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Abstract During the last few decades, glazing has been used widely in office buildings facades all over the world. The aim was to add a rich appearance to the buildings envelopes. Although large areas of glazing can enhance the daylight penetration, it may cause various problems such as the excessive solar heat gain, which could increase the energy needed for cooling, especially in the hot arid climate zone such as the Middle East and North Africa [MENA] region which is our focus as it receives approximately the highest amount of solar radiation if compared with the other regions. Recently, many types of glazing have been developed with different optical properties of light transmittance and solar heat gain coefficient. Thus; there is an increasing need for determining the most suitable glazing types to be applied in office buildings façades in the Hot Arid climate zone of MENA region. In order to achieve this target, different glazing types listed in the International Glazing Data Base have been analyzed by using the Window 7 Simulation software in order to determine their optical properties and glazing performance for single panels as well as double glazing units according to the environmental conditions of this specific climate zone. Smart Village is the house of many multinational companies. All buildings in this complex were designed according to the up-to-date design principals and technologies by using large areas of glazing in the buildings façades in order to give an impressive appearance in addition to link the users to the outside green areas. The glazing type used in almost all buildings of smart village is double glazing with external layer of 8 mm reflective Stopsol Supersilver Dark blue glazing which is not the ideal solution for office buildings as it reflects most of the daylight, thus the users had to use excessive electric lightening during sunny mornings. This study investigates if there are other types of glazing those could be used in order to enhance the glazing performance in these buildings facades according to our previous recommended types regarding only the glazing that can achieve the same appearance to unify the character in this complex. |