IMPACT OF ENVIRONMENTAL CONDITIONS ON LOW-COST HOUSING IN NEW TOWNS IN EGYPT: THE CASE STUDY OF NEW BORG EL-ARAB

Because of the housing crisis in Egypt, the desperate need for new houses, and the continuously increasing housing demand exceeding its supply; the housing problem is considered one of the major contemporary problems. New Borg EL-Arab is a new town designed as a magnet, to absorb the increase of population in Alexandria by creating new job opportunities and building affordable houses to help low income people and youth find suitable houses and solve their housing problem. Also, there is a very serious problem in the structural conditions of houses in the city due to bad of the quality of building materials causing quick deterioration of these houses. Hence, low income people and youth refused to leave the big city and move to the new town. Houses are directly affected by the adverse environmental conditions of this region, such as climate and lighting.  The envelope of a house prevents the effect of climatic elements. This external envelope of a building creates indoor environmental conditions which differ from that of the outdoor environmental conditions.
The research aims to assess the environmental conditions which affect the houses in New Borg EL-Arab, and to suggest recommendations which could lead to improve the housing conditions in houses built under the same environmental conditions, integrating buildings with the surrounding environment, achieving better levels of human comfort, improving residents’ satisfaction and attracting more people to live in the houses.
A detailed study of housing categories, data collection for the environmental conditions (measuring air temperature, humidity, lighting and determining the wind direction) outside and inside the houses, and analyzing them with interpretation of results, To find recommendations to improve the affordable houses. Human comfort can be achieved through a good design of the house using the suitable local building materials available within the same region, taking into consideration all the environmental housing conditions.