An assessment of regional constraints, needs and trends

This article briefly reviews regional constraints and trends, among them environmental climatic and social ones, existing and developing in the regions of the Middle East and North Africa (MENA) and which should affect planning, design and construction policies and practices. It reviews the current state of legislation regarding energy and other green building issues, as well as the various voluntary tools which are being promoted in the region. This paper concludes that the pace of building practices adaptations is far from meeting the pace of needs and constraints. The repercussions on the livability of buildings and settlements, and the survivability and resilience potential of communities in the arid regions of MENA, may well be at risk. Thus, for many countries in the region, green building (and the standards that encourage this) is not a luxury of developed countries, which they might adopt in the future once more pressing constraints are eased, but, rather, a critical development goal to lessen these constraints and allow a viable path into such a future.