Vernacular houses in Yazd: Natural elements

Abstract

Given more than seven thousand years of urbanization and highly diverse topographic and<br />geographical conditions, Iran is one of the treasures through the world's architectural history. Climatic diversity,<br />on the one hand, and long history of living, on the other hand, has led to noteworthy and valuable achievement in<br />architecture and urbanization within this country. However, these elements are less utilized in today architecture. Urban<br />life, technological advances and excessive economical demands have extremely made people apart from the nature<br />and formed their mind within an iterative mechanized order. Furthermore, human being is a part of nature and his/<br />her close relationship to the nature provides him/her with survival and longevity. In Iranian houses, a space indicating<br />relationship between human and nature is courtyard. Central courtyards within vernacular houses in Yazd provided<br />inhabitants with terrific living conditions and enhanced their living quality by utilizing natural elements such as water,<br />wind, light, and plants. Today, due to providing more houses regardless of their quality, not only are natural elements<br />ignored in human life; but also in many cases, buildings do not have essential features of living. This paper attempts<br />to explore how to create and enter natural elements in apartments. This paper aims to investigate natural elements on<br />vernacular houses in Yazd. A descriptive, analytic methodology along with a case study (vernacular houses in Yazd)<br />were employed and data was collected through library and field research.