Sustainable Industrial Building: An Exploratory Research

Introduction

Sustainable development is a way of the growth of society, in which the human condition improves, and the environmental impact remains within the economic capacity of the biosphere, so the natural resources are not wasted (Mensah & Casadevall, 2019). The concept of sustainable development in the world, including Saudi Arabia, is considered as a prerequisite for the long-term progress of humankind, accompanied by an increase in capital and an improvement of environmental conditions (Mensah & Casadevall, 2019). Additionally, this concept implies the development of each region of Saudi Arabia, including Al-Sharqiyah district, where the city of Dammam is located, through self-organization with state support, preventing the possibility of its transition to a state of irreversible environmental degradation. For humanity as a whole, sustainable development implies the purposeful and supporting movement of financial resources from rich to poor regions with a full exchange of environmental knowledge and information (Mensah & Casadevall, 2019). Regarding the situation in Saudi Arabia, each city in the country should develop according to a system of sustainable development, marginally using its limited natural resources. Thus, the analysis of Dammam city in Saudi Arabia and its nature factors will help to design a project of the sustainable industrial building.

The construct of sustainable development is a result of combining three main constituents, including economic, social, and environmental ones (Mensah & Casadevall, 2019). The economic approach implies the optimal use of limited resources and the use of environmentally friendly nature-, energy-, and material-saving technologies, which consist of the extraction and processing of raw materials, the creation of environmentally acceptable products, minimization, handling and disposal of waste (Mensah & Casadevall, 2019). The social component of the sustainability of development is focused on people and is aimed at maintaining the stability of the social system, including reducing the number of destructive conflicts between people (Mensah & Casadevall, 2019). An essential component of this approach is the equitable sharing of benefits. Additionally, there is the preservation of cultural capital and diversity on a global scale, as well as a fuller use of sustainable development practices found in non-dominant cultures (Mensah & Casadevall, 2019). From an environmental point of view, sustainable development should ensure the integrity of biological and physical natural systems. The viability of ecosystems has a particular importance, and the global stability of the entire biosphere depends on it.

The high growth of the housing sector in Dammam, coupled with rapid construction, which does not take into account energy efficiency and focuses only on initial investments, has contributed to the unsustainable development of the construction industry (Abubakar & Aina, 2016). It has resulted in widespread of unstable houses with poor insulation or without it, leaking windows, inefficient cooling systems, and ineffective construction methods (Alrashed & Asif, 2014). However, the political motives spelled out in the Vision 2030 can motivate developers to invest in sustainable technologies such as renewable energy (Abubakar & Aina, 2016). In 2020, an insufficient number of incentives leads to a problematic situation for the development of sustainable buildings and is currently an obstacle to sustainable development. As a result, the primary problems for the development of sustainable building projects in Saudi Arabia are the harsh climatic conditions of the country, obsolete construction systems, discounted electricity tariffs, fast construction speed, as well as the lack of political incentives for the development of green buildings (Abubakar & Aina, 2016; Ahmed et al., 2019).

The aim of the study is to create an actual design of a sustainable building for construction in the urban area of Dammam, Saudi Arabia. The objectives of the study:

1. To analyze the literature on the subject of existing design practices for sustainable houses in severe climatic conditions;

2. To investigate the site area of Dammam city;

3. To plan how the natural features of the area can be used in the construction of sustainable buildings.

Methodology

In this study, a literature analysis method has been used. The purpose of the method is to present an objective analysis of the literature data on the problem of unsustainable development in Dammam and its solutions. This method is used to identify the main approaches for solving the issue of creating sustainable buildings in the severe climatic conditions of Saudi Arabia. The analyzed literature included exclusively scientific articles and official reports to obtain only reliable data.

Sustainable Development in Dammam, Saudi Arabia

In many countries that seek sustainable development, some policies and measures contribute to the development of sustainable buildings. Unfortunately, Saudi Arabia is lagging in the adoption of incentive measures (Abubakar & Aina, 2016). Recently, the government has allowed changes that will lead to the promotion of renewable energy in the building field. Still, other incentives should be implemented to encourage the construction of houses with almost zero energy consumption. Together with political motives, stricter building energy codes are needed. The primary need for sustainable development is the degradation of natural resources, environmental pollution, and loss of biological diversity in Saudi Arabia, which reduces the ability of ecological systems to self-repair (Tarawneh & Chowdhury, 2018).

The rapid development of Saudi Arabia in the last ten years indicates high achievements in the economic and social spheres and the emergence of new difficulties created during the fast modernization process (Ahmed et al., 2019). The government of the country is committed to environmentally sustainable development, so it is essential to consider it during designing buildings. Sustainable buildings play an essential role in achieving sustainable development by improving energy and environmental performance. 

In Saudi Arabia, the importance of the construction sector in the sustainable development program is quite high, since carbon dioxide emissions and electricity consumption per person and the number of buildings increases sharply due to economic growth, as well as population growth. Moreover, according to Ahmed and the co-authors, Saudi Arabia's residential sector consumes about half of its electricity, as shown in Figure 1 (Ahmed et al., 2019). These indicators confirm the need to develop a sustainable design for the construction of residential buildings.

Therefore, the country needs to consider energy-efficient buildings to promote sustainable development. The research results have shown that the Saudi construction industry has not yet realized the importance of sustainability (Ahmed et al., 2019). However, the level of education and work experience have a positive impact on the assessment of sustainable buildings (Ahmed et al., 2019).

It is essential to understand the unique challenges that have impeded sustainable development in Saudi Arabia and led to the creation of an unsustainable housing sector (Krarti et al., 2017). The design and construction of energy-efficient homes face challenges that are primarily related to the country's climate, outdated construction sector, subsidized utilities, rapid growth, and lack of guidelines (Marzouk et al., 2014). Saudi Arabia has very severe climatic conditions, which are characterized by hot and dry weather all year round in the majority parts of the country, including Dammam, as a result of which buildings are exposed to a large amount of solar radiation for extended periods (Tarawneh & Chowdhury, 2018). Buildings rely heavily on air conditioning, which consumes about 80% of household electricity in Saudi Arabia to compensate for the effects of solar radiation and lower the room temperature for thermal comfort (Tarawneh & Chowdhury, 2018). Thus, a sustainable home construction design should include the active use of passive ventilation to provide residents with maximum thermal comfort with minimal energy consumption for air conditioning. 

Site Analysis of Dammam

This study requires a detailed analysis of the Dammam area. Dammam is the third industrial city in the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia, as well as the capital of the Eastern region, where the majority of the country's oil industry is concentrated (The Ministry of Municipal and Rural Affairs and the National HABITAT Consultation Group in the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia, 2016). The site analysis of Dammam city has shown that it is surrounded by desert and the Persian Gulf (The Ministry of Municipal and Rural Affairs and the National HABITAT Consultation Group in the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia, 2016). Dammam plays a significant role in the development of Saudi Arabia because it is the commercial center of the eastern part of the country and the terminal station of the railway in Riyadh. Moreover, this city owns one of the largest seaports on the Persian Gulf (The Ministry of Municipal and Rural Affairs and the National HABITAT Consultation Group in the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia, 2016). Dammam hit during the fastest economic recovery in the country. Besides, the city is the eastern gateway of Saudi Arabia, and its development affects the economy and ecology of the whole country.

The water supply at the Dammam city depends on several sources of drinking water, including a source of recycled saltwater, which changes from salt to fresh using the Azizya plant (Krarti et al., 2017). However, due to the active increase in city residents, this plant requires expansion in the future to ensure the right amount of water and sustainable development (Krarti et al., 2017). In 2020, the entire territory of the city has an electricity network, but its production rate must be maintained to meet needs, given the availability of alternative resources and rational consumption. The sphere of public institutions experiences some difficulties because the city has incomplete coverage of federal facilities with sewage, telephone lines, a drain system, and water supply (Krarti et al., 2017).

The territory of Dammam is quite modern and includes a large number of suburbs to reduce the concentration of residents within the city. The city began to be built in 1940, which showed its rapid development in a short time (Krarti et al., 2017). The main income of the city is the oil industry (Krarti et al., 2017). However, the territory of the city is adapted for agriculture, including dairy farms. Thus, the city has many large-scale farms for raising cattle.

Dammam's housing areas are separated from commercial ones, while the roads of the city are wide and straight (Krarti et al., 2017). The significant characteristic of the city territory is land reclamation (Krarti et al., 2017). Huge sections of the shallow waters of the Persian Gulf, where previously were only marshes, were filled with various buildings (Krarti et al., 2017). However, the construction industry in Dammam continues to depend on inefficient methods, and houses are designed according to the traditional design process, which is linear and fragmented. In this regard, sustainable building construction in Dammam should include the use of 3D visualization and planning tools.

The System of Passive House

For the design of sustainable building construction in Dammam, the Passive House system was chosen. At present, passive ventilation of houses has practically no application in the construction industry. Decision-making in home construction projects in Saudi Arabia is mainly based on customer requests, and not on energy efficiency in general. Almost 80% of specialists do not evaluate the energy efficiency of their projects, and two-thirds of them do not evaluate since customers are not interested in the energy efficiency of their buildings (Krarti et al., 2017). Besides, the primary identified technical barrier is the lack of qualified specialists in current practice. Therefore, all residential buildings that are currently being developed in Saudi Arabia should be designed based on the design process based on the Passive House system (Krarti et al., 2017).

In the Passive House system, the role of technology in creating sustainable architecture is enormous. These technologies are called green and are defined as economically safe innovative technologies that reduce resource consumption and negative impact on the environment while maintaining their economic efficiency (Han et al., 2018). Besides, the primary function of green technologies is to monitor the consumption of resources such as energy and water and operating costs during the use phase. Conditions for effective building management should be established at the design stage, including the comparison of design values with actual values for critical indicators.

Fundamental design principles for energy-efficient buildings include the development of sustainable solutions, the application of measures to improve energy efficiency, and the introduction of renewable energy technologies (Mensah & Casadevall, 2019). They should be included in the building design from an early stage. The energy-efficient building design process is a decision-making process, and it includes various tools to achieve the principles of sustainable design successfully (Krarti et al., 2017). One such tool is building productivity modeling, which simulates the physical characteristics and performance of buildings, allowing designers to develop sustainable design solutions and predict energy consumption (Krarti et al., 2017). Building performance modeling is used to identify areas where energy consumption can be reduced, and in general, it can lead to long-term environmental and economic savings (Krarti et al., 2017). Building performance modeling is necessary for the design of buildings with almost zero energy consumption since the adoption of informed decisions leads to improved energy performance (Han et al., 2018). This modeling system can be carried out at various stages of the design process, including the steps of preliminary design, design, and project development, for designing and choosing the most effective solution. It can be used after construction to verify the performance of building systems (Han et al., 2018).

There are several principles for the design of the sustainable building in Dammam. First, in the new building, there should be only a humane number of storeys of residential objects, which do not exceed five floors. Also, the planning decisions should include the creation of convenient transport infrastructure, easy accessibility of administrative, business and shopping centers, and social institutions. Secondly, the design of the sustainable building includes the green courtyards and playgrounds as well as green areas, which will separate it from the business area of the city. Reliable calculation of parking spaces is carried out near residential areas and administrative and business centers concerning the demographic and economic development of the Al-Sharqiyah region. Besides, much attention is paid to the improvement of territories, including artificial reservoirs, parks, alleys, and embankments. The possibility of using intra-house energy-saving technologies such as devices for providing natural ventilation and lighting is laid in conjunction with the capabilities of the regional energy system. 

Additionally, efficient and environmentally friendly water supply and sanitation system should be created, such as a sewage system. It should have maximum primary treatment before discharge into water bodies, in conjunction with local systems for recycling used water and treating so-called gray waters, which are used for household purposes. Another design principle of a sustainable building is a system for separate collection of municipal solid waste, maximum recycling of recycled materials, and schemes for composting non-solid household waste that is convenient for the population are being developed.

An essential component of the design of such a building is the creation of a link between architects and environmental design experts. The main requirement for architecture and integrated building design is to minimize and optimize technical installations by choosing the right geometry and building products. It can also significantly reduce construction costs and subsequent maintenance and, consequently, environmental damage. Therefore, the architect and design experts should work in a development team.

The Role of Environment and Natural Factors in Building Houses

Designing an environmentally friendly building requires the use of sustainable drainage systems. Traditional drainage systems based on pipeline networks are designed to collect and drain rainwater in urban areas. Their widespread use can lead to several problems associated with the flooding of territories, as well as with diffuse pollution of natural water bodies by the flow of water, which contains high concentrations of harmful substances such as heavy metals, oils, and others (Tarawneh & Chowdhury, 2018). Sustainable urban drainage systems are innovative technology solutions designed to manage rain flow (Tarawneh & Chowdhury, 2018). The climate in Saudi Arabia is arid, and it has about 100 mm of precipitation annually (Tarawneh & Chowdhury, 2018). However, the UAE experience in 2020 has shown that climate change affects countries that have not previously experienced rainfall problems (Tarawneh & Chowdhury, 2018). As a result, the use of sustainable drainage systems during the construction of the building will contribute to the sustainable development of the urban environment, as they are designed to eliminate problems associated with flooding. 

Sustainable drainage systems also solve the problem of water quality, as well as fulfill social and environmental tasks such as maintaining biodiversity, ensuring landscape potential, preserving natural habitat, and water use for other purposes. These systems are characterized by higher environmental sustainability in comparison with the traditional drainage methods since they delay storm runoff (flood control). They also protect or improve the quality of water and natural water bodies and provide replenishment of aquifers, underground rivers, as well as the evaporation of surface waters. Besides, they ensure the preservation of the habitat of wild flora and fauna and allow the use of rainwater for other purposes, including irrigation, street washing, and others.

Saudi Arabia is a developing country, and its residential sector is considered to be one of the most nature wasting residential areas in the world, where CO2 emissions continuously increase (Ahmed et al., 2019). Energy consumption per one person in Saudi Arabia is almost three times higher than the world average (Ahmed et al., 2019). The residential sector consumes about half of all national electricity and is projected to double in the next 5–6 years (Ahmed et al., 2019). One of the most critical factors in Saudi Arabia is the high growth in the housing market, which will grow even more in the next few years to accommodate the growing population (Ahmed et al., 2019). For a sustainable future, all residential complexes in Saudi Arabia must be energy efficient.

Avoiding the use of composite building materials and components, which are difficult to separate for better processing potential and systematic support for the recovery, the design of the sustainable building should include further use and reuse of building components and materials. Such design also comprises low levels of contamination of building parts and materials for more comfortable future use and reuse, as well as easy disposal of unused residual waste and protection of soil and groundwater from contamination with hazardous substances. When further use cannot separate the constituent components and the maximum possible level of usage and reuse, builders should control the demolition. In this regard, the sustainable building in Dammam should be constructed of insulating material, taking into account the climatic conditions of the country.

In this regard, Saudi Arabia should use the developed in this study design of the green building for the construction of all residential buildings in Dammam. Green development includes the operation of buildings with minimal environmental impact. The main objective of green construction is the reduction of the level of consumption of natural resources throughout the entire life cycle of the building, which would significantly accelerate the country's development in terms of sustainability (Alrashed & Asif, 2014). 

Conclusion

As a result, the progress made by the Kingdom in achieving the Sustainable Development Goals is based on several factors, the most important of which are compliance with the Kingdom's Vision 2030 as well as the support provided by the private sector, non-governmental organizations, and the public. The chosen system for sustainable development of building in Dammam is the Passive House, which features include a significant reduction in energy consumption, environmental friendliness, and comfort throughout the years. Several design and planning measures can be easily implemented in the project to ensure that the building remains comfortable during the seasons when the temperature in Saudi Arabia rises especially. Superior insulation and high airtightness help reducing heat transfer from the outside to the inside, which helps the building maintain lower internal temperatures. Shading elements and well-located windows of the Passive House system help minimize additional solar loads, and ventilation of windows at night is an effective and free method of cooling and reducing the use of electric methods of cooling buildings. As in any building in hot weather, knowledge of internal heat sources, and the use of energy-efficient electrical devices will also help maintain a comfortable temperature. Since Saudi Arabia is located in a climate zone where active cooling is required, the cooling system of the Passive House will be of great importance in maintaining comfortable room temperature and maintaining low electricity bills. The social aspect of sustainable building construction in Dammam is to create the interaction of many workers such as engineers, builders, designers, environmentalists, as well as teams of specialists who will monitor the implementation of building standards according to the Passive House system. The building, which will be created using sustainable development design, will significantly improve the lives of citizens, transform Dammam into an attractive travel destination, and make it one of the most comfortable places to live in the world.

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