Green-roofs are becoming a popular breathing roofing alternative to traditional roofing systems. Green-roofs were mentioned as an ecological-economical solution; however, limited work has been carried out on the potential life cycle cost savings of green roofs in arid climates. This paper present costs savings by green roofs in arid climates. The model accounts for energy savings, structural considerations as well as other variables. Detailed thermal simulations for various configurations of green roofs are performed to assess energy savings using DesignBuilder. Experiments are performed for a two story residential building in Egypt with a base case control that uses a traditional roof meeting standard model energy codes. One local sub-climatic zone was simulated while changing the thickness of the green-roof soil, the conductivity of the green roof and building aspect ratio. Costs for green-roof saving potentials were estimated according to Egyptian electricity consumption calculator, other parameters as retrofit potential and structure allowances to withhold the required layers with different thicknesses. The results demonstrate the economic benefits of using green-roofs under different design situations and provide guidance for the selection and design of green-roofs systems in similar climates. Savings varied from 15-32% compared to traditional and un-isolated roofs. It was also found that reducing soil thickness to 15 cm results in 15% annual savings, Moreover, conductivity of soil has significant impact on amount of savings. The research shows that the most energy saving realized when the aspect ratio of the building is 1:1.5.

Today Urban Cities faces energy and environmental challenges due to increased population, higher urbanization. The building sector has a big responsibility as it acquires high consumption rates in global energy and environmental scenarios. It is thought that the built environment in Egypt is responsible for 26% of the total overall national energy consumption, 62% of the total electricity consumption and around 70% of resultant CO2 emissions. The increased use of electrical appliances causes Urban Heat Island effect (UHI), which affect major urban centres. Adding green elements to any urban area is proved to be an effective strategy with numerous benefits to enhance the city's ecosystem, also mitigate the urban heat island measures. In this research Green roofs/walls can regulate outdoor air temperature by 10°C and improve outdoor thermal comfort by 2 Predicted Mean Value (PMV) values. The modelling of green strategy models can take into consideration design developments in areas with hot and dry climatic zones. The properties of green walls can directly affect the results of thermal comfort as leafs absorbs, reflects and transmits solar radiation, and increases the evapotranspiration.

Increased urbanization have many negative effects on human well-being, city infrastructure, electricity usage and the increase of indoor temperatures. A solution may be to retrofit existing buildings, with implementing a vegetated layer to roofs and walls, this may enhance building performance, reduce consumption and improve indoor comfort. Cities with tall buildings may be more adequate to implement a green-wall as it have more area to make impact. This paper examines the energy reduction advantages of adding greenery on buildings in the hot arid climate of Egypt by considering three typical types of residential buildings in the city of Cairo as a case study. Designbuilder software was selected to stimulate the buildings chosen in this research. The results shows that an extensive soil thickness of 15cm performs better in the arid climates. electricity consumption for the base case is 52 kWh/m2 annually when used a traditional external envelop and dropped to 43 kWh/m2 when a vegetated layer added to the whole building (roof & wall), annual electricity consumption reduced by 17% to 25% per annum when added a vegetated layer. In addition to enhancing the indoor thermal comfort by 3 PMV values and indoor air temperature by 5°C.

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This study attempts to remedy the issue of urban voids, which are one of the possible choices for extra interactive spaces. As a city with a great civilization history, Egypt is also home to many urban voids, mainly buffer zones. This generates the research problem that urban voids result from managing isolated planning sites irrespective of the context and away from the community. Few studies tackled the impact of public spaces on city life; they were mainly theoretically oriented and focused on piazzas without highlighting other spaces or conducting empirical investigations. The study determines that voids could be a testing ground to establish a framework of how these spaces can be reused. Revitalizing urban voids goal is to reconnect these useless spaces with context, achieve users’ needs, integrate technologies with the space to revitalize the city, and increase its income through combining theoretical findings, empirical study, and questionnaires, which generate a framework that helps the planners and designers in developing urban voids and maximizing its efficiency. Currently, adaptive redesign is a hot topic to discuss, and this may be the moment to realize that following the updated design components, meeting community needs, and using technology will always reinvigorate the void.