AREE: successful initiative

How to reach energy efficiency despite a climate characterized by huge thermal amplitude? This question has been answered by a project named AREE, acronym for Aqaba Residence Energy Efficiency, which obtained in 2007 the Energy Globe Award.

How to reach energy efficiency despite a climate characterized by huge thermal amplitude? This question has been answered by a project named AREE, acronym for Aqaba Residence Energy Efficiency, which obtained in 2007 the Energy Globe Award.

Julien Théron - Eurojar

In the 9th district of Aqaba, Southern city of Jordan, is proudly built since 2009 this contemporary-esthetics building. From the outside, man can’t guess that this is a première for Jordan in its resolute search for energy efficiency. But it is clearly a visionary project, a red letter day announcing the introduction of sustainable buildings in Jordan.

At the beginning was the idea of Tareq Emtairah, a Jordanian living in Sweden. Convinced by the necessity of putting into application the principles of energy efficiency, Tareq Emtairah participated in 2002 to a contest of the Center for the Study of the Built Environment (CSBE). This Jordanian structure applied afterwards to the European regional program MED-ENEC, in order to realize the project.

The CSBE played therefore the role of link between the instigator of the idea and the European Commission, in charge of monitoring, communication and covering part of the costs. The Center also participates in broadcasting AREE’s results, implemented by the Dutch architect Florentine Visser.

Energy efficient buildings
Achieved in 2009, AREE comes to fulfill a gap in Jordan’s building sector. Stephen McIlwaine, Head of the CSBE, explains indeed that “most ‘modern’ houses in Jordan do not perform well in terms of energy efficiency. Houses lose a lot of unnecessary heat during the winter, and also retain heat unnecessarily during summer.”

But things started to change, under the double effect of a new awareness of environmental necessities and new fiscal trends. Energy was indeed cheap until recent times in Jordan, thanks to subsidization of the state. But the recent rise of energy prices triggers a change of mentalities, a phenomenon accentuated by lowering subsidies.

Aqaba, in the South of the country, where temperatures can exceed 40°C, was the perfect place for a demonstration of possibly low cost energy efficiency, thanks to a combination of “design, construction, and operation/usage approaches.”

A vector of promotion
Stephen McIlwaine explains that “many of the technical and behavioral principles are applicable to other houses in Jordan” because building techniques have been chosen especially for “their ability to be replicated in other projects by using local materials and mostly conventional techniques.”

But AREE is also a place to experiment particular techniques, like air cooling by adsorption, a technique studied by the Ecole des Mines in Paris, in the framework of a search for high energy efficiency systems and low environmental impact. This dynamic makes AREE a ’high end’ villa where “some of the solutions would not be appropriate in a low cost situation.”

Comfort for the future
AREE has been thought as a house, and has all the characteristics of it. On 420 square meters and three floors can be found bedrooms, living room, kitchen, garage and other rooms, disposed according to the time spent in each. The less used rooms are on the most sunny side. Each floor has an external shadowed area, and a natural air system has been cleverly thought around the central staircase.

Regarding to the materials, the use of plaster and straw allows a better isolation and reduces the use of concrete, provoking a better held of the house on the long term. The roof has a garden for a pleasant use and to reduce even more the brighten surface. The total energy saving is estimated to 72%, a figure possibly brought to 93% by equipping the building with solar cells.

A double plumbing system has also been implemented, in order to separate more or less dirty waters. Clearer waters are filtered and used for plants. Those ones are selected for their little need of water and their adequacy with the climate. Water savings are estimated at 53%.

Clever construction, energy savings and water management: ALMEE draws a picture where, despite harsh climatic conditions, it is feasible to ensure in the meantime an optimal quality of life and to guarantee a perennial development for the country.

This project was rewarded with 100,000 Euros as a pilot project within the Mediterranean, under the EU-funded programme MED-ENEC phase I, where 10 projects were chosen as good examples of best practices and possible development or similar initiatives in the future.

See the website: MED-ENEC