Uploaded on 2019-08-27 by Grace Youhanna
In this photo we see a commercial building in Sin el Fil area in Lebanon, with a large glazed façade covering a noticeable portion of it. Lebanon has around 300 sunny days in a year with over 8- 9 hours of daily sunshine, and a daily maximum temperatures surpassing the comfort limit from May till August. Away from the traditional balanced use of local building materials like sand stone, limestone and wood, we can notice the overuse of this glass technology, given its propensity to trap heat in the summer and lose heat when it's cold, as well as the excessiveness of natural light, its application seems to be less likely advised in a commercial building full of monitors where air-conditioning will definitely increase the financial and environmental cost. Thus it is becoming misused in this example, especially when it’s totally contradicting the concept of the building’s energy efficiency and sustainability.