Energy efficiency is one of the most important lessons which may be learnt from all kinds of traditional buildings especially in oriental countries such as Iran. It is very important to explain and rethink about courtyard as an invaluable archetypes in traditional architecture of Iran. Literature review of the paper show that courtyard in general, is a place in which family in all kinds, gather for inter-generation relationships. In traditional architecture of Iran courtyard enjoys some practical functions as well as metaphorical ideas. This paper is to make a comparative modeling of summer courtyard and winter courtyard for cold climate with particular reference to Iranian cold climate in North West parts in which most of winter times, conventional courtyards are useless because of harsh climate. Thus the research focuses on analyzing temperature of courtyard in once in case – winter courtyard; and then in control – summer courtyard. Methodology of the paper focuses on case – control techniques in which one sample plays the role of case and the other sample is considered as control. Ardebil traditional houses selected as case studies of the research for modeling. The results of the paper emphasize on efficiency of winter courtyard in comparison with summer courtyard.
