Today’s architecture swarms with concepts of energy and resource efficientbuildings. In contrast, vernacular buildings are characterized by low-tech climaticresponsive strategies and by their inhabitants’ resource and energy savings practices during construction and operation of their dwellings. That makes vernacular buildings highly relevant to resource efficiency in contemporary building research. The main focus of this study is to explore and analyse human behaviourto reach responsive and conscious resource efficient solutions in two differentclimatic context; in Egypt and Denmark. The aim is to suggest sustainable principles out of human conduct for contemporary resource efficient building practice.Though Danish and Egyptian climates and cultures are very different from eachother some human approaches to sustainability appeared to be similar. That wasevident through a comparative analytical study applying case-study methodologyfor two courtyard adobe dwellings; one in each country. The paper contributes toexisting vernacular sustainable building studies by filling a knowledge gap on howhuman factors is a key parameter in acclimatization in buildings and how that caninfluence resource efficient building practice.