37º IAHS World Congress on Housing: - Universidad de Cantabria

XXXVII <strong>IAHS</strong><strong>World</strong> <strong>Congress</strong> on HousingOctober 26 – 29, 2010, Santander, SpainCODE: 328CULTURAL & ENVIRONMENTAL CONSIDERATION TOHELP SUSTAINABILITY IN HOUSING DESIGN CASESTUDY: COURTYARD HOUSES IN YAZD, CENTRAL IRANDr. Iraj Etessam, AIAProfessor of Architecture & Urban DesignUniversity of Tehran, Irane-mail: ietessam@hotmail.comKeywords: Cultural, Environmental, Sustainability, Globalization, House DesignAbstract: In a globalizing world and computer age, where the information andcommunication technology has brought many similarities around the world in terms of socioeconomictrends, consumption habits, building materials, building technologies, house designand many more, there are still some ‘’pockets of resistance’’ in terms of local habits,economy and culture.In order to mitigate these contrasting issues and to reach a consensus, at least in the housedesign sector, we should carefully study and examine the successful examples ofenvironmentally sound and culturally suitable living spaces, such as courtyard houses in hot& arid climate of Yazd in central Iran, not of course to imitate them, but to figure out theirpositive aspects and try to apply them into the modern house design of today.The goal is to reach to a kind of house design which recognizes the facts & problems oftoday such as urban land scarcity and its high cost, higher urban densities, smaller livingspaces, expensive building materials and installation, etc, etc, but still could provide thecomfort, energy saving and sustainability of the old courtyard houses.We are all aware that the whole world is now facing the energy crisis and we do know thathouses are the major consumers of the valuable source of fossil fuel energy, and here is wherewe can learn from the energy saving facts of old courtyard houses. My intention is to figureout and expose the major sustainable elements of the Yazd courtyard houses and apply theminto modern housing design, as much as possible.37º <strong>IAHS</strong> <strong>World</strong> <strong>Congress</strong> On Housing Science 188