Developing sustainable design guidelines for roof design in a hot arid climate

Employing passive design of main building elements; materials and techniques have significant impact on buildings' sustainable performance. Accordingly, the researchers conducted an iterative sequence of validated simulations to investigate the effect of employing three different types of roof design principles on energy consumption and carbon emissions of residential buildings in three different climatic zones in Egypt; hot humid, moderate humid and hot arid. The three investigated design principles were chosen according to literature as follows; (a) applying reflective painting to reduce the amount of solar heat gain on outer roof surfaces, (b) using green roof for additive layers of insulation and (c) changing the inclination angle of roof planes. The results indicated that the former provided the optimum solution in all three climatic zones. Concluding remarks provide dual-tier benefit; for design decisions, furthermore, it can be integrated into local building codes.