37º IAHS World Congress on Housing: - Universidad de Cantabria

XXXVII <strong>IAHS</strong><strong>World</strong> <strong>Congress</strong> on HousingOctober 26 – 29, 2010, Santander, SpainCODE: 216IS A SUSTAINABLE URBANISM POSSIBLE IN 21 CENTURYEGYPT?THE USE OF LEED SYSTEM AS A SUSTAINABILITYINDICATOR: THE EXAMPLE OF THE DESIGN OF THENEW GATED COMMUNITIESDr: Hanaa Mahmoud ShokryAssociate Professor; Head of Architectural Department – Higher Technological Institute 10th of Ramadan -EgyptEmail;hanaashokry@hotmail.comKey words: Sprawl; Smart growth; Gated Communities; LEED; Seaside, EnvironmentalPerformance, Egypt.AbstractThe rapid growth of the built environment has been pointed out as the major challenges tosustainability all over the world. Low density "sprawling" communities represent the mostundesired form of urban growth both for the waste of land and energy they cause as well asfor the lack of a "sense of place" they promote among their inhabitants. Several critiques tosuch type of urbanization have being heard since the last decades of the 20 century, causing inturn a reaction, in the form of new urban design approaches such as "Smart Growth" and"New Urbanism". The term "Smart Growth" was formulated in reference to smarter strategiesthat can fix the problems caused by urban sprawl. From the construction standpoint, the questfor sustainability has been pursued through the creation of several "green index" systems, ofwhich the most widely accepted is the LEED green building rating system. It would beinteresting to compare some examples of new urbanism represents major progress such as thetown of Seaside, Florida, with our new gates communities, and to find out what are the majorways to determine such elusive sustainability. Are we doing better now? Can we measureenvironmental performance? These are the questions that lay at the core of this paper.37º <strong>IAHS</strong> <strong>World</strong> <strong>Congress</strong> On Housing Science 121