Vernacular houses in Yazd: Natural elements

Given more than seven thousand years of urbanization and highly diverse topographic andgeographical conditions, Iran is one of the treasures through the world s architectural history. Climatic diversity,on the one hand, and long history of living, on the other hand, has led to noteworthy and valuable achievement inarchitecture and urbanization within this country. However, these elements are less utilized in today architecture. Urbanlife, technological advances and excessive economical demands have extremely made people apart from the natureand formed their mind within an iterative mechanized order. Furthermore, human being is a part of nature and his/her close relationship to the nature provides him/her with survival and longevity. In Iranian houses, a space indicatingrelationship between human and nature is courtyard. Central courtyards within vernacular houses in Yazd providedinhabitants with terrific living conditions and enhanced their living quality by utilizing natural elements such as water,wind, light, and plants. Today, due to providing more houses regardless of their quality, not only are natural elementsignored in human life; but also in many cases, buildings do not have essential features of living. This paper attemptsto explore how to create and enter natural elements in apartments. This paper aims to investigate natural elements onvernacular houses in Yazd. A descriptive, analytic methodology along with a case study (vernacular houses in Yazd)were employed and data was collected through library and field research.

Keywords:

Elements of nature , House , Vernacular houses , Yazd