Building Orientation; Climatic Adaptation Technique in The Vernacular Architecture of Cold Regions of Iran (Case Study: Vernacular Houses in Hamadan)

In recent years, the importance of energy conservation has increased due to the lack of energy resources and environmental problems caused by the use of non-renewable energy. Energy efficiency in the housing sector is very high and consumption is expected to increase as the world’s population grows. Creating comfort in buildings against climate problems is allocated to high energy consumption. It is appropriate to study the solutions employed in vernacular housing to deal with climatic problems and provide comfort for residents. Buildings consistent with the climate can reduce energy consumption. The vernacular architecture reflects the harmony between architecture and climate and has been providing comfort for the residents with passive solar techniques. This article addresses several vernacular houses in Hamadan with a cold mountain climate in the west of Iran in order to identify effective factors in reducing energy consumption. This study is aimed to find the most important factor in the formation of climate-adaptive vernacular houses in Hamadan. In this article, effective climatic factors are initially extracted for vernacular houses through previous studies and a variety of factors are then analyzed by an investigation into vernacular houses in Hamadan and simulation of some factors. The orientation was noticed as an important factor in previous studies, which is quantitatively investigated in this article by simulating vernacular houses. The houses are simulated by Design Builder software based on two factors: orientation and the window-to-wall ratio. It is concluded that although various factors contribute to the reduction of energy consumption in vernacular architecture, the most important factor is the orientation of houses toward the sun. The orientation particularly affects the area of openings on a facade and the energy consumption for heating. The results show that other protective factors against cold climate depend on the orientation of houses towards the sun and are formed based on it.