Special techniques of traditional architecture in reducing the energy consumption of buildings and its use in contemporary architecture (case study: Houses in the city of Homs in Syria)

The discussion of saving energy and rationalizing its use in buildings is one of the most important issues of the modern era. And with a little look at the ruling life in the past and traditional architectural techniques, we find that the foundations on which itis built depend on the good use of different natural energies by finding architectural solutions to save energy.Today, Syria is going through a major energy crisis after a war that has lasted more than ten years, in which huge vital facilities have been destroyed and the ability to invest in oil and natural gas energy to generate the energy needed to sustain life from gone And due to the lack of electricity produced, it is considered necessary to find alternative solutions for energy supply. And assuming that architects are responsible for the consumption patterns in the design of their buildings, then it is necessary to rethink the designs that are created after the war to reduce energy consumption as much as possible.It is estimated that residential and commercial buildings consume about 40% of the world's total energy. If construction consumption and construction processes are added to this ratio, the share of buildings in energy consumption increases to about 50%. And these buildings are responsible for 45% of the total carbon emissions. And because buildings are one of the biggest sources of energy loss; it is necessary to control and regulate the conditions of the living environment inside the building.Therefore, the current research with the objective of traditional residential architecture and its vocabulary in the old city of Homs, which is built in such a way that it meets human needs and maintains the rationalization of energy consumption. Therefore, the question raised by the research is: How can the architectural vocabulary of historical residential buildings of the city be used in the reconstruction of contemporary architectural buildings?

This research has a theoretical approach based on the goal it pursues. The research method is descriptive-analytical; and the required information has been collected through document studies, library sources, written sources and maps. And the identification and analysis of the residential buildings of Homs city has been done through field visits and analytical observation of the buildings of the investigated city. In addition, in-depth interviews with the residents of the old neighborhoods to know the hidden dimensions of the local elements in the houses, and of course interviews with the knowledgeable and old-timers (the original residents of the neighborhood over 68 years old) who have historical memory and knowledge of the historical developments of the neighborhood. Then the data analysis was done based on the content analysis method.The sample studied is the houses of the old city of Homs. The old city of Homs has historical and traditional buildings from the Mamluk and Ottoman eras and has remained with minimal changes. And contemporary buildings that have been built since the French colonial period and independence until today.

After examining the characteristics of the native housing architecture of the city of Homs as an environmental architecture, in this part of the research, the positive and negative points of these elements are identified and alternative solutions for the negative ones are sought to reach the vocabulary that is used in residential buildings today. New ones are built to be usable in the city of Homs after the war to save energy.As you can see in the picture above, unlike the new areas of Homs, the compact plan of the old city and the shape of the streets, in addition to the existence of some existing buildings that are still in good condition, is one of the architectural strengths of the old city. . And the important point that is brought up is that this situation should not be harmed in new construction works and new buildings should be adapted based on the general shape of the old city.But regarding the features of residential buildings that can be used in new buildings today, a few points can be mentioned in this case:The extension of contemporary buildings is towards east-west to reduce the amount of solar radiation and air penetration from the west, and the roof of the last floor of the building is built in the form of a gable.And today, with the impossibility of building houses that have an internal courtyard, we can replace the courtyard with a balcony, provided that it has certain characteristics to provide the required shade. You can create cooling by using shadows.As for the walls, and given that today it is difficult to build with stone in the traditional way, contemporary methods and modern building materials are likely to be used, taking into account that the outer layer of the wall is rubbed with stone to its overall proportions. The shape of the buildings and in order to reduce the heat transfer, it is recommended to use the air space inside the walls Today, the city of Homs is suffering from a crisis of energy shortage due to the long war, and of course, this is due to the direct dependence on non-renewable energy sources, as well as the difficulty of supplying them due to the high cost of production. Therefore, as a solution to the problem of lack of energy, architects today see an opportunity through post-war reconstruction, creating buildings with low energy and relying on natural energy to create a suitable space and try to reduce heat loss. The main goal of this research is to provide solutions for reusing the vocabulary of native architecture in accordance with the modern era, so that it can benefit the new buildings that are built in the city after the war. As you can see in the results, the most important elements that should be present in new buildings suitable for the climate of Homs city are: controlling air resistance and obtaining the maximum amount of air flow, in addition to providing less heat and creating shade as much as possible. . Also, the use of external walls made of materials with high thermal resistance should be considered, the higher the thermal resistance, the less heat transfer to the architectural space.