Climatic Building Envelope Employed in Vernacular Residential Architecture in Golestan-Iran

Climate is one of the many factors such as socio-cultural values, economics, materials,administrative factors and technology that influence architectural forms. The climatic solutions effecting on architecture,differ in various regions, cultures, time and technology. The climate of the province of Golestan plays an active rolein the formation and diversity of vernacular dwellings. This region is in contact with numerous environmental factors.It is limited by Alborz Mountain in the south, by Turkmenistan desert in the north-east, and by Caspian Sea in thenorth-west bringing about high humidity in this province. With this background, the paper's question raised: "Howdo the climatic design principles of vernacular architecture respond to microclimates in this region?" In this paper,the focus is on building's envelopes and shells in three local climatic scopes of the region. The paper is based on acombination of research methodologies: field research (integrating case studies) and archival research. The climaticdata are being analyzed by Mahoney tables providing preliminary design recommendations. They are grouped undereight headings: layout, spacing, ventilation, openings (size, position and protection), the relation between buildingand ground, veranda, wall and roof. This essay argues about the knowledge and skill of vernacular and traditionalbioclimatic construction suggesting conceptual strategies for improve current dwelling aiming to a sustainable future.