Rethinking the old residential sector in the UAE: a methodology for sustainable retrofitting

The Abu Dhabi Government has recently devised a program to promote sustainability guidelines and regulatory tools within the AEC industry in the UAE. The program; known as Estidama, proposes a set of strategies to ensure sustainable practices from design to operation, and maintenance for all building typologies and communities across the UAE. Currently, the Estidama Design Guidelines have been directed towards new construction of residential and commercial buildings. Nevertheless, it is evident that existing buildings and other facilities should be considered in the future within the program's appraisal given that they represent a large percentage of Abu Dhabi's built environment. This research addresses the status of the existing residential stock in the UAE built environment, which included around 185,000 units by the end of 2007, prior to the Estidama initiative. We analyse various contextual characteristics, then propose a methodology to integrate effective sustainable refurbishment strategies to capitalise on the scope of Estidama's guidelines with the aim of potentially including a chapter for buildings overhaul in Abu Dhabi. We strongly believe that this research would be a valuable addition to the Estidama guidelines, and could compliment the Abu Dhabi Vision 2030.