. [8]

Figure 3. Double skin façade of Al Bahar Tower in UAE and Figure 4. Shading layer of Al Bahar tower facade

3.1.3. Stack Ventilation

A natural cross ventilation system which improves thermal building condition without applying electricity or
fossil fuel is stack ventilation. This system which relies on an event called suction effect, enhances the building
to be ventilated by pulling out the exhausted interior air through a cowl toward the external wind direction. [9]
Therefore the interior space experiences a cooler air unless applying energy consuming air conditioners. The
suction effect efficiency almost depends on wind condition (direction and intensity), cowl design and flow rate.
[7] Figure 5 illustrates the heat circulation in Masdar headquarter building located in Masdar City- United Arab
Emirates which is a zero carbon emission and zero waste building in MENA. This building consists on eleven
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wind cones operating as coolers and ventilators. These cones also provide alleviated entering sun light into the
building. Figure 6 shows the interior space of Masdar headquarter building and one of its wind cones.

Figure 5. Heat circulation of Masdar headquarter building via wind cones – UAE and Figure 6. Entering day light via
a wind cone in Masdar headquarter building

3.1.4. Green Roofs and Green Walls

Gardening outside and inside the buildings from basements and parking lot to roofs and terraces is a prominent
sustainable strategy to offset the hazardous effects of greenhouse gases. Plants use sun light energy, carbon
dioxide and water in order to produce glucose and release oxygen through photosynthesis process. In fact, in a
particular area the more photosynthesis process is equivalent to more oxygen and less carbon dioxide. Figure 7
shows applying plants in Masdar headquarter zero carbon building which performs as a microclimate. Plants
can be used in numerous sectors of a building such as roofs, front yards, back yards, terraces, stair cases,
parking lots and interior spaces. Also, green walls and flower boxes can be utilized in interior parts of the
buildings in order to filter the air components and release fresh air. MENA, due to its intrinsic dryness
intensively demands green places in order to purify the air and neutralize adverse effects of greenhouse gases
emission. Figure 8 demonstrates applying plants in designing interior parts in residential spaces which leads to
decrease CO2 and filter the exhausted air.

Figure 7. Applying green plants as a microclimate in Masdar headquarter building in Masdar City-UAE and Figure
8. Applying green plants in interior parts of a residential space

3.2. Applying Renewable Energy Sources

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3.2.1. Photovoltaic Ventilated Façade

Photovoltaic ventilated façade is an emerging zero carbon façade system which provides electricity supplements
for buildings without applying fossil fuels nor emitting greenhouse gases. This system is entirely sound and
efficient to be applied in MENA as a hot land with yearly excessive amounts of sun radiations. Figure 9 shows
the Lighthouse tower located in Dubai-United Arab Emirates which is the tallest building in the world holding
LEED platinum status that is the foremost rating in Green Building Council Program. This building’s façade is
composed of panels holding approximately 6000 photovoltaic units which generate average of 700000 Kwh
energy per year. The amount of producible electricity via this system varies between 20-40 KW/H in one square
meter depending on the façade orientation, building location and applied photovoltaic techniques which is
sufficient to illumination of 10000 hours of a 20w light bulb. Furthermore, this efficiency will increase
intensively by devising the optimum orientation and angels of façade surfaces or utilizing automatically
adjustable solar panels or photovoltaic glasses which track the sun path during the day. Therefore an adequate
design of photovoltaic façade can provide the whole required electricity energy for a building’s operations.
Figure 10 demonstrates applying photovoltaic glasses as the main component of façade design in a four story
building. Figure 11 shows solar panels located on the façade structure which are programmed to rotate during
the day in order to track the sun. Also these solar panels perform as shading devices to reduce the entering sun
light during the day.

Figure 9. Photovoltaic façade of the Lighthouse tower-UAE and Figure 10. Photovoltaic façade of a four story
building and Figure 11. Solar panels applied to generate electricity and filter the day light

The photovoltaic façade systems conclude both solar panels attached to the façade structure and photovoltaic
glasses as curtain walls or double skin façade. Photovoltaic glasses are produced in various types such as
photovoltaic transparent glasses, colored photovoltaic glasses, laminated safety glasses, double glazed insulated
units, triple glazed insulation units and multifunctional photovoltaic glasses with different optical and thermal
properties and diverse patterns. For instance it is possible to design and construct towers and high rise buildings
which have photovoltaic curtail walls. Also, photovoltaic facades can be designed and constructed as a
combination of glass, metal and photovoltaic flexible films which are manufactured as thin as possible.
Therefore, applying photovoltaic facades in MENA can become an efficient way to generate required electricity
for building operations. Also this abundant expected amount of energy is potent enough to supply energy for
other human activities without needing fossil fuels combustion.

3.2.2. Wind Turbine Equipment

Wind power as a potent renewable energy source can produce electricity via wind turbine equipment. Therefore,
applying wind turbines beside solar panel systems and photovoltaic systems is an efficient sustainable way of
producing energy without emission of greenhouse gases. This green strategy can be utilized in MENA to
transfer the power of hot winds to electricity. As an architectural point of view, it is necessary to combine
aesthetic factors with technical facts before designing a sustainable zero carbon building. Otherwise the earth
planet alters to a garage of colossal wind turbines and solar panels which compel the bitter sense of violent
environment to its habitants. In fact, as the zero carbon architecture and sustainable design grow rapidly, the
need to collaborate aesthetic parameters and advanced technologies become more obvious. Figure 12
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demonstrates the Bahrain world trade center located in Bahrain which applies three giant wind turbines with
29m span in order to generate average amount of 1300 Mwh energy per year that is equivalent to energy
consumed for 55000 kg CO2 emission. [11] Figure 13 shows the enormous revolving wind turbines of BWTC
which are located on bridges between two towers. These turbines taking advantage of 70% of Bahrain’s wind
power provide about 11 to 15 percent of the electricity required for the tower operations.

Figure 12. Wind turbines located on bridges on Bahrain World Trade Center in Bahrain and Figure 13. Wide span
wind turbines which provide 11 to 15 percent of required electricity of the BWTC tower

4. CONCLUSIONS

There is an urgent need to mitigate climate change and global warming all over the world. Climate change has
emerged as a terrible global problem which impacts on life quality on the earth adversely. MENA (Middle East
and North Africa) which consists of numerous developing countries is considered as a vulnerable part of the
earth which is threatened intensely by the hazardous effects of climate change. Lack of water reservoirs, large
deserts and arid lands, annual low participation, rising average temperature, water pollution, air pollution and
overall dryness as environmental obstacles in combination with social problems such as growing population has
converted the climate change to a deleterious catastrophe. Therefore, combating this detrimental event is
obviously necessary. Since climate change is a consequence of modern life and industrialization, then it
demands a global effort to be eliminated. Notwithstanding many official and unofficial endeavors which has
been done to alleviate the dangerous impacts of climate change, much more coordination between different
parts of the societies is required to achieve effective results.
Architecture as an impressive and significant part in building industry, can play a determinative role in
restriction of climate change. Today, Zero Carbon Architecture, as a pioneering efficient architectural style
presents evolutionary ecosystem-friendly strategies which lead to decrease energy consumption in buildings
during their life time. The zero carbon architectural solutions as their name indicate, intensely enhance to
restrict greenhouse gases emission. These sustainable efficient solutions are classified in two categories: passive
strategies and active strategies. Both passive and active energy-based solutions are advantageous in reducing
energy consumption and decreasing GHG emissions. The zero carbon architectural strategies which are
compatible to MENA’s climate include applying wind catchers, double skin façade, stack ventilation, green
roofs and green walls, photovoltaic building façade and in-site wind turbines.

11. REFERENCES

1. Stocker, T.F., D. Qin, G.-K. Plattner, M. Tignor, S.K. Allen, J. Boschung, A. Nauels, Y. Xia, V. Bex
and P.M. Midgley (2013). Climate Change 2013: The Physical Science Basis. Contribution of Working
Group I to the Fifth Assessment Report of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, Cambridge
University Press, Cambridge, United Kingdom and New York, NY, USA.

2. Sowers, J., Vengoosh, A., Weinthal, E., 2011, Climate change, water resources, and the politics
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of adaptation in the Middle East and North Africa, Climatic Change, doi:10.1007/s10584-010-9835-4,
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3. Madani, K., Miguel A, M., 2009, System Dynamics Analysis for Managing Iran’s Zayandeh-Rud
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5. Kamal, A., F., 2012, An Overview of Passive Cooling Techniques in Buildings: Design Concepts and
Architectural Interventions, Civil Engineering & Architecture, Volume 55
6. Mahmoudi Zarandi, M., 2009, Analysis on Iranian Wind Catcher and Its Effect on Natural Ventilation
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