Seasonal impact of climate on the pattern of urban family life: Indigenous courtyard houses of Baghdad regions of the hot dry climates

Abstract

The climatic conditions prevailing in the regions of the hot-dry climates have had a direct and distinct impact on the pattern of family living activities, particularly in the urban areas; here, the indigenous courtyard houses have been developed over the years by a process of trial and error to ameliorate, if not to overcome, such adverse climatic conditions. Therefore, the local master-builders( Ustawat Mi'mari-yoon) have developed designs to cater for such variations. As a result, they expected the inhabitants to transfer their living activities from one level to another in pursuit of the most appropriate thermal environmental conditions for that particular season; the inhabitants have been doing just that for decades (if not for centuries). This is a case of achieving desirable thermal environmental conditions not by mechanical devices, but by architectural design in concepts, plans, forms, sections and elevations, as well as in details, structure, construction and the choice of building materials, finishes and landscaping.