Dissertation Defence: Resource-Efficient Planning of a Residential Community: An Indigenous Wisdom-Inspired Conceptual Design

Sheikh Rubaiya Sultana Munni, supervised by Dr. Rehan Sadiq, will defend their dissertation titled “Resource-Efficient Planning of a Residential Community: An Indigenous Wisdom-Inspired Conceptual Design” in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy in Civil Engineering.

An abstract for Sheikh Rubaiya Sultana Munni’s dissertation is included below.

Examinations are open to all members of the campus community as well as the general public. Please email rehan.sadiq@ubc.ca to receive the Zoom link for this exam.

Abstract

The building sector is highly material-intensive and has a significant carbon footprint due to the energy, water, and other resources it consumes. Contemporary buildings have largely used energy efficiency as the primary criterion for defining sustainability, thereby increasing the consumption of non-renewable materials. In extreme climates, consumption of these resources increases manifold to ensure indoor comfort. In contrast, Indigenous peoples worldwide have, over time, developed resource-efficient techniques that consider local contexts, use locally available, cost-effective, and
environmentally friendly materials, and draw on a deep spiritual connection and a holistic relationship with the natural environment. An appropriate combination of Indigenous and contemporary design strategies could be a vehicle for ensuring a resource-efficient community (REC). Although North American Indigenous practices have endured for generations, contemporary design and construction rarely integrate and harness these techniques. The study aims to explore the strengths and opportunities of integrating Indigenous architectural design strategies into contemporary residential community planning. The goal is to create an optimized, sustainable design framework for residential buildings through a combination of Indigenous building design strategies, contemporary technologies, and understanding the occupants’ behavioural patterns. This study employs a mixed-methods research approach that includes (i) analysis of Indigenous and contemporary architectural practices, (ii) interviews with Indigenous community members, (iii) survey of several single-family detached homes to understand the occupants behavioral patterns in their homes and (iv) conducting performance simulation to assess energy demand, carbon foot print, and material use of several modeled scenarios at both the individual building and community level. The evaluation focused on energy steps 1 and 5 of the BC Energy Step Code for single-family detached houses, applying a life cycle thinking approach. The primary results show that across the modelled scenarios, moving from low-performing to high-performing conditions, while integrating selected Indigenous strategies, such as passive solar orientation, simple building forms, and communal spatial planning, and using environmentally friendly materials, can substantially improve resource efficiency. The findings show a reduction in carbon footprint of over 13% for the step 1 house and the community, 6-9% for the step 5 house and the community. Site energy consumption decreases by 2-9% for step 1 and 9-14% for step 5. Water consumption decreases by 50%at both step levels, for both individual houses and their corresponding communities. These findings demonstrate that combining Indigenous design strategies with contemporary technologies and occupant behavior insights can form an effective framework for REC planning. However, the study does not aim to identify the best or worst scenarios; rather, it seeks to understand the impacts of integrating Indigenous design strategies into contemporary design practices. This research explores and recommends strategic guidelines for REC planning in cold-climate regions of North America by developing an overall decision-support framework. The study findings will impact resource efficiency and operational resource cost. The resulting recommendations would help policymakers develop regulations, strategies, and policies for resource consumption standards that affect both the environment and the
economy.