Windcatcher

This paper investigates the function of windcatchers in dry regions in Middle East and compares them in different fields in two areas including Yazd-Iran, and Egypt. The study exامینes windcatchers in these areas in terms of cooling system and forms, with different plans, forms, constituent components and decorations.Reassessment of windcatchers in these areas can shed light on these differences. Survey was carried out by systematic comparison sampling. Comparison of windcatcher components and performance in two areas of the Middle East can result in a comprehensive understanding of the differences in these two areas. However, to keep factors affecting windcatcher components constant, two windcatchers in two similar regions are investigated.Case comparison between windcatchers in Iran and Egypt in terms of the constituent components can be informative about the windcatcher architecture in two regions with similar climates and different cultures and can give us general knowledge of the issue. Findings of the research have shown that windcatchers have formed a cooling system in the Middle East traditional buildings and their primary function is conditioning using the wind renewable energy. The cooling system works in two ways: through displacement and displacement and evaporation. The latter has been particularly used for hot and dry climate. In hot and arid regions of the Middle East, the windcatcher shapes were determined according to the prevailing wind direction.

Energy efficiency in office buildings has been the center of attention for many researches. This special attention is due to highly energy consumption in this building type. Refinement of facade and building’s envelop is a good approach to reduce buildings energy requirements. Double skin facade concepts are commonly used to achieve that object. Although the concept is not new, there is a growing tendency from the architects to put it into practice. However inappropriate selection of technical parameters in this kind of façade, such as its interior/ exterior openings, layers, materials and sهادیng device would lead to reverse expected results. The objective of this study is to improve and optimize the thermal performance of an office building in hot and dry climate. For this purpose a suitable double skin façade concept is designed to reduce the building’s annual energy requirements. This concept is optimized by integrating with a windcatcher. The optimization is performed based on simulating a designed office building by Energy Plus software. The results revealed that double skin façade integrated with wind catcher can significantly reduce annual energy requirement by 26.65%. The proposed solution can be considered as an effective platform for sustainable architecture and reduction of energy consumption.