Browsing by Author "Azhar, Jasim"

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Decarbonizing Buildings With Autoclaved Aerated Concrete (AAC): Climate-Specific Meta-Analysis of Global Performance
(Taylor & Francis Ltd, 2025) Azhar, Jasim; Aydin, Serdar; Zami, Mohammad Sharif
The building sector, which accounts for 40% of global energy consumption and 36% of CO2 emissions, requires immediate access to scalable low-carbon materials. The theoretical thermal advantages of Autoclaved Aerated Concrete (AAC) remain incomplete because field performance reports show inconsistent results between 15% and 50% energy savings, and multiple unaddressed implementation challenges have prevented its strategic adoption. The systematic review used worldwide climate-based empirical data to resolve existing performance discrepancies and develop practical implementation strategies. The meta-analysis of 12 studies comprising 847 dwelling units, assessed using CASP and ROBINS-I quality tools, showed that energy savings depend on climate zone: hot-arid zones achieving 48.3% (95% CI: 42.1-54.5%), cold-temperate zones 32.7% (27.3-38.1%), and hot-humid zones 28.4% (22.9-33.9%). The strongest predictor of performance was cooling degree days (beta = 0.0089, p < 0.001), while implementation quality explained 26% of performance variation. Economic modelling revealed median payback periods from 4.2 years (hot-arid) to 9.7 years (cold-temperate), with a 78-92% probability of positive lifetime returns. Carbon pricing at $50/tCO(2) reduces payback by 23%. The research develops a climate-oriented analytical system that analyses performance variations to help designers and policymakers achieve maximum AAC decarbonization results by combining environmental data with system information and financial metrics. [GRAPHICS] .
Why Universal Design Fails: A Convergent Appreciation / Divergent Activation (CADA) Model for Culturally Diverse Cities
(Taylor & Francis Ltd, 2026) Azhar, Jasim; Zami, Mohammad Sharif; Aydin, Serdar; Delledonne, Nicola
Urban leftover spaces represent significant potential, yet universal design (UD) approaches often struggle to meet the needs of diverse multicultural contexts. Through constructivist grounded theory analysis of a participatory design charrette with 12 culturally diverse participants in Wellington, New Zealand, this study proposes the Convergent Appreciation/Divergent Activation (CADA) model. While all participants agreed that spatial problems such as safety, neglect and underutilized space potential were present (94-100% agreement in problem agreement) their solutions diverged radically along five emergent orientations: Systems-Harmony (n = 3), Efficiency-Quantification (n = 2), Social-Collective (n = 3), Place-Stewardship (n = 2) and Practical-Utilitarian (n = 2). A bootstrap resampling procedure (10,000 iterations) was used as a descriptive robustness check on orientation consistency, yielding 95% confidence intervals spanning 0.87 to 1.00. Participants' design choices showed high orientation consistency (81-94%), indicating non-random alignment with the five orientations. The CADA model demonstrates that inconsistent solution logics in multicultural urban development present challenges to uniform evaluation. Given the confounding role of professional training in isolating cultural variables, this research frames itself as exploratory theory building rather than hypothesis testing. A provisional pluralistic design framework is proposed to structure how multiple spatial logic systems might be integrated in future validation studies.