The bioclimatic features of traditional heritage architecture: Thermal comfort of the courtyard house in Morocco

Résumé

The traditional courtyard house has been viewed as a complex regulating system that creates a microclimate that historically worked, and still works, in a passive way to provide acceptable thermal comfort in summer. The internal courtyard is generally described as a positive factor that can moderate extreme outdoor climatic conditions. However, some researchers have shown that the courtyard could become a negative factor from an energy efficiency point of view. For this purpose, this paper is based on a research study exploring the sustainable characteristics of Moroccan traditional housing and their climatic adaptation. The traditional courtyard house model in Rabat-Salé has been selected to analyze the bioclimatic strategies by applying the adaptive comfort approach. The work starts by using tools for climatic design, Mahoney’s tables, Givoni, and Szokolay bioclimatic charts to improve design strategies in terms of thermal comfort in both cities of Rabat and Salé. The results of the analysis are then compared with the characteristics of the Moroccan traditional courtyard houses, to verify if and how those strategies were applied. The important part of this paper concerns the analysis of the thermal behavior of the rooms surrounding the courtyard in the temperate and humid climate of Rabat-Salé. The simulation modeling of the courtyard house model in the medina of Rabat-Salé is carried out to analyze the effectiveness of different parameters to improve the indoor climate during summer and winter, including the façade orientation, the air infiltration, the surroundings, the ceiling height, the walls and roof/ceiling insulation and the shading devices. The findings reveal that Moroccan traditional courtyard houses can incorporate bioclimatic strategies to meet both thermal comfort and energy efficiency in different ways. In general, a strong correlation can be found between constructive and morphological features and climatic contexts.