Hesham A. Helal’s scientific contributions

This paper presents a unique design philosophy that concluded from the integration of environmental responsibility, financial prudence, and artistic expression in architectural design, it called the "Values Trilogy", it is a novel design philosophy. The Values Trilogy posits that sustainable design offers potential for long-term economic viability. It integrates sustainable practices throughout the design and construction process. Empirical evidence is provided through the application of the Values Trilogy to diverse building types and scales, encompassing educational, commercial, residential, and administrative projects and the result of each design is sustainable building well integrated with nature, satisfying social needs and achieve unique architecture footprint. The paper analyzes case studies demonstrating how this philosophy has achieved: sustainable integration of buildings within the natural environment, social responsiveness by addressing the needs and aspirations of building users, and unique architectural identity through cultivating a unique and memorable aesthetic expression. Also, it contributes to the scientific discourse by demonstrating design methodology led to sustainable design both environmentally responsible and financially advantageous in unique artistic expression. The Values Trilogy design philosophy aligns with global sustainability goals and presents a valuable framework for stakeholders, organizations, and decision-makers to consider when pursuing sustainable architecture. The undeniable influence of climate change on everyday life, coupled with a heightened awareness of the detrimental effects of greenhouse gas emissions (IPCC (Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change), 2021), has necessitated a paradigm shift in the construction industry. Architects and building sector developers are increasingly recognizing the crucial role of green and sustainable building design. This approach emphasizes energy efficiency, the elimination of harmful materials, and meticulous attention to indoor air quality, ultimately leading to the creation of environmentally responsible structures. Furthermore, the strategic adoption of energy-efficient measures and the integration of renewable energy sources within the design process, particularly for commercial buildings, offer a significant pathway towards curbing CO2 emissions. This multifaceted approach addresses not only operational emissions stemming from building energy consumption but also the embodied emissions associated with the materials and energy employed during construction. Research suggests that by 2050, embodied emissions are likely to surpass operational emissions, highlighting the critical need to prioritize sustainable practices throughout a building's life cycle. (Simonen, 2017) This paper introduces the Values Trilogy Design Philosophy, a novel approach that strives to seamlessly integrate these three crucial considerations (Culture-Nature-Art) within the architectural design process based on three pillars (Sustainability-Cost-Effectiveness-Artistic Expression). The Three Pillars are:-Sustainability: This pillar prioritizes the utilization of environmentally friendly materials, construction practices that minimize environmental impact, and the incorporation of renewable energy sources.-Cost-Effectiveness: Focuses on optimizing resource allocation, employing efficient construction methods, and minimizing waste to ensure the affordability of the built environment.-Artistic Expression: Recognizes the inherent value of aesthetics in design, aiming to create structures that are not only functional but also visually stimulating and emotionally engaging. Traditionally, architectural design has often prioritized one aspect over the others. Focusing solely on sustainability can result in cost-prohibitive projects, while prioritizing aesthetics can compromise environmental responsibility. Similarly, solely emphasizing cost-effectiveness may lead to the neglect of both environmental and aesthetic considerations.

Traditional solutions for residential buildings often focus on maximizing economic benefit at the expense of environmental and social considerations. As a result, many residential buildings are poorly ventilated, poorly insulated, and lack access to natural light and views. These factors can lead to health problems, discomfort, and energy inefficiency. This research presents an innovative model for environmentally friend housing design that maximize economic value while also considering environmental and social factors. The model is based on an applied case study of a residential development in Cairo, Egypt. The model's key features include orientation of buildings to maximize natural ventilation and daylighting - use of sustainable building materials and construction methods - provision of green spaces and other amenities for residents. The model was able to achieve significant environmental and social benefits, including reduced energy consumption - improved indoor air quality - increased comfort and well-being for residents - enhanced visual and acoustic insulation - the model is also economically viable, providing developers with a competitive advantage in the market. Overall, this research presents a promising new approach to the design of environmentally friendly housing.

As climate change effect on our daily life is clear, and the awareness of greenhouse gases damages is increased, architects and many developers necessitate green and sustainable buildings design by focusing on energy efficiency, avoiding harmful materials, and taking care of indoor air quality to construct environmentally friend buildings. Also, adopting energy efficiency strategies and renewable energy applications in buildings design generally and particularly in commercial buildings will drop the produced amount of CO2 emissions, as well as operational emissions and embodied emissions are attributed to the building materials and energy required for construction.This research is proposing energy efficient commercial building design proposal as an approach to green architecture in Egypt. First, commercial buildings impact is studied, then choosing energy simulation tool to assess the solution as DesignBuilder software, the design of commercial building proposal respect the triple bottom line of sustainability, to introduce innovative, efficient and environmental building design respecting users’ needs and achieve high economic value, finally, after simulating the building model in DesignBuilder to reach the highest energy saving and ensure the thermal comfort for users, the design is evaluated by LEED criteria to measure the environmental impact of the building and indicate how this design is successful or not.Finally, this research focuses on proposing a design design cliteria and apply it on designing new commercial buildings to enhance the building performance and being environmentally integrated based on design design cliteria that represent the three major design principles and they are Nature, Culture and Art. Nature for respecting and integrating with the environment, Culture for respecting the location and user’s needs, Art for offering a unique architecture design leave strong mental image impression.

Commercial buildings are high energy consumption buildings due to lighting system, cooling, and heating requirements (HVAC) for main corridors, shops, and other services. This research is offering an innovative environmental solution for one floor existing commercial buildings by retrofitting the design to be naturally ventilated which lead to reduce building energy consumption and Co2 production. This Research main concept is ventilating corridors and common spaces at one-floor commercial building naturally and achieving users’ thermal comfort even in the hottest day at summer.Research case study is one-floor existing commercial building in Ras El Bar, Egypt. Building model is constructed in Design Builder software to simulate building energy consumption in the current design as base case and compare different environmental solutions results with it to estimate the energy and Co2 reduction. Also, CFD simulation for different design proposals is simulated to guarantee comfort natural air flow inside the corridors for building users.In addition to visit to building site to measure temperature and wind speed by multi-functional anemometer in many focal points indoor and outdoor the building, to consider any missing data that could affect on the final decision.Finally, after simulating more than one solution, the study present solution that naturally ventilate the on-floor commercial building and achieved users’ thermal comfort at summer.