Investigating the effect of climatic factors on the spatial structure of old texture of Yazd City: A Specimen of a sustainable urban texture

Abstract

Sixty-one percent of Iran's area in located in arid and super-arid climate. Possessing 2.1 % of lands, 4.2 % desert phenomena without vegetation, and 8.3 % desert regions of the world, Iran is one the hottest and driest countries. Most of the regions in Iran are faced with severe limitations in vegetation and water resources. Nevertheless, such areas have housed several residences, since a long time ago, where man has dwelled because of necessity. The adverse climate of these regions has always caused numerous difficulties for the living of the residents and the residents have had to come up with solutions to resist and have ultimately managed to reduce the adverse irritating climatic aspects, providing the conditions for comfort and peace. The major difficulties that has evoked the residents of hot and dry regions to seek solutions include intense summer heat, severe winter cold, burning sunlight, high day and low night time temperatures in the environment, sandstorm blows full of dust, water shortage, vegetation scarcity, air dryness, and earthquake threat. Among the habitats that have managed to keep their residents safe against the harsh climatic conditions and overcome the above mentioned difficulties, is the city of Yazd. Yazd is ranked the first as an adobe city and the second, next to Venice, Italy, as a historical city in the world. Being located in the heart of Iranian deserts with a long history, Yazd has won the title "Desert Capital." The ancient texture of the city, an exemplar of a live desert city, may provide a model for sustainable urban designs, as the old texture of the city is still in optimal use after several years and at times, it has even demonstrated a better performance over the modern texture of the city which enjoys the technology and materials of the day. It has also been optimally responding to the needs of the residents. The integrated architecture of Yazd has taken advantage of all the available potentials in every single structural element in the texture city and buildings including the materials, forms, space planning, and has provided environmental comfort. The purpose of the present research is to investigate the effect of climatic factors on the spatial structure of the ancient texture of Yazd. The study is carried out in a descriptive-analytic design and has described and analyzed the urban elements that serve as sustainable elements in the traditional texture of the city through library (review) and field observations. Namely among the elements are the integrated and connected urban texture, independent urban neighborhoods, optimal orientation toward sun, conducting and controlling winds to provide thermal comfort, semiopen squares, narrow passages with tall walls, typology and form of the roof covers, Sabats, courtyards, the application of native materials, and additional elements that play a significant role in stabilizing the city structure.