A positive energy building for the Middle East climate: ReStart4Smart Solar House at Solar Decathlon Middle East 2018

The city of Dubai (UAE), in accordance with its program of transformation into one of the most smart and sustainable cities, hosted the 2018 edition of Solar Decathlon, the first in the Middle East (SDME 2018). The harsh climate of UAE, along with the booming construction industry and energy consumptions and CO2 emissions among the world's highest, tasked participating university teams to find innovative solutions able to drive the region building sector towards a more sustainable future. Sapienza University of Rome participated, representing Italy, to SDME 2018 with the project ReStart4Smart, a full scale prototype of a single family energy positive smart home specifically designed for the Middle East climate and fully consistent with the Arab culture. This article examines the ReStart4Smart project in terms of energy strategies, architectural concept and technological solutions adopted, in order to verify, through a detailed analysis of energy simulations and monitoring carried out on the prototype built in Dubai, the expected performance levels. Results achieved demonstrate how the Restart4 Smart project represents, consistently with the Arab tradition, a valid proposal for zero-energy intelligent housing, perfectly responsive to the social demand emerging from the populations of the Middle East.