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Articulation of the Climatic Performance of Chaharsofeh Houses in Zavareh Reframing the Section as a Vertical Passive Cooling Core in the Architecture of Iran’s Hot-Arid Regions
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Hoda Kanani Moghadam  , Seyed Majid Mofidi Shemirani * , Farah Habib |
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Abstract: (15 Views) |
Global warming driven by climate change and CO₂ emissions has increased building energy use and the cost of cooling. Under these conditions, natural cooling offers an effective pathway to achieve thermal comfort. The Chaharsafheh houses of Zavareh constitute a salient urban–rural housing type adapted to Iran’s hot-dry climate, in which architectural form and cooling strategies are deeply interwoven; nevertheless, prior research has largely stopped short of explicating how specific architectural elements relate to climatic performance. Addressing this gap, the present study investigates the climatic schema of Chaharsafheh with an emphasis on the architectural section as the key mechanism for natural cooling and ventilation. Framed as an explanatory–descriptive–exploratory case study in the sense of Yin, the research combines archival sources with a new field survey of 16 Chaharsafheh dwellings with basements in Zavareh (to our knowledge, the first systematic documentation of its kind). The analysis identifies eight climate-effective components distributed across four vertical strata of the section that operate as an integrated “respiratory” system and together constitute the climatic chassis of the type. Findings demonstrate that the Chaharsafheh cooling system is a distinct and self-standing pattern—complementary to, yet not reducible to, the canonical windcatcher typology—and is generalizable as a reference model for hot-dry regions. Several instances exhibit synergistic (hybrid) operation through the concurrent use of a solar chimney and ground cooling (earth-to-air exchange) alongside windcatchers. More broadly, the results underscore the primacy of the architectural section in hot-dry Iranian vernaculars: the climate-section is a formative driver of form, spatial organization, and thermal/cooling performance, and should be positioned at the outset of the design process. By elucidating this section-based logic, the study supports the development of sustainable design strategies for hot-dry climates and provides a foundation for a climate-informed shape grammar and for energy/thermal simulation workflows aimed at extracting optimal, transferable solutions.
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| Keywords: climatic Architecture, Chahārṣoffeh House, Miankhanhe, passive Cooling, climatic cection, hot-Arid climate |
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Type of Study: Research |
Subject:
معماری
Received: 2025/08/16 | Accepted: 2025/12/22
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