People in the Middle East have understood that privacy and protection from the intense heat outside go hand in hand. The mashrabiya is an ancient Arab invention to passively cool buildings and keep strangers from looking in. But not all of us can invest in architecture additions. Or frosted glass. And when there is a heat way or instant privacy needed, no need to go far. You can use a Scandinavian trick that puts a few coats of yoghurt on your windows to create a fritted or frosted glass appearance.

The yoghurt is easy to apply with a small roller brush, it doesn’t smell, it doesn’t attract insects, it doesn’t degrade and it can be washed off simply with a cloth and water once the heatwave (or your privacy issues) are over. It’s a also a cheap and easy solution if you are renting or are allergic to dust from heat blocking curtains.

This is one of many cooling DIY solutions. You can also plant moss if you want to grow some more passive insulation on the side of your home. 

How to make yoghurt-coated frosted glass:

1. Buy sugar free Greek yoghurt – the higher the fat content the better. Oak yoghurt works. If you use a lower fat content, the effect will be more opaque.
2. Map out section of window that you want to frost. You can take out straight lines, heart shapes, or buy stickers or stencils to map out your design.

1. Roll on 2 or 3 coats of yoghurt on the inside of your window. (You can also use the exterior side if you live in an area that doesn’t get extensive rain.) It is possible to dab on the yoghurt with a sponge.
2. When dry and you have achieved your desired effect, pull away your tape and stencils and voila!
3. When dry you can scratch out designs as well using a hard piece of plastic like an old credit card.

If you want a more permanent solution, you can use acrylic paint to “frost” the glass but this is harder to remove. The previous owners of the house I bought self-frosted the bathroom windows in my bathroom this way and it is impossible to remove the bad paint job, Go for the yoghurt.

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We’ve written about the benefits of white paint on a hot tar roof in the past, at least a couple of times. And the fact that they can’t slow global warming.  White paint is what people paint the roofs of their apartment buildings in Tel Aviv to keep the insides cool. It’s certainly something that designers and architects in the Middle East already know and that’s why mashrabiya were invented.

People in the Middle East or Texas who don’t want to enter an inferno 6 months of the year buy white cars. And if you have a black roof home or even a panel of glass windows that face the sun, expect to have your air conditioner bill go through the roof for 6 months of the year.

Some more research from Purdue and a “new” white paint, which is the whitest of the white paint, explores just how much you can save by painting your roof white. This is a great idea for energy savings on large industrial buildings, schools, hospitals, factories and government buildings looking to lower energy costs. They say that their experimental paint is so effective you might never need to turn your air con on. And after the new white roof? Maybe a rooftop garden? Solar energy panels?

Back over to the study: Purdue University engineers have created white paint that can keep surfaces up to 18 degrees Fahrenheit cooler than their ambient surroundings – almost like a refrigerator does, but without consuming any energy. We call this passive cooling. 

According to the researchers, the paint would replace the need for air conditioning by absorbing nearly no solar energy and sending heat away from the building. Without the building heating up, air conditioning wouldn’t have to kick on.

“It’s very counterintuitive for a surface in direct sunlight to be cooler than the temperature your local weather station reports for that area, but we’ve shown this to be possible,” said Xiulin Ruan, a Purdue professor of mechanical engineering.

The paint not only sends heat away from a surface, but also away from Earth into deep space where heat travels indefinitely at the speed of light. This way, heat doesn’t get trapped within the atmosphere and contribute to global warming. 

Sci Fi White Paint Video:

“We’re not moving heat from the surface to the atmosphere. We’re just dumping it all out into the universe, which is an infinite heat sink,” said Xiangyu Li, a postdoctoral researcher at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology who worked on this project as a Ph.D. student in Ruan’s lab.

Earth’s surface would actually get cooler with this technology if the paint were applied to a variety of surfaces including roads, rooftops and cars all over the world, the researchers said.

In a paper published Wednesday (Oct. 21) in the journal Cell Reports Physical Science, the researchers show that compared with commercial white paint, the paint that they developed can maintain a lower temperature under direct sunlight and reflect more ultraviolet rays.

Their proof is infrared camera images taken of the two paints in rooftop experiments.

“An infrared camera gives you a temperature reading just like a thermometer would to judge if someone has a fever. These readings confirmed that our paint has a lower temperature than both its surroundings and the commercial counterpart,” Ruan said.

Reflects most of the sun’s heat

Commercial “heat rejecting paints” currently on the market reflect only 80% to 90% of sunlight and cannot achieve temperatures below their surroundings. The white paint that Purdue researchers created reflects 95.5% sunlight and efficiently radiates infrared heat.

Developing this paint formulation wasn’t easy. The six-year study builds on attempts going back to the 1970s to develop radiative cooling paint as a feasible alternative to traditional air conditioners.

Making the whitest of the white from seashells

The researchers considered over 100 different material combinations, narrowed them down to 10 and tested about 50 different formulations for each material. They landed on a formulation made of calcium carbonate, an earth-abundant compound commonly found in rocks and seashells.

This compound, used as the paint’s filler, allowed the formulation to behave essentially the same as commercial white paint but with greatly enhanced cooling properties. These calcium carbonate fillers absorb almost no ultraviolet rays due to a so-called large “band gap,” a result of their atomic structure. They also have a high concentration of particles that are different sizes, allowing the paint to scatter a wider range of wavelengths.

According to the researchers’ cost estimates, this paint would be both cheaper to produce than its commercial alternative and could save about a dollar per day that would have been spent on air conditioning for a one-story house of approximately 1,076 square feet.

“Your air conditioning kicks on mainly due to sunlight heating up the roof and walls and making the inside of your house feel warmer. This paint is basically creating free air conditioning by reflecting that sunlight and offsetting those heat gains from inside your house,” said Joseph Peoples, a Purdue Ph.D. student in mechanical engineering and a co-author of the work.

Cutting down on air conditioning also means using less energy produced by coal, which could lead to reduced carbon dioxide emissions, Peoples said. The researchers have further studies underway to evaluate these benefits.

Environmental artist and designer Pablo Solomon lives in the hot and arid American state of Texas. He doesn’t believe that white paint could put air conditioners out of commission in Houston:

“While painting surfaces white does reflect sunlight, it will not replace AC in Houston, Texas. Having lived much of my early life there, the heat is made more miserable by the high humidity. Also, although Houston is 50 miles inland from the Gulf of Mexico, it is usually the first or second port by tonnage in the US due to it being accessible by the Houston Ship Channel being dredged from Buffalo Bayou and the San Jacinto River,” he tells Green Prophet.

He notes: “Houston’s weather is totally dominated and kept at subtropical warmth by the Gulf of Mexico. Normal humidity hovers around 80 plus percent. Downtown Houston is barely 50 feet above sea level and many of the suburbs toward the coast are less than that. Add all of the steel and concrete of America’s 4th largest city and AC is not a luxury, but a requirement.

“Thank heavens that new high efficiency AC units, double/triple paned windows and improved insulation cut energy use a lot. Also to put things in perspective, if you spin your home globe, you will see that Houston is the same latitude as Cairo and Saigon.”

___ 

Have a passive energy solution to report? Email me karin@greenprophet.com

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The intricate wood screens that protected windows throughout the Arab world are increasingly being reinvented – often at massive scale and using computer technology – to cover tall buildings as an oriental ornament, but also as a major element for sun-shading and passive cooling. Building owners report lowered maintenance costs too, as the screens minimize cleaning (and reduce water use).

The perforated aluminum skin of Qatar’s Doha Tower (aka The Burj Doha) in variegated depending on north, south, east and west exposures, in order to control day-lighting and provide bespoke interior shading.  The metal screen also reduces sand and grit build-up on underlying glass panels.

Saudi’s Breakwater Beacon is a honeycombed lighthouse that guides ships approaching the Red Sea port of Thuwal. This structure is loaded with imagery: it acts as an Arab wind chimney or “wind-catcher”, and the hexagonal precast concrete blocks are reminiscent of traditional mashrabiya screens and endangered native coral.

Louvre Abu Dhabi reinvents the classically vertical screen into a horizontal roof, which in turn – during daylight hours – casts a virtual mashrabiya pattern onto the museum’s walls.

Lusail District a mixed use development in Doha made harmonious in part by a common screen structure on the taller towers.

Windows projecting from the facade of residential buildings in Abu Dhabi’s Masdar Institute are protected by latticed concrete panels which control interior heat gain and minimize building maintenance.

Mucat’s Muttawar Lifestyle Community is a planned residential complex that incorporates classical elements of the Arabic courtyard house. Balconies, central gardens with water features, and mashrabiya screens sustainably maximize passive cooling.

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After realizing that glass has no place in Middle East architecture given consistently sunny and hot climate conditions, studios involved in the region began to design external shading structures that shield buildings from too much sun.

Siemens recently incorporated fin-like shades on their new headquarters at Masdar, whereas the Al-Bahr towers in Abu Dhabi have a moving system that require a great deal more energy and materials.

REX has designed double-sided retractable mashrabiya screens for a pair of enjoined media towers. Both the client and budget are confidential, but the stone-clad towers with full glazing are designed for a narrow footprint somewhere in the Middle East.

“To efficiently accommodate the two media companies’ program within the precedent footprint, offices are stacked over broadcast and news studios, which in turn are stacked over each company’s common facilities,” writes REX in their design brief.

“The large studios which could not fit within the thin towers, and for which permanent blackout is desired, are organized below grade.”

Both sides of each tower are shaded by retractable sunshades with a 47.5 ft diameter. When the sunscreens overlap, they form a Mashrabiya pattern, “meeting the media companies’ shared desire for infusing the buildings with local iconography.”

The screens respond to the sun’s movement across the sky and open instantaneously, and at night, LED lights embedded in the shading structure create a massive 722 x 722 foot media wall that broadcasts the companies’ content in real time – this is visible from afar.

In terms of its projected environmental impact, shading the interior will help to reduce air-conditioning loads and LED lights reduce energy consumption as well, but this is going to be a mammoth undertaking if it ever gets underway.

Within the 2,600,000 square foot twin towers are offices, studios, an amphitheater, auditorium and theater, a cafe, canteen and even a fine dining restaurant, a lounge for regular employees and one for executives, a health club, majlis (not the floating kind, unfortunately) and an art gallery.

:: REX

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Commissioned by the King Abdullah University of Science and Technology (KAUST), a leading Arab research organization that is devoting increasing resources to clean energy and water research and development, the 60 meter Breakwater Beacon also functions as a communal rendezvous spot.

Built with hexagonal precast concrete blocks, this curious new design takes cues from ancient Islamic art and architectural motifs, and from coral – a once ubiquitous natural Red Sea feature that is now imperiled by various development projects along the coast.

Although concrete has never been our favorite building material given that genuine earth construction has greater thermal massing and a smaller environmental impact, Breakwater Beacon is nonetheless a naturally-cooled tower that relies on the stack effect to promote ventilation.

UAP worked with Bureau^Proberts, Norman Disney & Young, and Robert Bird Group to complete construction of the new lighthouse, who contributed lighting and engineering expertise to the development.

The cellular structure softens harsh light to create a comfortable interior environment that invites community members to take part in events staged at the base of the beacon.

In essence the lighthouse looks and functions like a giant mashrabiya screen shaped like a funnel that sucks up hot air from the base, dispels it at the point, and draws a cooler current from the sea.

More than just an emblematic waste of material marking the university’s entrance – though it is that as well, the lighthouse does serve a purpose at night when it is lit up from within to guide men and women at sea.

:: Evolo

Images © Urban Art Projects

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Traditional building materials such as earth were used because of their superior thermal performance. And buildings were oriented for optimum shading in summer and winter solar gain. Sure Architecture has borrowed from these techniques in their curvilinear design of the Yinchuan Exhibition Center in Northern China.

The Yinchuan Exhibition Center is located in Northwest China. Its double skin combats thermal loss while the unique polyhedron shape encourages wind and other elements to gloss over the building, thereby reducing the energy load and perhaps even maintenance.

Like the Mashrabiya screen in Islamic design, the perforated skin permits natural light and promotes maximum airflow throughout the 25, 300 square meter museum.

Low e-glass further ensures maximum energy efficiency, while  an automated shading system ensures that the building never gets too hot. This intervention alone has the potential to drastically reduce how much energy the giant building gobbles up.

As is almost always the case, Sure Architecture’s use of Islamic design for this highly visible project is no coincidence; instead it stands as a testament of the growing ties between China and the Middle East.

Albeit larger and flashier than the kind of design we most respect, even we have to admit that the facade is as striking as it is sensible.

:: World Architecture News

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If you’re not into downloading recipes or cooking your own Lebanese food and you happen to live in Athens, Greece, then you’ll definitely want to pop into Souk. (Otherwise, drool over these charming images and feel inspired.)

Many of the Lebanese dishes we’ve all grown to love, including Manaoushi, Saj and Taouk, are prepared in full view of the customer in a clean but colorful environment.

A series of small design touches give this Souk something of an Islamic sensibility in keeping with the ethnic cuisine.

Gorgeous brown and white lamps that mimic ceramic pots dangle from the roof, cut outs in the walls resemble mashrabiya screens and colorful mosaic tiles line the adorn the floor. Note these are subtle interventions that inspire comfort rather than alienation.

Reinforcing the street element of this charming indoor restaurant are neon signs, a mish mash of minimalist furniture, including long light timber tables and chairs of different stripes and hues.

Stripped timber slats line the kiosks, which are flanked by black boards on which the daily menu is scribbled with white chalk.

Like many contemporary designers in the Arab world, K Studio has infused this contemporary urban space with the best of Lebanon’s cultural and culinary heritage. And though we haven’t actually sampled it ourselves, we hear the food is pretty darn good.

But don’t take our word for it… head to the Glyfada suburbs and make up your own mind.

:: Yatzer

Photos © Vangelis Paterakis

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Second, there’s a council of tall buildings? Who thought that would be a good idea? Third, there’s another giant Burj building in the Arabian Gulf, as if one of those wasn’t enough. (Granted, Burj means Tower in Arabic, so it really shouldn’t come as a surprise that there is more than one.) And lastly, is there really any such thing as a best tall building? 

Just to give our readers a sense of perspective, the Burj Khalifa in Dubai is 2717 feet tall, whereas its baby brother (really, can a building like this be considered anything other than a young strapping boy?) is just 761 feet tall.

There’s a lot of feet between them, so Burj Qatar, a.k.a Doha Tower, already sounds a lot better to us than the Burj Khalifa, which is really exciting (and hard) to look at from the ground, but which doesn’t really make the earth a better place to live at all.

Qatar’s Burj also has a really interesting facade comprised of layers of what look like mashrabiya screens that regulate the tower’s interior temperature. It is this and the nod to vernacular architecture that the CTBUH loved it so much.

“Doha Tower is an excellent example of an efficient modern tower that is inspired by its local culture and setting,” said Antony Wood, executive director of the CTBUH. “In an age of homogenized slick towers globally, Doha Tower is rooted to its place. This is not a non-specific icon which you could drop into any city of the world.”

First selected as the best new tall building in the Middle East and North Africa region, the Burj Qatar has since scooped the prize that architects of all giant towers would love to have. Except that Nouvel couldn’t be there to pick up the prize.

These and more incredible pictures can be found on www.asergeev.com

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A new “green” teaching and research center in the Israeli-Arab town of Sakhnin showcases some of the best traditional approaches to construction in the hope that it will inspire modern building practices. And on a less concrete level, the building is seen as a “green bridge” between the Arab and Jewish communities. The Union of the Mediterranean recently awarded it first prize in a competition on energy conservation.

Architects anywhere can pick up on traditional Arab building techniques as a means to improve building efficiency, says Hussein Tarabeih (who we’ve filmed here), director of the Towns Association for Environmental Quality (TAEQ) for the six Arab-Israeli towns in the Beit Natufa Valley in the Lower Galilee. This is the association that commissioned the building.

“We have a lot of energy-saving elements built into the building,” Tarabeih says. “And it was important for us that we use the community. We conducted a survey asking them what they wanted and involved the older people quite a bit. The truth is that much of the knowledge on the traditional elements has been lost so we had to learn from the beginning. But this is one of the purposes for creating this building. We wanted to preserve the old traditional techniques.”

Traditional Arab building secrets

Tarabeih (pictured below) says many of the 20 features incorporated in the building could easily be applied to hot, desert climates anywhere, including California or Arizona, to keep edifices naturally cool in summer and warm in winter.

Constructed from adobe bricks made from mud and straw, the building in Sakhnin was designed by architect Abed Elrahman Yassin, a student of the late Egyptian “architect for the people” Hassan Fathy. Typical of Arabic homes throughout the Middle East, it has a wall and window covering called a mashrabiya. This feature, usually decorated with a geometrical design, serves as a sunshade and privacy screen.

Most traditional Arabic houses have a large patio, either on the exterior of the building or in a central courtyard. When paired with long, high windows and doors, and draft windows in the right orientation, the patios cool the circulating air and offer a pleasant seating area throughout the day. If a water fountain is placed in the center of an enclosed patio, the cooling effects are even greater.

Dome-shaped roofs are a traditional symbol of Arab architecture found in mosques throughout the world. On the practical side, they maintain cool air in the building. At the base of the dome, as in the Sakhnin structure, four small windows remove the hot air while channeling the cool air into the room.

Traditional skylights called tezana are made from glass spheres and tubes that allow natural sunlight to penetrate the rooms without the need of electric power in the daytime. When the glass is colored, the amount of direct sunlight into the rooms can be controlled.

Also central to traditional buildings, and seen today widely in countries like Iran, is the cooling wind tower. “Our water circulation tower, called a malkav in Arabic, is 12 meters high, and you can spray water in the top of the tower to cool down the air circulating through the building,” says Tarabeih.

The post How Traditional Arab Architecture is Greening Buildings in Israel appeared first on Green Prophet.

In vernacular Arabic architecture, the Mashrabiya serves several functions: these wooden screens provide shade against the sun and natural ventilation, privacy, which is especially fundamental to Arab culture, and shelter for the people on the street.

The cantilevering mashrabiya boxes not only allow three sides of it to catch the prevailing breeze, but it creates a kind of solar and rain protection to passersby on the street level. House incorporated all of these aspects of the vernacular into their contemporary modular house, and then added a few nifty extras.

The home has a steel structure and concrete floor slabs and then the multicolor prefabricated screens can be stacked inside according to a variety of different configurations. When the weather’s great, the vertical shades can open to permit daylighting and air to circulate through the home.

On a super sunny day, the horizontal screens will allow the same, except they provide protection against the sun. But on those days when the desert goes mad with dust and wind storms, the entire home can be shut down to prevent the elements from tearing the inside apart.

Notice that House retains the kind of luxury that Arab families typically look for in a house. There’s a large, comfortable living space with plenty of private spaces for both men and women. The reception area, where guests are welcomed, is especially well-attended.

Yet, with their newest concept the team from Egypt has drastically improved the home’s energy efficiency. Integrated PV modules provide about 25% of what the unit needs and the remaining energy will come from the main grid.

Nonetheless, through passive design and other interventions, including underfloor glass balls that collect thermal energy throughout the day to keep the house warm in the evenings, the designers have drastically slashed how much energy is required to power the house.

The modular design, meanwhile, reduces construction time and costs, along with waste, and also reduces the amount of carbon emissions released since most of the components can be constructed on site.

Finally, instead of relying on either non-existent or completely outdated wastewater treatment systems, House has designed a decentralized treatment system that treats the water from each unit on site with a three-step system and then recycles what water it can.

Via Inhabitat

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