Since buildings are one of the major contributors to global warming, efforts should be intensified to make them more energy-efficient, particularly existing buildings. This research intends to analyze the energy savings from a suggested retrofitting program using energy simulation for typical existing residential buildings. For the assessment of the energy retrofitting program using computer simulation, the most commonly utilized residential building types were selected. The energy consumption of those selected residential buildings was assessed, and a baseline for evaluating energy retrofitting was established. Three levels of retrofitting programs were implemented. These levels were ordered by cost, with the first level being the least costly and the third level is the most expensive. The simulation models were created for two different types of buildings in three different climatic zones in Palestine. The findings suggest that water heating, space heating, space cooling, and electric lighting are the highest energy consumers in ordinary houses. Level one measures resulted in a 19–24 percent decrease in energy consumption due to reduced heating and cooling loads. The use of a combination of levels one and two resulted in a decrease of energy consumption for heating, cooling, and lighting by 50–57%. The use of the three levels resulted in a decrease of 71–80% in total energy usage for heating, cooling, lighting, water heating, and air conditioning.

Countries with limited natural resources and high energy prices, such as Jordan, face significant challenges concerning energy consumption and energy efficiency, particularly in the context of climate change. Residential buildings are the most energy-consuming sector in Jordan. Photovoltaic (PV) systems on the rooftops of residential buildings can solve the problem of increasing electricity demands and address the need for more sustainable energy systems. This study calculated the potential electricity production from PV systems installed on the available rooftops of residential buildings and compared this production with current and future electricity consumption for residential households. A simulation tool using PV*SOL 2021 was used to estimate electricity production and a comparative method was used to compare electricity production and consumption. The results indicated that electricity production from PV systems installed on single houses and villas can cover, depending on the tilt angle and location of the properties, three to eight times their estimated future and current electricity use. PV installation on apartment buildings can cover 0.65 to 1.3 times their future and current electricity use. The surplus electricity produced can be used to mitigate urban energy demands and achieve energy sustainability.

Cities on the east Mediterranean coast, especially in Palestine, are struggling to move towards sustainability as they are vulnerable to climate change and lack natural resources, especially energy resources, and this situation is further aggravated by high energy prices. The problem is the building sector, which is the most challenging sector when it comes to cities’ sustainability and, specifically, energy sustainability. In Palestine, this sector is the main consumer of energy but it lacks energy efficiency measures, such as up-to-date building energy codes. This study analyzed building thermal performance under different scenarios with a focus on building envelopes. We aimed to evaluate the benefits of introducing an updated building energy code—mainly addressing U-values for building envelopes—on future reductions in energy demand. We used a simulation tool (DesignBuilder) to evaluate typical existing building-envelope thermal and energy performances. Then, we undertook a comparison between the existing conditions and the proposed application of different scenarios, including the existing Palestinian building energy code and green building guidelines, the ASHRAE code for building envelopes, and the Jordanian building energy code, in order to introduce an updated building envelope energy code. The results showed that the current situation—building without applying any energy code or applying the existing Palestinian building energy code—is far from the high-energy performance that could be achieved by applying international or local green building codes. The use of thermal insulation could reduce the energy demand for heating by 83 to 43%, depending on the building type, climatic zone, and U-value. We recommend utilizing different U-values for building envelopes in different climatic zones to achieve high thermal performance. The results from this study have implications for construction industry professionals, local governments, and researchers seeking to establish high-energy-performance building envelopes.

This paper targets the future energy sustainability and aims to estimate the potential energy production from installing photovoltaic (PV) systems on the rooftop of apartment’s residential buildings, which represent the largest building sector. Analysis of the residential building typologies was carried out to select the most used residential building types in terms of building roof area, number of floors, and the number of apartments on each floor. A computer simulation tool has been used to calculate the electricity production for each building type, for three different tilt angles to estimate the electricity production. Tilt angle, spacing between the arrays, the building shape, shading from PV arrays, and other roof elements were analyzed for optimum and maximum electricity production. The electricity production for each household has been compared to typical household electricity consumption and its future consumption in 2030. The results show that installing PV systems on residential buildings can speed the transition to renewable energy and energy sustainability. The electricity production for building types with 2–4 residential units can surplus their estimated future consumption. Building types with 4–8 residential units can produce their electricity consumption in 2030. Building types of 12–24 residential units can produce more than half of their 2030 future consumption.

Achieving social sustainability is an important aim towards achieving sustainable development goals for 2030. This paper aims to evaluate the compatibility of collective spaces with the contemporary social needs in the residential areas in Palestine. It is hypothesized that collective spaces such as cul-de-sacs have the potential for a contribution towards social sustainability. A field research for urban design architectural components for cul-de-sacs and grid streets in Nablus city was conducted based on social sustainability values. Then, a questionnaire was developed to measure people’s satisfaction with living in such collective spaces in terms of social sustainability values. The results show that the satisfaction in collective spaces rises in the cul-de-sac housing compared to grid street houses. Based on these results, a cul-de-sac is a high-potential approach for enhancing social interaction in collective spaces because it provides the four values of social sustainability: privacy, security, equality, and environmental quality. Such qualities are very basic and essential human needs to be considered in housing design. Finally, proposed guidelines for designing contemporary collective spaces based on learning from traditional cul-de-sacs were introduced to enhance future social sustainability.

Climate-resilient buildings in Palestine can play an important role in a more sustainable residential building sector. This paper aims at evaluating the effects of adopting architectural design strategies and material technologies from vernacular architecture to create a new climate-resilient building. The paper targets single houses as these represent the majority of residential buildings in suburban and rural areas, and are similar to the vernacular architecture in size and functionality. The EDSL Tas simulation tool was used to assess the thermal performance and energy savings in the proposed model compared with traditional houses and modern typical houses, in two different climatic zones. The proposed climate-resilient house has materials and design strategies derived from vernacular architecture, in addition to the use of thermal insulation. The results show that the proposed house is more climate-resilient compared to modern houses. In cold winter and hot summer climates, the proposed model presents a total annual heating and cooling energy consumption of 59% less than typical modern houses, and 5% more than old buildings. In hot arid summer and warm winter climates, the proposed house presents a total annual heating and cooling energy consumption of 58% less than a modern typical house and 8% more than the traditional house.