Abstract
Traditional architecture of the historical cities of Iran contains valuable lessons related to architecture and urban design. A group of these strategies are those used in outdoor urban spaces in desert cities providing a safe and sustainable microclimate for pedestrian. This research paper will highlight some of these strategies by doing a field study research in hot summer and cold winter in Kashan, a historical city of Esfahan Province. The weather data are collected in 11-12 July 2011 and 11-12 Jan 2012 by a mobile Kestrel Personal Weather station in the traditional part of the city. The collected data are analyzed for human thermal condition by UTCI (Universal Thermal Climate Index) on the psychrometric chart. The different thermal zones on this chart are compared with people's behaviour according to their exposure time, clothing and activity. The collected weather data of observation days are compared in four levels of long-term meso climate, short-term meso climate, local climate and microclimate. To speed up the analyzing process a new software is designed called SIKRON. The result of this research has shown the effect of architectural strategies on modifying the microclimate condition in hot summer and cold winter for outdoor living in hot-arid climate.
Highlights
Despite of harsh climatic condition of desert regions, traditional architecture of the historical cities in Iran, have some valuable lessons for climatic consideration in architecture and urban design
The Universal Thermal Climate Index (UTCI)1 is one of the indices that provide an assessment of outdoor thermal environment in bio-meteorological applications based on the equivalence of the dynamic physiological response predicted by a model of human thermoregulation, which was coupled with a state-of-the-art clothing model [3]
To control the intervening factors affecting the observation method, the collected data of the fixed and moving Kestrel weather station is compared with other climatic data of meteorology station [16] of Kashan in four levels: 1- long term meteorology data of the city as the representative of the typical urban climate, 2short term meteorology data as the representative of the short term urban climate, 3- the collected data of the fixed Kestrel data logger on the roof of a building as the representative of the local climate. 4- The data collected by the moving Kestrel in different outdoor areas as the microclimate of the observed places
Summary
To help architects and designers for better decision making in design procedure, some thermal indices are provided for prediction according to climatic condition. The first groups of thermal outdoor indices are based on thermal stress model Cold stress indices such as Wind Chill Equivalent Temperature (WCET) are prepared for cold conditions. The second group of thermal outdoor indices are prepared base on heat budget model. They are capable to evaluate both cold and hot conditions such as Perceived Temperature (PT), Temperature Humidity Index (THI), and Universal Thermal Climate Index (UTCI). The latest index (UTCI) is based on comprehensive heat budget model of human biometeorology. It is being prepared by a group of specialists [1] and is supposed to cover all shortcomings of other indices [2]. UTCI is used for data analysis on cold and hot conditions of the studied places
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