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Purpose The Kingdom of Saudi Arabia (KSA) has been experiencing extensive development in the fields of architecture and planning in recent decades, which has included developing community centers in neighborhoods. These community centers have significant impacts on the social, cultural, recreational and economic lives of the inhabitants. The study has looked into the concept of modeled and non-modeled community centers among 114 neighborhoods. Moreover, the study aims to suggest that decision-makers should make efficient decisions to uphold amenities through the centers at the neighborhood level after considering the evaluation techniques included in this paper to ensure a sustainable urbanization. Design/methodology/approach The authors collected both qualitative and quantitative information through structured and un-structured interviews in the city of Jeddah. Afterward, the authors evaluated the centers with a summarized grading point based on qualitative judgments. Note that the online questionnaire survey was prepared to distribute in approximately 100 neighborhoods. However, 71 neighborhoods took part in the survey, with a total number of 402 responses. Moreover, the authors made a subjective evaluation of the studied neighborhoods to understand the quality of services offered by the community centers. Findings The obtained results reveal that the community centers in the city of Jeddah are playing important roles for socialization, allowing younger people to interact in a positive way, providing services to the communities and supporting volunteer work in and around the neighborhoods. Consequently, the research paper emphasizes the future needs of these important social infrastructures as part of a neighborhood design tool in the context of Jeddah city, KSA. Originality/value This research attempts to document the need for community centers in the city of Jeddah. Consequently, the study evaluates 26 different community centers to understand whether the improvements are required for supporting community activities. Indeed, few research works have made an effort to study community centers’ role in urban life in a unique geographic context. Through this research project, the authors have highlighted the implications of community centers in urban life in the city of Jeddah.

The coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic has brought immense challenges to the natural and built environment to develop an antivirus-enabled model for reducing potential risks of spreading the virus at varied scales such as buildings, neighborhoods, and cities. Spatial configurations of structures may hinder or assist the spread of viruses in the built environment. In this study, we have hypothesized that suitable air ventilation in historic buildings may enhance the built environment to combat the spreading of infectious viruses. To provide such quantitative shreds of evidence, we have generated and estimated an integrated model to summarize obtained information by considering natural ventilation, wind speed, inflow and outflow, wind direction, and forecasting the associated risks of airborne disease transmission in a historical building (i.e., the Hazzazi House in particular). Intrinsically, the results have demonstrated that the effectiveness of natural ventilation has directly influenced reducing the risks of transmitting airborne infectious viruses for the selected heritage building in Jeddah (Saudi Arabia). The adopted methods in this research may be useful to understand the potentials of conserving old heritage buildings. Consequently, the results demonstrate that natural air ventilation systems are critical to combat the spread of infectious diseases in the pandemic.

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Ventilation systems are one of the most effective strategies to reduce the risk of viral infection transmission in buildings. However, insufficient ventilation rates in crowded spaces, such as schools, would lead to high risks of infection transmission. On the other hand, excessive ventilation rates might significantly increase cooling energy consumption. Therefore, energy-efficient control methods, such as Demand Control Ventilation systems (DCV), are typically considered to maintain acceptable indoor air quality. However, it is unclear if the DCV-based controls can supply adequate ventilation rates to minimize the probability of infection (POI) in indoor spaces. This paper investigates the benefits of optimized ventilation strategies, including conventional mechanical systems (MV) and DCV, in reducing the POI and cooling energy consumption through a detailed sensitivity analysis. The study also evaluates the impact of the ventilation rate, social distancing, and number of infectors on the performance of the ventilation systems. A coupling approach of a calibrated energy model of a school building in Jeddah, KSA, with a validated Wells–Riley model is implemented. Based on the findings of this study, proper adjustment of the DCV set point is necessary to supply adequate ventilation rates and reduce POI levels. Moreover, optimal values of 2 ACH for ventilation rate and 2 m for social distance are recommended to deliver acceptable POI levels, cooling energy use, and indoor CO2 concentration for the school building. Finally, this study confirms that increasing the ventilation rate is more effective than increasing social distancing in reducing the POI levels. However, this POI reduction is achieved at the cost of a higher increase in the cooling energy.

This paper summarizes the results of a comprehensive analysis to investigate the performance of both thermal comfort-based and temperature-based controls for schools in harsh hot climates of Saudi Arabia. The analysis considers the impact of building envelope characteristics including thermal insulation level of exterior walls and air leakage rate on the ability of both control options to maintain indoor thermal comfort while minimizing cooling energy consumption. The analysis utilizes a calibrated energy model for an existing Saudi school with monitored energy consumption data. The analysis results indicated that the thermal comfort-based control is able to maintain the predicted percentage of dissatisfied (PPD) value at 5% throughout the year for any combination of the exterior wall’s R-value and air infiltration rate unlike the case of the temperature-based controls that do not maintain acceptable indoor thermal comfort conditions. However, the thermal comfort-based controls consume more cooling energy than the temperature-based controls. The analysis also revealed that the difference between the annual cooling energy of the PMV-based control and the temperature-based controls increases almost linearly with the cooling degree days of the site where the school is located. The analysis results indicate that acceptable indoor thermal comfort levels can be achieved using temperature-based controls when optimal temperature set points are used.

Islamic architectural history encompasses a substantial amount of information that needs to be categorized and digitally modeled so it can be utilized proficiently in the design phases of any project that seeks Islamic construction character. This paper centers on developing BIM-driven three-dimensional object library for Hejazi Islamic Architecture (HIAC) styles, construction methods, structural elements, and architectural components. The Ottoman style architecture has had profound effects on the Hijazi region for more than three hundred years. This influence remains largely uncategorized and digitally undocumented. Building Information Modelling (BIM) approach is used to develop parametric three-dimensional models of HIACs that are used in the structure and construction of Hijazi buildings. The HIACs are aggregated and classified according to their type and origin with respect to the chronological timeline of Islamic Architecture (IA). The creation of this BIM-Driven Components Library for Islamic Facilities (BIM-IF), thus allows for the use of HIACs in the design phases of projects that aim to incorporate IA styles. Each HIAC in the BIM-IA library contains architectural, structural and constructional data that is categorized using informatics tables appended with the digital models. In addition to the essential design data, the BIM-IF library provides designers with various historical information and details about numerous unique Ottoman styles.