Sustainable architecture, interactions and mutual relations: a case study of residential building facades

This paper examines the design of the facades used on the residential buildings at the Masdar Institute of Science and Technology (MIST) campus. MIST is the first stage in the construction of Masdar City, a large-scale sustainable project sited in the United Arab Emirates (UAE). The sustainable considerations on which the project is based are inspired by vernacular practices blended with modern technologies, a combination that targets specific climatic and cultural aims while taking into account the arid and harsh environment and also aligning design parameters with local needs. Through these considerations and responses, the paper highlights the residential building facades as important sustainable design strategies due to the fact that they envelope buildings and protect their units. Based on passive vernacular practices, they impact buildings and units in terms of cooling, shading, and lighting, meaning that an efficient design can reduce the energy requirements and reliance on active systems and similar modern technologies. The aim of the paper is to follow the interactions and mutual relations between the designers, the developers, and the users, which is accomplished through discussing the extent to which the design of the facades as a sustainable strategy is in line with their use. Based on a qualitative, inductive approach, the conducted research utilises interviews and site observations with the main contributors. It is argued that the results of this study show that sustainable design strategies are complex and contested, as they are not merely imposed by designers and developers; they are further negotiated by the users, who can reveal unexpected opinions on design aspects that result in redesigns taking place. In other words, design is not just a response to what designers or developers intend or desire, but also to what the users want and thus is adaptive to their requirements as well.