Abstract
The concept of Superblocks, first introduced in Barcelona in 2016, was adopted as the main urban design principle for the proposed Al Yasmeen community in Ajman, UAE. This design addresses both the Social sustainability (allocating public spaces for outdoor social activities and enhancing outdoor thermal comfort) and Environmental sustainability (promoting for walking as the main mode of travel and easing the walking experience). The Al Humaideya community was selected to serve as the Reference Case against which the Al Yasmeen design will be compared to; Al Humaideya community is built and fully occupied and has a similar area and zoning characteristics as the Al Yasmeen community. An initial design was proposed and assessed in terms of the overall urban design parameters in comparison to the reference case. The results showed significant improvements compared to the Reference Case performance. An optimized case was then formulated and assessed. The results of the optimized case showed further improvements and enhancements when compared to both of the initial proposal and the reference case. This was manifested in the form of better outdoor thermal performance, allocated land uses, walking experience, and facilities coverage when compared to the Reference Case. Moreover, the Optimised design offers all the daily and weekly-used community facilities within linear walking distances which lead to a self-sustained community and reduced external vehicles trips. These significant performance improvements were due to several factors and early design-considerations as the challenging hot-humid climatic conditions of the Case Study that cause outdoor thermal discomfort, were approached by combining active and passive design strategies to enhance the outdoor thermal comfort. The strategies employed included shaded pedestrian routes, shaded playgrounds, high albedo materials, evaporative cooling, natural ventilation, vegetation, and orientation of buildings. Also, the implementation of the Superblocks concept resulted in creation of several public open spaces, parks, and pedestrian- oriented community.
