Compact cities as a response to the challenging local environmental constraints in hot arid lands of Algeria

Compact settlements or "Ksur" have been commonly used in the hot dry climate of Algeria in response to imposed local environmental conditions through passive design strategies or means. These strategies include three major levels: settlement planning, building design and building components. A compact settlement provides a protective thermal environment and responds favorably to the harsh environmental stresses. It is built to withstand the excessive heat and mitigates the stresses imposed by the environment on people occupying outdoors and improves indoor comfort with minimum energy consumption. Although, there are now technical means that would allow building design to ignore the climate, there are still good reasons to adopt passive techniques, not only economic, but also to promote environmental sustainability at both local and global levels. This paper aims to give an overview and a comprehensive understanding of the compact city concepts and strategies to cope with the harsh conditions of the desert in a sustainable way. Recommendations and basic principles that may be of benefit in sustainable building and settlement design in the future are also discussed. Erreur ! Signet non defini. (C) 2013 The Authors. Published by Elsevier Ltd.