Factors Which Influence the Size of the Contemporary Dwelling
Abstract This study investigates the phenomenon of building big dwellings in contemporary Saudi society. It relates the size of the contemporary villa-type dwelling with the traditional dwelling, and it compares it to a number of average (standard) international dwellings. It questions the rationale of its large size; hence, it argues against leaving this trend to continue unchecked. It further defines and discusses factors which influence the dwelling size, i.e. economic, socio-cultural, and new building practice and trade. The aim of this research is to draw attention to this phenomenon, to inform those involved in housing policy and design of the extent of size-related problems in terms of initial construction and furnishing cost and in terms of operating and maintenance life-cycle cost, and to call for further research to investigate its social, environmental, and economic impact on the country and its population.
INTEGRATING ISLAMIC DESIGN PRINCIPLES FOR ACHIEVING FAMILY PRIVACY IN RESIDENTIAL ARCHITECTURE
Islamic Design Principles (IDP) are general guides in the context of the Islamic legal system (Sharia) abstracted for application in the management of the existing Muslim built environment and which could be used for the designing new buildings. Accordingly, they were developed from various Sharia sources among which include the Qur'an and the Hadith, as primary sources. The aim of this paper is to identify Islamic Design Principles which apply to architecture and to use same to demonstrate how they could be applied to achieve family privacy in residential design of the Muslim faithful. The research methodology involved literature search on extant works which identified Islamic Principles and their relevance to residential architecture on one hand and documentation of floor plans of existing houses designed for and occupied by Muslims in Nigeria. A four bedroom duplex among the documented houses was used to demonstrate how family privacy could be achieved using the Islamic Design Principles (IDP) at various design stages such as spatial rearrangement, reorientation, and reconfiguration of functional spaces without compromising global design criteria. In the redesigned floor plans, the design elements that were integrated include those which affected bedrooms, living rooms and other spaces for family interactions to reflect family privacy needs. Overall, the outcome of this paper adds to our understanding of the role the Islamic Design Principles (IDP) could play in no distant future on novel design approaches that support the use of new structural forms, shape and design elements which provides to privacy needs of Muslim faithful as well as satisfy universal design requirements. This paper will find practical implication if it is used as theoretical as well practical support to professionals in designing residences which address specific spiritual values of residents  
Ceramic microwave antennas for mobile applications
Due to their medium to high permittivity values, ceramic microwave materials are attractive as building blocks for miniaturised antenna solutions. Further advantages are low dielectric losses and an excellent temperature stability of standard ceramic materials. Yet, the permittivity of the ceramic material also has a strong influence on the radiation efficiency and bandwidth of the antenna. This implies that in the design process a suitable compromise has to be found between the degree of miniaturisation on the one hand and the antenna efficiency and bandwidth on the other. We describe two approaches towards efficient miniaturised ceramic microwave antennas: the dielectric resonator antenna (DRA) with partial metallisation and the shorting post patch antenna. We focus on design steps taken to ensure both a high degree of miniaturisation and high values of the radiation efficiency, the choice of the ceramic material and the experimental performance of the antennas.