Towards A Sustainable Universal Code for Educational Buildings | ||||
| Port-Said Engineering Research Journal | ||||
| Articles in Press, Accepted Manuscript, Available Online from 10 August 2025 | ||||
| Document Type: Review Article | ||||
| DOI: 10.21608/pserj.2025.384218.1410 | ||||
 View on SCiNiTO | ||||
| Authors | ||||
Tasnim Hussien  1; ashraf elmokadem 2; Nancy Badawy3; Ayman Halabya4
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| 1Researcher (corresponding author), Department of Architecture and Urban Planning, Port Said University, Port Said, Egypt | ||||
| 2Professor at Architecture and Urban planning department port saidUniversity | ||||
| 3Faculty of engineering and Digital Design, Dar A Interior design Department, College of Architectural Engineering and Digital Design, Dar Al Uloom University (DAU), Al Fallah District, Riyadh 13314, Saudi Arabia. l Uloom University | ||||
| 4Adjunct Lecturer, Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, Urbana, IL 61801. | ||||
| Abstract | ||||
| To achieve a truly sustainable future for educational environments, we need a unified approach, but current regional building codes are fragmented and lack standardized global guidelines. This creates a critical gap, making it tough to identify universally applicable design principles for space planning, lighting, acoustics, and safety. This research tackles this challenge head-on. We conducted a systematic comparative analysis of educational building codes in the United States, Saudi Arabia, and Egypt, examining 25 architectural and design parameters. Our study revealed significant regional variations influenced by socioeconomic conditions, climate, and culture. For example, U.S. codes prioritize adaptive reuse and energy efficiency, Saudi regulations blend cultural values with extreme climate resilience, and Egyptian standards focus on cost-effective spatial optimization for high-density populations. By synthesizing these insights with international sustainability benchmarks (UN SDGs, LEED), we propose a human-centered framework offering evidence-based policy guidelines for key design elements. This work provides actionable strategies to optimize learning environments, occupant safety, resource efficiency, and environmental stewardship simultaneously. Ultimately, our findings offer policymakers, architects, and educators a scalable toolkit to develop equitable, climate-responsive learning infrastructure globally, laying the groundwork for more harmonized and effective international standards. | ||||
| Keywords | ||||
| Educational Building Codes; Human-Centered Framework; Comparative Analysis; Floor planning; educational building | ||||
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Statistics Article View: 26 |
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