Culturally Accepted Green Architecture Toolbox : pre-design helping tool and rating system for new built environment in Egypt

This paper describes and analyses the process of developing computer software to incorporate both green architecture design strategies and their cultural indicators in one easy tool to help a designer to match his / her design with green architectural principles in the pre-design stage. The three resources of architectural identity in Egyptian, current and past green building practices with the up to date foreign knowledge of green architecture were combined in one toolbox with their building cultural indicators in Egypt. Using the toolbox in primary design stage helps the designer by providing more information about each green design strategy, how to use it effectively. Finally, the toolbox provides indicators about how much the whole project will be accepted in Egyptian society and to what extend it applies green architectural principles. For verification reason, the toolbox was tested with two groups of students in Egypt and The Netherlands as well as professional architects from both countries.