بسم الله الرحمن الرحيم

﴿ وَمَآ أُمِرُوٓا۟ إِلَّا لِيَعْبُدُوا۟ ٱللَّهَ مُخْلِصِينَ لَهُ ٱلدِّينَ حُنَفَآءَ وَيُقِيمُوا۟ ٱلصَّلَوٰةَ وَيُؤْتُوا۟ ٱلزَّكَوٰةَ ۚ وَذَٰلِكَ دِينُ ٱلْقَيِّمَةِ ﴾

سورة البينة آية ٥

They were commanded only to worship God, devoting their faith to Him alone, and to practice regular prayer, and to give alms. That is the upright religion.

Sincerity (Ikhlas) to God almighty is the foundation of every work, and the goal of every seeker. Work without sincerity has no reward, prayer without sincerity has no reward, and charity without sincerity has no value. The Prophet Mohammed peace be upon him said: “ Allah will be pleased with those who try to do their work in a perfect way”.

عن عائشة رضي الله عنها، قال رسول الله صلى الله عليه وسلم : ((إن الله يحب إذا عمل أحدكم عملاً أن يتقنه))رواه الطبراني في الأوسط ، وصححه الألباني

Therefore, a true believer realizes that the core of Islam is more than religious obligations, it is to achieve sincerity. Sincerity (Ikhlas) indulge believers in an ethical path and mindfulness to meet their vocation which leads to (Ihsan)“doing good” at a personal and professional level.

Sincerity and the built environment

Buildings contribute to a 37% of global carbon emissions. Almost three-quarters of these emissions arise from heating, cooling and powering these spaces. Unfortunately, buildings impact the environment and the occupants of the spaces for a long time after the engineers handover the keys. The most vulnerable to climate change effect are the residents of poorly designed buildings. Those who their buildings do not protect them from extreme weather conditions due to poor insulation or get them sick due to poor indoor air quality or limited access to natural ventilation and daylight. 

The great Egyptian architect: Hassan Fathy who was called “The Architect of The Poor” has an exquisite saying: “As an engineer, as long as I have the ability and means to make people comfortable, God will never forgive me for deliberately raising the temperature inside the house by 17 degrees Celsius.”

كمهندس، طالما أملك القدرة والوسيلة لإراحة الناس فإن الله لن يغفر لي مطلقاً أن أرفع الحرارة داخل البيت ١٧ درجة مئوية متعمدا".

A truly honorable approach towards achieving Sincerity (Ikhlas) in the professional life and in performing responsibilities which we will stand accountable for on the day of judgement. Believing in such ethical approach guides engineers to design and build for harmony between nature and the built environment to achieve social equity and decent living conditions for all with minimum reliance on mechanical systems and leveraging site natural resources for affordable housing and developments.

Sincerity and urban development 

﴿إِنَّا بَلَوۡنَٰهُمۡ كَمَا بَلَوۡنَآ أَصۡحَٰبَ ٱلۡجَنَّةِ إِذۡ أَقۡسَمُواْ لَيَصۡرِمُنَّهَا مُصۡبِحِينَ (١٧) وَلَا يَسْتَثْنُونَ (١٨) فَطَافَ عَلَيْهَا طَآئِفٌۭ مِّن رَّبِّكَ وَهُمْ

نَآئِمُونَ (١٩) فَأَصْبَحَتْ كَٱلصَّرِيمِ (٢٠) فَتَنَادَوْا۟ مُصْبِحِينَ (٢١) أَنِ ٱغْدُوا۟ عَلَىٰ حَرْثِكُمْ إِن كُنتُمْ صَـٰرِمِينَ (٢٢) فَٱنطَلَقُوا۟ وَهُمْ يَتَخَـٰفَتُونَ (٢٣) أَن لَّا يَدْخُلَنَّهَا ٱلْيَوْمَ عَلَيْكُم مِّسْكِينٌۭ (٢٤) وَغَدَوْا۟ عَلَىٰ حَرْدٍۢ قَـٰدِرِينَ (٢٥) فَلَمَّا رَأَوْهَا قَالُوٓا۟ إِنَّا لَضَآلُّونَ (٢٦) بَلْ نَحْنُ مَحْرُومُونَ (٢٧)

قَالَ أَوْسَطُهُمْ أَلَمْ أَقُل لَّكُمْ لَوْلَا تُسَبِّحُونَ (٢٨) قَالُوا۟ سُبْحَـٰنَ رَبِّنَآ إِنَّا كُنَّا ظَـٰلِمِينَ (٢٩) ﴾ سورة القلم

We tested them, as We tested the owners of the garden, when they vowed to harvest it in the morning(17)

Without any reservation(18) But a calamity from your Lord went around it while they slept(19)

And in the morning it was as if picked (20) In the morning, they called to one another(21)

“Go early to your plantation, if you are going to harvest” (22) So off they went, murmuring to one another(23)  “No poor person is to enter it upon you today.”(24) And early they went, resolved in intent (25) But when they saw it, they said, “We were wrong” (26) “We are now deprived”(27) The most reasonable of them said, “Did I not say to you, ‘if only you would glorify?’”(28)  They said, “Glory to our Lord—We were indeed in the wrong.”(29) Surat Al Qalam

The Quran verses convey a clear message that the fundamental principal for any urban development or project, even if it is a private development, is the public benefit. This principle positions humans as active participants in a mutually-evolving ecosystem of humans, nature and the built environment. Therefore, to be successful you need to consider the new capabilities you bring to these three elements of the ecosystem. Thenceforth, professionals expand beyond designing to meet a need or functionality rather into performing Sincerity (Ikhlas) to adding value to the community to create more inclusive and sustainable environments for social equity.

Reviving passive design principles for social equity

Passive design principles are a set of design principles for creating comfortable indoor living spaces with achieving high level of energy efficiency by harvesting on site natural resources such as wind, sun and the site’s landscape. Building orientation and features must be prudently designed to respond to sites’ conditions for passive thermal control systems. These principles can be applied to all buildings, including residential, commercial, schools and high- rise buildings.

Housing is one of the most important sub sectors of the built environment in terms of impact on the planet and human health and wellbeing, the sector accounts to 17-21% of global climate emissions.   

Unfortunately, almost 1.6 billion people live in inadequate housing conditions!

Is the incompetency from professional capacity, policy makers, financial community, or shortage in materials, resources and technologies?!

In my opinion, the deficiency is related to two important aspects. Firstly, not realizing that architectural and urban plan practices must promote affordability, comfort, accessibility and resilience in buildings and spaces to align with social equity and inclusion. Secondly, not practicing our values and detaching it from our professional pathway. That’s where passive design techniques, vernacular knowledge and nature-based solutions arise as supporting tools for professionals.Such tools provide, with minimum cost, adequate comfort standards and decent living conditions for the space occupants and thus professionals indulge in a meaningful path to practice their values. [RH1] 

The vernacular knowledge and indigenous wisdom along with passive design principles, techniques, and local materials have been cumulated for centuries to allow for the uptake of sustainable, affordable and climate adaptive developments. Such practices have been implemented historically and have proved their efficiency and yielded significant outcomes on the energy, economy and environment in all climate zones.

“The combination of several passive techniques such as material choice, thermal insulation, natural ventilation have yielded significant outcomes in the Environment, Energy and Economy (3E) perspective, resulting in energy savings of 6.7–66.2% and life cycle cost reductions of 12–52%, with payback periods of 0.5–84 years. The higher payback periods of some passive strategies are mainly due to the high capital costs required to implement them such as green roofs and walls.”^[6]

In conclusion regenerative and sustainable developments including green buildings are effective solutions which facilitate climate resilient[RH2] . Sustainable developments have the potential to nurture the entire ecosystem and most importantly it is our way to practice our values for social equity[RH3] . Therefore, these value- based solutions need to be rooted in our practices to design projects to be site adaptive, locally and culturally appropriate and socially inclusive[RH4] . Sincerity (Ikhlas) and Ihsan (doing good) are two important values for the way forward to maintain a sense of purpose and meaning in our work.

And I will end with a citation from Natural Energy and Vernacular Architecture: Principles and Examples with Reference to Hot Arid Climates book by Hassan Fathy:

…..But he(referring to the architect) must remember that he is not building in a vacuum and placing his houses in empty space, as mere plans on a blank sheet of paper. He is introducing a new element into an environment that has existed in equilibrium for a very long time. He has responsibilities to what surrounds the site, and, if he shirks this responsibility and does violence to the environment by building without reference to it, he is committing a crime against architecture and civilization …

…..Over many centuries, people everywhere appear to have learned to interact with their climate. Climate shapes the rhythm of their lives as well as their habitat and clothes. Thus, they build houses that are more or less satisfactory in providing them with the microclimate that they need.”

By Ruba Hinnawi

Earthna Technical Lead