ABSTRACT
The hot-dry climate poses environmental challenges of high temperature and this extreme temperature has to be catered for at the design stage to avoid absolute dependence on active energy systems for indoor comfort. In Nigeria, where power supply is epileptic and erratic, most educational buildings depend on energy excessively to attain indoor comfort. Furthermore recent statistics show that buildings consume over 40% of non-renewable energy worldwide, which does not demonstrate well for sustainable development. Therefore the aim of this research is to investigate the potentials of integrating passive architecture principles and renewable energy sources in the design of educational buildings in hot dry climate in order to achieve self-sustaining educational buildings which will facilitate learning and overcome the state of discomfort with minimum energy utilization. A case study approach using a checklist is employed for the research within which three cases were purposely selected. The case study findings were then assessed based on the research variables and discussed by comparison with the secondary sources, so that conclusions were finally drawn. The result of the research shows that adopting certain passive design strategies through appropriate selection of building materials, proper building orientation, adequate natural ventilation, evaporative cooling, building form and application of some renewable energy sources can provide natural cooling and reduce the energy used for cooling in educational buildings. The research concludes that this will limit the energy demand for cooling and will also result in an adapted architecture to the climatic environment.