Landscape Architecture for Micro-climate Improvement and Energy Conservation

In Egypt, high temperatures, humidity and dusty hot winds lead to excessive discomfort for people. Contemporary designers do not integrate landscape architecture as a way to improve the micro climate of the outdoor built environment, in addition to the inappropriate use of energy resources ,while in Egypt’s hot arid climates, it is essential to ameliorate the microclimate in an energy efficient way. Landscape architects must fully understand that Egypt has one of the harshest and most limiting environments on earth. Therefore, the role of landscape architect is essential in creating a more favourable outdoor environment for people with regard to their inner living space: adequate shade, cooler temperatures, light breezes, protection from glare and wind blown sand. The main aim of this thesis was to provide landscape architects with design principals and design guidelines to improve the microclimate and conserve energy in Egypt. The thesis could be described as horizontal overview that describes historical and recent design solutions that tackle with the problem of aridity and resources scarcity. The research was guided by a design problem that was intended to steer the research in order to come out with the knowledge needed in correspondence to the design problem. The location of the case study or design was in Egypt’s eastern desert and the selection was made based in the aridity and harshness of the project location. This study was divided into 6 parts: (1) Research Design, (2) Background, (3) Lessons from historical landscape design examples, (4) Contemporary Landscape design principals and guidelines, (5) Case Study and (6) Conclusion.