Climatic Compatibility of Courtyard Houses, Based on Shading- sunlit Index; Case Studies: Traditional Houses in Kashan & Ardabil Cities

Abstract

Today, access to sustainable environment for more presence of humans in open space should improve the quality of open spaces and human thermal comfort. Hence, the courtyard as an open space is an important element in solar radiation absorption and providing thermal comfort. The aim of this paper is to investigate the climatic performance of traditional courtyard houses, according to shading and sunlit in two cities with different climates: Kashan city (hot-arid climate) and Ardabil city (cold climate). In order to carry out this research, firstly ten types of traditional houses in Kashan and Ardabil were chosen. , thereafter, the shadow and sunlit in almost all floors and walls of courtyards were calculated and analyzed in June and December using Ecotect software simulations. In order to assess the compatibility level of the selected historical samples of each city with the region's climate, the average of a composite indexes (shading-sunlit index of walls and floor) of the selected houses in two cities have been compared. The average shading-sunlit index for the houses in Kashan is 0.43 and for the selected houses in Ardabil is 0.40; meaning that in both cities, the houses are relatively compatible with the region's climate and the cases in Kashan city show more compatible to some extent. Also the results of studies demonstrate that in case studies in both cities, the amount of shaded surfaces have appropriate climate compatibility in warm months; while, in terms of sunlit, they do not have an appropriate climate compatibility in cold months.