Material Sufficiency, Energy Use, and Life-Cycle Carbon in Hot-Arid Residential Buildings: A Pareto-Informed Multi-Criteria Evaluation of Envelope Design Strategies

Hot-arid residential buildings experience persistent cooling demand and increasing material intensity, yet most building-performance studies prioritize operational energy while insufficiently integrating life-cycle carbon and material sufficiency into envelope evaluation. This limits the ability to distinguish between performance gains achieved through passive design efficiency and those dependent on increased material input. This study investigates the interaction between material sufficiency, energy use, and life-cycle carbon in residential buildings across three representative hot-arid climates: Riyadh, Abu Dhabi, and Doha. A Pareto-informed multi-criteria evaluation framework was applied using a standardized mid-rise residential prototype to assess predefined envelope design strategies under consistent operational conditions. Dynamic energy simulations were conducted in DesignBuilder/EnergyPlus, while embodied carbon was quantified through a consistent material inventory approach. Baseline energy use intensity (EUI) values reached 64.98, 83.13, and 93.67 kWh/m²·year for Riyadh, Abu Dhabi, and Doha, respectively, reflecting increasing cooling demand from inland dry to humid coastal conditions. Envelope optimization reduced EUI to 47.33–72.40 kWh/m²·year, while embodied carbon ranged from 40,761.2 to 57,146.2 kgCO₂-eq per configuration. Reduced window-to-wall ratio strategies consistently achieved the most balanced performance across all climates, whereas high-glazing configurations increased energy demand, carbon emissions, and material intensity. The study operationalizes a sufficiency-oriented evaluation perspective that supports climate-responsive envelope decision-making by integrating operational and material performance within a unified comparative framework.