Ahmed Shehata | Effat University (original) (raw)

Papers by Ahmed Shehata

Documentation is one of the most important stages in preserving urban and architectural heritage.... more Documentation is one of the most important stages in preserving urban and architectural heritage. Moreover, it is considered as the base for any development decisions (process). Technical tools that can help with documentation has been developed through the last decade. Computer software was one of these tools. It gave the documentation new dimensions.
Geographic Information Systems has emerged as a new tool that can be utilized in this field. It has the ability to link a huge number of different types of data. Such databases can include descriptive and spatial information. Linking building’s descriptive data to their geographic ones gives a huge opportunities for detailed and accurate documentation. Moreover, It facilitates monitoring the changes not only in the targeted buildings but also on their surrounding built and natural environment. It also gives a big possibilities for studying and analysis.
The paper also presents a case study for application. A prototype project to document historic central area of Makkah city and its valuable buildings.
The project presents different levels and different dimensions of documentations, It shows, how the changes in the urban form of Makkah city across time can be recorded and presented in three dimensions. It also shows, how architectural changes that tock place on the important and valuable buildings can be recorded and retrieved in their sequence for analysis.
The paper concluded with recommendations for GIS applications in documenting architectural and urban heritage.

Sustainability within modern buildings is an important issue. Most of modern buildings, unlike tr... more Sustainability within modern buildings is an important issue. Most of modern buildings, unlike traditional ones, are tall ones. Their designs does not consider environmental resources conservation.
The main scope of this study is the sustainability for tall buildings. It starts with defining the sustainability and the sustainable building. After this, the sustainability approaches in architecture were introduced with samples for each one of its trends. Different aspects affecting building impacts on its surrounding environmental conditions were explored. Form, openings, orientation, structure among several other architectural design parameters were discussed in detail. Moreover, building, passive and active, systems were presented in terms of lighting, ventilation and thermal control. In addition, available international environmental impact assessment tools were reviewed. Through the study, sustainability terms like green building, building life cycle, indoor air quality and sick building syndrome were explored and discussed in detail.
The paper concluded with a set of recommendations for designers and municipalities to improve buildings’ environmental response through the building life cycle (design – construction – running). A detailed check-lists for calculating and predicting environmental impacts of proposed building during construction and operations were introduced to be used during developing the building design.

Hijazz Is one of the historical regions of Saudia Arabia. The Traditional Architecture of this re... more Hijazz Is one of the historical regions of Saudia Arabia. The Traditional Architecture of this region as, all Islamic architectures, is very prosperous in details. Many of these details are functional response to climatic factors. Rowshan (window bay) is the local version that is predominant in that region. Several types of Rowshan are defined in the region. Rowshans are essential to provide indoors with the desired level of ventilation and daylight whilst preserving occupant's privacy.
This paper investigates Rowshan types and their design parameters. Louvers Angle, Position and depth are among these parameters. The impact of these parameters on the airflow within internal spaces were investigated using computational fluid dynamics modeling (CFD) technique. FLUENT software was found useful to predict room air flow at early design stages.
The paper concluded with a group of design charts that could help designer to predict airflow within the internal space in certain directions and certain levels within the room.

Auditorium design is one of the most complicated architectural tasks. Team of specialists is need... more Auditorium design is one of the most complicated architectural tasks. Team of specialists is needed to participate in the process. Acoustical designer, lighting designer and air-conditioning consultant in addition to the architect should be among this team.
Within this paper, auditorium basic formats, seating arrangement, audience to stage relationship as design factors were studied in detail. Then the auditoriums’ design parameters were discussed illustrating the auditorium Basic Formats, seating arrangement ended by audience to stage relationship. Therefore, the evaluation criteria of auditorium’s design were followed, which include visual quality and sightlines and main visual measures. The study include by the evaluating design parameters impact on visual Quality, which dis-cussed the evaluating auditorium form impact, evaluating stage format impact and the evaluating Seating Arrangement effect. Then the paper ended by giving a conclusion of the study.
Therefore, we can say that this paper was dedicated to help designers with the conceptual auditoriums’ design. Factors affecting design were discussed. Performance criteria related to the visual conditions were investigated and the impact of the design factors on the performance is evaluated using a computer program that is specially designed to evaluate these aspects. This program works from within the AutoCAD as a drafting environment. It helps with evaluating design decision within the conceptual stage. Several cases were tested using the computer program. The resulted evaluation data were introduced in a set of tables. These data were represented in a group of design charts or could be defined as a design fingerprints.

Mina (near Makkah, Saudi Arabia) is a city of tents that accommodates around two million pilgrims... more Mina (near Makkah, Saudi Arabia) is a city of tents that accommodates around two million pilgrims during the season of Hajj (Islamic pilgrimage). Mina's built environment has special characteristics, as it is mainly composed of light structured housing units (tents) in a valley surrounded by huge mountains. These characteristics make this built environment very vulnerable to natural hazards, such as falling rocks and floods from rain. A 3D GIS (Three Dimensional Geographic Information System) was constructed to understand and analyze the locations, types, and sizes of the possible natural risks in Mina. The 3D GIS can be used analyze slopes and investigate water drafting paths and the locations of possible falling rocks. The paper provides illustrations of possible areas of risk, using 2D and 3D visualizations and offers recommendations to avoid future environmental hazards. The paper also shows areas that are prime locations for future development and assesses their hazard-safety.