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Abstract
With the overcrowding of major urban centers, developed countries are seeking to expand the settlement of their thinly populated drylands by encouraging the building of attractive residential communities, towns - and even cities. Aside from the natural beauty characteristic of many deserts, the quiet surroundings and inexpensive acreage could induce many city dwellers to relocate, provided that suitable housing, infrastructure, and employment were available. Fostering such a trend is especially relevant to Israel, where some two-thirds of the land area is classified as arid. The design of buildings and neighborhoods in arid regions provides a unique challenge for architects, engineers and urban planners alike. For example, typical desert climates - burning-hot days, bone-chilling evenings and extremely low atmospheric humidity - are an essential backdrop for architects' harnessing of natural energy sources to provide comfortable living and working areas. In addition, these free resources reduce the heating and cooling expenses of homeowners and businesses alike. Passive use of environmental energy resources also contributes to modulating the consumption of nonrenewable fossil fuels and its worrisome consequences for human and environmental health.
To accomplish these tasks, the Desert Architecture and Urban Planning Unit at the Blaustein Institute for Desert Research brings together researchers who are restructuring building and design concepts in order to provide individual homes, public buildings and entire neighborhoods that are friendly towards residents and surroundings alike. They have developed bioclimatic design strategies that enable a house to maintain comfortable, nearly constant, internal temperatures despite rise and fall of the external temperature. Energy-saving innovations developed by Desert Architecture researchers range from inexpensive building blocks which make use of local Negev soil or recycled industrial waste, to giant low-energy "desert cooler" systems for ensuring summer comfort in buildings with large public spaces.
The energy supply problem
Reducing energy use with bioclimatic design
The building envelope, Materials and Window openings
Reversible glazing for internal comfort
Passive climatization, Low-energy systems for heating and cooling
