سیده زینب عمادیان رضوی

Determining the range of thermal comfort in the outdoor space is complicated, and since the presence of thermal comfort helps more people to be in the outdoor space, it is important. In the current research, it has been tried to determine the thermal comfort limit of people in the outdoor space of traditional and restored buildings in the hot and dry climate of Yazd city. For this purpose, a field monitoring was carried out in the hot season of the five central courtyards of the Yazd faculty of Art and Architecture as buildings that have been changed from residential to educational use, which includes the measurement of climatic information at the same time as the completion of 389 thermal comfort questionnaires by the students of the faculty; Then, with the help of Ray Man and SPSS software, the obtained information was analyzed and after checking the linear regression charts, the range of thermal comfort for people in the central courtyards of the faculty as a microclimate in the hot and dry area of ​​Yazd city between the range of 16.5-28 degrees Celsius based on the Physiologically Equivalent Temperature index (PET) was obtained. Due to the fact that the combination of climatic and geographical factors for each specific region will lead to a different understanding of the thermal comfort conditions for the people of that community, this comfort range is different from the comfort ranges in other regions that have been determined in numerous researches. From the comparison of the studied yards, it was found that the more the yard has a height-to-width ratio and the more enclosed it is, the more shade it will receive and, finally,more thermal comfort during the day and night for the hot days of the year.

Windcatchers in Yazd are a prominent example of energy saving through building design in hot-arid climates. Therefore, careful quantitative and numeric study of their performance and behavior can be beneficial towards achieving climate-friendly solutions. this research is carried out based on field studies and long-term measurement of climatic factors in a traditional windcatcher in Yazd. In this study the results of long-term measurements of wind flows around and inside the windcatcher of Mortaz house as a sample in Yazd’s historical fabric are presented to examine its performance in utilizing wind energy.  A local station for extracting micro-climatic data from the study region was installed and the windcatcher was equipped with devices and censors for climate data measurement. comparing the velocity profiles for the outward airflow of the windcatcher and the local wind flow in hottest and coldest days of the year indicated a higher conformity between the abovementioned airflows in the cooling period (hot days of the year). Furthermore, the higher velocity of winds in summer compared to winter in the region which causes increased airflow inside the windcatcher during the cooling season also indicates better performance during the cooling season compared to the heating season (cold days of the year). This also applies to ventilation during the night. Physical properties of the windcatcher were also compared with local climatic conditions. The orientation of the windcatcher allows it to receive 80% of dominant wind flows during summer, among which 48% are desired wind flows. therefore the goal of this paper is to present the pattern of wind behavior in the studied windcatcher in order to examine its conformity with local climatic conditions.

This study is done with the aim of evaluating heat loss of earth-sheltered buildings in heating season in comparison with conventional buildings above the ground. Literature review of earth-sheltered architecture shows that although this idea has a long rich history in Iranian architecture and urban design, limited researches related to evaluating thermal performance of this kind of structures has been done. Additionally, previous researches have usually considered thermal behavior of earth-sheltered buildings in cooling season and neglected the effect of earth’s thermal stability on mitigating heat loss in heating season. In this research, different modes of contact with earth are modeled for an earth-sheltered building in the city of Yazd and the heat loss in heating season is calculated and compared with buildings above the ground. In addition, to calculate soil temperature, the formula developed by Labs, is employed. The findings show that heat losses of earth sheltered models decrease with increasing contact with earth’s surface, insomuch that heat loss in a model with three surfaces in contact with earth (North, East & West), was estimated about 44% of the model above the ground. Altogether, it can be concluded that earth-sheltered architecture can make considerable energy savings during heating season in hot arid climates.

In the process of place attachment, i.e. the emotional bond between people and special places, people contribute meanings to spaces and keep them in their memory. Many physical and social factors influence the formation of place attachment. Places need to have a level of quality and be beyond the concepts of space and location. Canter sketched the theory of place, comprising three key components: physical, functional and psychological ones (meanings people attribute to a place). Among these, microclimate is an affective factor in place-making that has been neglected among researches concerning place and place attachment. The perceived microclimate has a role in people’s behavior, their bonds with places and how they experience and remember the place. Indeed microclimate has an impact on meanings that people attribute to places and is modified by physical characteristics of a place and affects people’s functions, so it is nested in the structure of place. By considering the significant role of the sense of attachment in improving the quality of designed spaces, this paper discusses the role of the microclimate in place-making and people’s place attachment. In this regard, we first review the literature of place, place attachment and microclimate and next the relationships between these terms will be clarified. In the second part of the research, these relationships will be evaluated in the case study of School of Art and Architecture, Yazd University (Rasoulian House), which is the offspring of the land use change of 11 traditional houses, built in a way to harmonize with nature and climate. This case study was chosen because of the various microclimates in different parts of the house, and also with the land use change to an educational environment, many students studying there for years make the survey possible. We interviewed the students and 70 questionnaires consisting of 21 closed-ended Likert-type scale questions and a few open questions were distributed among them. Participants were BA students in architecture who were studying for more than 1.5 years in the school so they would be familiar with all parts of the faculty. The questions were asked about different parts and classes of the school so they could be compared. Participants also described places and the reasons for attachment to them using words and phrases. The feedbacks of 52 questionnaires were analyzed and the results indicated that microclimate was one of the many physical factors affecting place attachment, although it may be less significant than other components. The level of attachment was different within various parts of the school and the participants mentioned microclimate (sun, wind, coolness, shade, quality of light etc.) while describing the reasons of being attached to places along with other factors such as vegetation, texture, views, enclosure, color, space proportion and etc. Microclimate had an effect on students’ attendance, functions and choice of places, and different places were preferred during different seasons. This research also showed that accumulation of various microclimates in traditional houses is a factor for their quality improvement, which makes residents directly sense the thermal qualities and keep them in their memories of the places.

Earth-Sheltered Architecture is an architectural concept extensively used in traditional Persian architecture of hot arid climates. It is now gaining popularity as a means for energy saving in buildings. This paper explains diverse typologies of subterranean and semi-subterranean buildings. Key advantages of this construction include its energy efficiency, improved building protection, lower maintenance costs and increased privacy. Its main disadvantages include increased excavation and soil solidification costs, drainage and waterproofing problems, claustrophobic spaces and ventilation problems. By presenting scientific data and some case studies showing the impact of depth on the thermal stability of the subterranean spaces, recommendations are made for promotion of this architectural typology in contemporary Iranian situation.

Ekhvan-os-Safa (literally the Fraternity of Earnestness) was a prolific activist group of scholars whose work greatly influenced the Islamic thought in later centuries. Written in a straightforward language understandable for all, their encyclopedic treatises refer to all available sources with no prejudice towards any religion or belief. They broadly cover four key subjects: mathematics, natural sciences, philosophy and logic, as well as canon law. In their view: the cosmos is a unified whole; the material world is a reflection of a Platonic archetypal world; numbers have a Pythagorean significance in addition to their quantification property; there is a nine-tiered hierarchy of existence; the created world is subject to continuous manipulation by its divine Creator; and the human being resembles the universe. It is argued that the impact of these beliefs could be traced in the features of Persian Islamic architecture such as unity of elements, hierarchy, and use of a symbolic geometry and proportions.