No abstract

Traditional houses in hot dry regions of Iran provide conditions in which the inhabitants could cope with the severe climate. Previous research shows that these vernacular houses work as a complex passive cooling system that modifies the internal climatic conditions. This complex modifying system has various components or sub-systems of which one is the existence of separate seasonal rooms in the house. This study focuses on the use and performance of seasonal rooms. It used a range of different methods including a socio-cultural questionnaire survey, interviews, personal observations and thermal comfort and temperature variation surveys. It shows how these architectural spaces work as climatic elements to provide comfort, and how they are perceived by current users.

No abstract

There is widespread assumption that vernacular earth dwellings in hot climates, particularly those in central Iran are climate-responsive and provide thermal comfort in hot periods even without the aid of electro-mechanical cooling systems. The paper describes two surveys undertaken to investigate the provision of comfortable indoor temperatures in vernacular central-courtyard earth dwellings in Yazd in hot seasons. Firstly, a thermal comfort survey established the comfort temperature for the residents of vernacular dwellings during hot summer days in Yazd. Secondly, the diversity of temperatures that could be found within different spaces of typical vernacular dwellings on typical summer days was investigated by measuring and recording the temperature variations. Recorded temperatures were afterwards compared with the comfort temperature (zone) obtained from the thermal comfort survey in order to discover whether indoor temperatures fall inside (or outside) the comfort zone. This showed to what extent and vernacular passively-cooled houses could provide comfortable indoor temperatures.