March - April 2020 ISSN: 0193-4120 Page No. 7133 - 7137 7133 Published by: The Mattingley Publishing Co., Inc. The Effect of Low Rise Residential Buildings Design Formation on Energy Performance (Iraq Hot Desert Climate as an Example) Susan Abed Hassan 1 1 Department of Architectural engineering, College of Engineering, Al- Nahrain University-Iraq Email: dr.susanabedhassan@eng.nahrainuniv.edu.iq ,suzana302002@yahoo.com Article Info Volume 83 Page Number: 7133 - 7137 Publication Issue: March - April 2020 Article History Article Received: 24 July 2019 Revised: 12 September 2019 Accepted: 15 February 2020 Publication: 06 April 2020 Abstract Residential buildings design formation varies according to the environmental, constructional and functional requirements. The environmental aspect is the most significant requirements that connect with energy performance. Last decades considerable attentions were made about the energy consumption for residential buildings. Previous studies showed that total energy consumption for residential building reached to 40% from the total energy consumption. This research problem is that no obvious recent research about the effect of the low rise residential buildings design formation as a prototype of residential buildings in Iraq on reducing energy consumption. In this study several options for low rise residential buildings design formation were selected for the assessment of energy consumption. Software simulations were used to estimate the energy performance model for different residential buildings design formation. Results demonstrate that contiguity of residential buildings had better results in energy consumption reached to 48% as compared to buildings with no contiguity. Also buildings with north orientation reduce energy to 14% as compared to other orientations. 1. Introduction The building manufacturing consume large portion of total energy consumption for cities during construction and operation phase[1]. This was accompanied by the appearance of rise of temperatures degree in all world countries, especially in the countries with hot desert climate like Iraq. Last decades many attempts were made to developresidential building's design formations to adapt the climate changes and consume less energy. In order to guide the designer to most efficiently design formation. The most prominent features for the design formation are the orientation and contiguity of buildings. Many recent literatures studied the relationship from different sides of view. El-Deeb, et.al (2012) [2]examined the impact of the shape and configuration of typical buildings form, on the energy consumption in the Middle East hot climate cities. Bekkouche, et.al.(2013) [3] studied the effect of building orientation on demands of energy in hot desert climate, and compared it with the effect of insulation of buildings materials. Salvati, et.al (2017) [4]studied the impacts of urban configuration compactness on the energy demands for buildings.Nasaruddin, et.al(2018) [5] studied the computer programs simulation in estimate needs of energy for building in different stages of construction. Hassan(2018) [6] studied the effect of shapes and materials for residential buildings on the energy demands for hot desert climate. From recent studies it can be concluded that there is no obvious awareness about the effect of the low rise residential buildings formation (contiguity and orientation) on reducing energy performance in Iraq hot desert climates. From recent studies it can conclude that research problem no obvious research about the effect of the low rise residential buildings design