Passive Cooling and Heating Systems in Desert Architecture

Yazd-Iran

In this section we will try to understand more about the cooling and heating systems in an arid, hot and dry climate such as Yazd in Iran. The Islamic Republic of Iran covers an area of 1,648,000 square kilometres in south western Asia. Iran has 26 provinces and Yazd is one of them.  

The geography of Yazd:

Environmental and natural phenomena play a very significant role in laying the region's interrelated cultural, economic and social infrastructures. This is specially true with provinces in the saharan regions of Iran such as Yazd and Sistan & Baluchistan (all being hot and arid territories).

Yazd province lies in the heart of the country's sun drenched central desert scorched by one of the world's most arid territories. It covers an area of 76,156 square Kilometres.

Average annual rainfall which usually comes down as sporadic drizzle from mid-winter till early spring is about 59mm on the plains and 112-470mm in mountains areas. For an extensively arid area as Yazd, this little rainfall has left the region with few water resources.

In the past, without modern facilities, it was only the clever architecture of the buildings that enabled people to tolerate the hot summer. The ventilation structures called Badgirs were the most important means by which the interior was cooled.