Seyed Amir Tabadkani - MSc in Architectural Engineering, Milan Polytechnic, LC 23900, Italy

Climatic design in Iran has several thousand years’ history that with the advent of modern architecture and applying excessive mechanical systems lessened importance of climate in architecture and sustainability; however, to manage high energy consumption trend and its price reform, climatic design and energy are becoming more demanding in Iran. Bio-climatic housing is the design of buildings taking into consideration the specific micro-climatic local site conditions to reduce the environmental impact, and to try to reduce energy consumption, In other words it says how much a building can control heating or cooling circulation by natural means without using non-renewable resources and minimizing mechanical systems application and gives a perception of how to corporate with indoor environment of a building to obtain comfort as a fundamental factor in designing. This paper aims to criticize on-going residential building constructions in Mashhad as a case study and recommends practical energy efficient principles and details that can be applied by considering from vernacular architecture and specific climate to bio-climatic analysis and integrated environmental solutions such as site-tested strategies for maintaining climate control, building orientation and enclosure, air flows; to limit operating energies for an optimum design in cold semi-arid region of Iran without any specific technology.

Bioclimatic principles, Indoor environment, Energy, Integrated environmental solutions, Optimum design