Earthbags and Palms as Appropriate Local Materials towards Sustainable Homes in Sinai (Al-Arish) Egypt

Abstract The paper describes main local materials in north Sinai and how to make the best use of it in architectural design without neglecting our IDENTITY. Sinai is rich with all the elements of its environment like the beauty of its nature, the golden sands, majestic mountains, beautiful beaches with amazing palm trees, and in the earth of organisms, water, oil and metals. Although Egypt is a developing country that is suffering from a wide range problem of housing affordability, the contribution of local building materials is almost negligible and directed our main materials by a non-friend material like red brick and cement. For evaluating a building material as appropriate it has to be associated with the whole process of building, starting from the raw material extraction until the final assembly and finishing on site. Apply the local materials (sand – palms) to build a permanent residential home in EL-ARISH with traditional techniques (earthbags) for effective energy saving. The interest in local materials (sand – palms) construction is essential to achieve the planet's equilibrium for sustainable living. And thus, can determine the extent of comfort within the building spaces in order to reach the optimal design as the importance of using these local materials in the building has a great urgency today to reach sustainability in residential building that achieve energy saving and respect the Architectural Identity around El-Arish region. Keywords: earthbag, palm, sustainability, energy saving