Hot and dry climate

In addition to attention to natural light as a renewable, costless and environment-friendly source of energy in the late 20th century, numerous studies have been conducted into the effect of natural light on human being’s soul and body and all such studies reiterate the undeniable role of natural lighting on people’s behavior, attitudes, and efficiency. However, in spite of the awareness of the effects of natural light on human beings as well as on the environment, source of lighting in most buildings is still limited to artificial lighting and most of the solutions used in the old architecture with regard to the use of natural lighting have been forgotten nowadays. This paper, based upon a holistic approach and a qualitative research method analyses a few traditional houses in Hot and Dry climate of Iran and showed how their builders by using architectural elements as well as different methods of space organization so to better use light to satisfy the physical and psychological needs of the inhabitants,including visual and heat comfort, health, introducing  variety and increasing space quality. As we will see, this research describes the methods they tried to create a balance between physical and psychological needs of the inhabitants and to supply the required energy.

One of the ways to achieve high energy efficiency in buildings and an effective system is to utilize local architectural experiences. In this connection, the central courtyard is an element that was used in the past to create comfort in the hot and dry climates of Kashan, Iran. A large part of the literature in the past has focused on this space and investigated factors such as height, length, and presence of water in the courtyard, which are directly related to the studied space. This article concerns the hydrodynamic behavior of the wind under the effects of the length-to-height ratio to reduce the temperature of settlements in Kashan's hot and dry climate, aiming to yield the highest efficiency from this element. This study uses Fluent, Energy Plus, and Open Studio software using a descriptive-analytical method to analyze the data. In the end, it is determined that since the prevalent wind in Kashan comes from a northeast front, it can be utilized by placing the longitudinal direction of the central courtyard on its path. In addition, the optimal state in all models suggests the central courtyard has experienced a length-to-height ratio of 1to4, followed by a ratio of 1to5.