Evaluation of Social Sustainability Design Aspects In A Recently Developed Student Hostel At UAEU

        In the field of sustainability, the focus is usually on the economic and environmental realms, while the social realm is getting the less attention compared with other realms. This less concern about the social sustainability has been experienced also locally in UAE, where buildings are leaning towards adopting green design approaches but mainly economically and environmentally sustainable. The social variable in student hostels as a type of buildings and micro-communities at the same time is very essential. In UAE, there is a rare focus given to student hostels. This research aims at investigating the social sustainability design aspects in student hostels in UAE to come up with suggested design guidelines for this type of buildings.  To achieve this aim, a conceptual framework for a socially sustainable student hostel design is developed to investigate a case study of a recently developed student hostel at UAE University utilizing a mix of qualitative and quantitative tactics. These research investigations let to answer the main research question of to what extent are the recent existing student hostels being designed to be socially sustainable? It is hoped that the findings of this research are going to help renovating the existing hostels to be more socially sustainable and to design new student hostels in a more socially sustainable manner.