Disaster as an opportunity: Passive house design for sustainable architecture in Syria post-war

ABSTRACT Catastrophe in Syria has been an prospect to plan a new reality and offer better living conditions. In other words, post-war rebuilding may present a chance for Syria to display unique originality and quality in upcoming construction and conservation. In this reconstruction the problems such as climate change and its social, environmental, economic, and ethical ramifications, which are widely acknowledged as the most severe collection of interlinked issues confronting human society, should be taken into consideration. These issues do not play a crucial role in current Syria reconstruction. Because of this, this study aims to reveal improvement potential for energy efficiency in Syria. Following this aim, the passive house concept has been introduced as a strategy for energy performance of the Syrian reconstruction. Passive houses are defined as buildings which provides thermal comfort with adequate indoor air quality by preheating or pre-cooling fresh air without the need for additional air circulation. In the study, a case study has been selected to reveal the energy performance and payback period on model testing. Evaluation by selecting a representative passive house. This representative case study has been evaluated with different scenarios which report the differences between initial investment and lifetime expenses, focusing on the payback period. In addition to the existing evaluation, two more scenarios, low-energy and passive housing, have been evaluated and compared in each other. The heating, cooling, and primary energy consumption results have been computed and discussed in a comparison for each scenario. Results showed that low energy, and passive housing technologies are applicable in Syria regarding the improvement needed in professional trade workers and materials. Consequently, it has been revealed that, converting to low-energy or passive house design can save up to 205 kWh/m2 annually, reducing CGC -no less than- 88 kgs CO2/m2. The overall benefits would be a reduction of 74-83.9% on cooling energy and a decrease of 45-55% on primary energy demand. Since energy savings represent one for the most Passive House advantages, the energy prices have a large influence on economic viability of Passive House. Overall, the simple payback, based on a rough cost estimate for all measures combined, would be equal to 7.3 years for the passive house and 5.5 years for low-energy, since it really provides a crucial energy efficiency and reduction in Carbon emissions. Keywords: Passive House, Sustainable Architecture, Post-war Reconstruction, Syria