Exploring Challenges and Opportunities of Fabric First Principles as an Alternative to Active Climate Control Technologies Within the Developing World Context : a Case Study Based in the Kurdistan Region

In regions of the developing world, development and urban and economic growth have led to a rapid increase in energy consumption and the associated greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions causing serious impact on the environment. Like other regions of the developing world, rapid expansion in the cities of Iraqi Kurdistan (KRI) has occurred, predominantly driven by the large influx of internally displaced people and refugees. The demand for residential units has continuously increased giving rise to a construction boom in the region. However, the emphasis so far has been rather on poorly constructed buildings, buildings that are equipped with active

climate control technologies to be inhabitable. From a fabric point of view, poor thermal efficiency is a common feature that they are generally characterised by, no matter how new or old the buildings are. The increased reliance upon such technologies across the built environment has caused an increased rise in energy demand and has put an extreme strain on the capacities of the energy sector in Iraq, an oil-rich but powerless country. Residential buildings alone are responsible for nearly 41% of KRI’s energy consumption and over 66% of KRI’s total electricity consumption.

This research explores the challenges and opportunities of the fabric first approach within the residential context of the KRI as a potential solution and investigates how important it could be in freeing people from the increased reliance on energy to maintain a reasonable standard of thermal comfort. The investigations go through a sequence of phases starting from the initial exploration of the cultural context to the development and assessment of fabric first-based upgrading propositions.

The study finds that with upgrading the efficiency of the entire building envelope following the principles of fabric first, one can create a situation where the level of indoor thermal comfort is necessarily improved with a significant reduction in cooling/heating demand and CO 2 emissions