Due to the complexity of built environment, urban design patterns considerably affect the microclimate and outdoor thermal comfort in a given urban morphology. Variables such as building heights and orientations, spaces between buildings, plot coverage alter solar access, wind speed and direction at street level. To improve microclimate and comfort conditions urban design elements including vegetation and shading devices can be used. In warm-humid Dar es Salaam, the climate consideration in urban design has received little attention although the urban planning authorities try to develop the quality of planning and design. The main aim of this study is to investigate the relationship between urban design, urban microclimate, and outdoor comfort in four built-up areas with different morphologies including low-, medium-, and high-rise buildings. The study mainly concentrates on the warm season but a comparison with the thermal comfort conditions in the cool season is made for one of the areas. Air temperature, wind speed, mean radiant temperature (MRT), and the physiologically equivalent temperature (PET) are simulated using ENVI-met to highlight the strengths and weaknesses of the existing urban design. An analysis of the distribution of MRT in the areas showed that the area with low-rise buildings had the highest frequency of high MRTs and the lowest frequency of low MRTs. The study illustrates that areas with low-rise buildings lead to more stressful urban spaces than areas with high-rise buildings. It is also shown that the use of dense trees helps to enhance the thermal comfort conditions, i.e., reduce heat stress. However, vegetation might negatively affect the wind ventilation. Nevertheless, a sensitivity analysis shows that the provision of shade is a more efficient way to reduce PET than increases in wind speed, given the prevailing sun and wind conditions in Dar es Salaam. To mitigate heat stress in Dar es Salaam, a set of recommendations and guidelines on how to develop the existing situation from microclimate and thermal comfort perspectives is outlined. Such recommendations will help architects and urban designers to increase the quality of the outdoor environment and demonstrate the need to create better urban spaces in harmony with microclimate and thermal comfort.

In artificial intelligence (AI), generative systems, most notably Midjourney, have tremendous power to generate creative images of buildings and sites of Islamic architectural heritage through text-to-image generation based on the internet. The AI-generated representations have significant potential for architects, specialists, and everyday users. However, the system has considerable limitations when generating images for some buildings and sites where the representations appear too far from their original represented structures. Evaluating Midjourney as an architectural virtual lab, this research article attempts to define the major current limitations of using Midjourney’s AI system in producing images similar to the actual buildings and sites of Islamic architectural heritage. This research employs prompt engineering techniques based on historical sources as inputs to examine the accuracy of the output of the AI-generated images of selected examples of structures of the Islamic tradition. To validate the research results, it compares the Midjourney output with the original look by employing direct observation through critical analysis of human intelligence (HI) facilitated by the analysis of the latest version of 3M Visual Attention Software and an online survey. It concludes that while Midjourney can represent high-end AI-generated images inspired by the Islamic tradition, it currently falls short of presenting the actual appearance of some of its original structures. Furthermore, it categorizes these limitations into four groups: (1) limits of the prompt, (2) limits of fame, (3) limits of regionality and historical styles, and (4) limits of architectural elements and details. The significance of this research lies in providing timely evaluation factors to architectural heritage practitioners and software developers. This practical article is the second in a series of two sequential articles in the Buildings journal; the first (theoretical) article introduces the concept of Artificial Intelligence Islamic Architecture (AIIA), answering the question: what is Islamic architecture in the age of artificial intelligence?

Adaptive reuse maintains cultural sustainability by adapting heritage buildings for new functions while retaining their original structure. The al-Nabulsi’s traditional courtyard house in Irbid, northern Jordan, represents the city’s dominant residential heritage building typology from the 1920s. It has been adapted and reused to preserve cultural sustainability by providing a visitor experience pertinent to the local tangible and intangible cultural heritage. This article evaluates the effect of the house’s adaptive reuse into a cultural visitor center on the local community’s cultural sustainability between 2018 and 2023 through the user experience. Through a review of the literature on cultural sustainability and adaptive reuse and deploying mixed qualitative and quantitative methodology of field observation, statistical analysis, and critical reflections on interviews and Google Travel’s reviews of the building, the research presents the project phases, resolutions, and challenges, contextualizing them in the modern debate on tangible and intangible heritage. The article used the Quintuple Helix Model as an analytical framework to explain the interactions between societal systems that directly and indirectly affect the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). The findings revealed that in 2018, the center’s conservation and adaptation relatively enhanced the local community’s cultural sustainability and feeling of its identity. However, in 2023, further actions are needed to enhance the visitor experience and spread awareness of its significance. Enrichments in government, education, and civil society systems have been moderate, and further improvements in economic and environmental systems are essential to meet the potential goals of the SDGs. No research to date has evaluated the cultural sustainability of the adaptive reuse of this significant house/center, providing insights into a notable example of the conditions surrounding adaptive reuse in Jordan and Arab Middle Eastern countries.