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Bioclimatic Devices of Nasrid Domestic

Luis José GARCÍA-PULIDO

studies in , HISTORY & CULTURE

papers by the 2011-2012 AKPIA@MIT visiting fellows AKPIA@MIT 2 The Aga Khan Program for at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology 3 2011-2012

CONTENTS 1. INTRODUCTION 6.1.A.1. Control of Spaces and Natural Light 6.1.A.2. Reflecting Surfaces 6.1.A.3. North-South Orientation 2. CLIMATIC CHANGES IN THE PAST AND THEIR INFLUENCES 6.1.A.4. Microclimate Provided by IN SOCIETIES 6.1.A.5. Spatial Dispositions around the . The 2.1. The Roman Climatic Optimum Sequence --/Tower 2.2. The Early Medieval Pessimum 6.1.B. Indirect Methods of Passive (Heat 2.3. The Medieval Warm Period Dissipation) 2.4. The Little Ice Age 6.1.B.1. Ventilation 6.1.B.2. Radiation 6.1.B.3. Evaporation and Evapotranspiration 3. AGAINST A HARSH CLIMATE IN THE ISLAMIC WORLD 7. BIOCLIMATIC DEVICES IN OTHER ISLAMIC REGIONS 3.1. Orientation and Flexibility WITH COMPARABLE CLIMATOLOGY TO THE SOUTHEAST 3.2. Shading IBERIAN PENINSULA 3.3. Ventilation 7.1 The North West of Maghreb 7.1.1. The Courtyard in the Medinas of North Maghreb 4. COURTYARD 7.2 The Anatolian Peninsula 4.1. The Sequence from the Outside to the Courtyard 7.2.1. Mediterranean Continental Climate 4.2. Taming the Climate 7.2.2. Mediterranean Marine Climate 7.2.3. Mediterranean Mountainous Climate 5. NASRID HOUSE TYPOLOGY 7.2.4. Dry and Hot Climate 7.2.5. Courtyard Houses in Anatolia 6. BIOCLIMATIC DEVICES OF NASRID ARCHITECTURE 6.1. Natural Refrigeration 8. CONCLUSION 6.1.A. Direct Methods of Active Refrigeration (Heat Prevention) 9. BIBLIOGRAPHY

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1. INTRODUCTION Islamic civilization quickly to keep out the strong, dry winds or sedentary, including their developed into a widespread, of the desert. The narrow alleys customs and institutions, in terms Islamic society absorbed the predominantly urban culture. kept out the direct sunlight from of their “physical environment- influence of all the cultural areas The community grouping was the buildings, with their close habitat, climate, soil, food, and wherever it became established. often constituted as a defense proximity providing additional the different ways in which they In the Mediterranean Basin there against potential enemies, and protection. In addition, the massive are forced to satisfy their needs was the influence of the Greco- particularly against challenging, constructions with earth, adobe, and obtain a living” (, 1967: Roman world using square or which tended to be hostile in the or stone helped to 415-422). rectangular courtyards with areas of expansion of the Islamic maintain the necessary coolness arcades on all four sides. On World, including the south of the and during the hottest In his Muqaddimah Ibn Khaldūm the other hand, in the Middle Iberian Peninsula, although such hours of the day (Image 1.1). stresses the task of architecture East, they adapted the Persian conditions were less harsh in the to control the environment: “The Sassanid, Babylonian and territories of al-Andalus. The Tunisian Muslim historian craft of architecture is the first Egyptian traditions. Ibn Khaldūn1 wrote in 1377 his and oldest craft of sedentary The cities had to be compact Muqaddimah or the Prolegomena, civilization. It is the knowledge In spite of its nomadic origins, and their public spaces narrow which records an early view of of how to go about using houses universal history. The Muqaddimah and mansions for cover and anticipated the meteorological shelter. This is because man climate theory of environmental has the natural disposition to determinism, later proposed by reflect upon the outcome of Montesquieu in the 18th century. things. Thus, it is unavoidable Ibn Khaldūn studied “the physical that he must reflect upon how to environment in which man lives avert the harm arising from heat in order to understand how it and cold by using houses which influences him in his non-physical have walls and roofs to intervene characteristics.” He explained between him and those things on the differences between different all sides.” peoples, whether nomadic Between the 10th and 14th centuries, spanning the late Middle Ages, there was a well- 1 Ibn Khaldūn lived in during the kingdom documented warm period in of V after he had recovered the throne following his exile in Fez. In 1364 he was entrusted North Atlantic regions, called with a diplomatic mission to the King of Castile, the Medieval Warm Period or Pedro the Cruel, to endorse a peace treaty. In Granada, Ibn Khaldūn quickly came into compe- Medieval Climate Optimum. tition with Muhammad’s vizier, Ibn al-Khatib. His Therefore, the bioclimatic machinations resulted eventually in Ibn Khaldūn Image 1.1. Aerial view of , (ca. 1993). © Yann Arthus-Bertrand/CORBIS. sending him back to North Africa. aspects in the dwellings of al-

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Andalus were developed in order The climate became warmer 62). The fact that passes over the the conditions of the climatic to obtain natural refrigeration. at the end of THE 1st century Alps were clear all year round optimum, possibly as a result of To a lesser degree, also specific BC. were then made it easier to conquer and major demographic growth in mechanisms are also noticed in probably similar to those today control the transalpine provinces the north. The great migration these buildings to protect against (Schönwiese, 1995: 91). of Gallia, Belgica, Germania, period was triggered in AD 375 the cold, especially in the last Raetia and Noricum. This great when the Huns broke out of the Nasrid period (14th and 15th Whereas Carthage, the expansion coincided with a quite Asian steppes, and precipitated centuries) and mainly, in Morisco great power of the southern warm but not excessively dry the westward migration of the times (16th century), when a Mediterranean Sea, reached its period, which is known in climate Germanic tribes (Behringer, 2007: colder period known as Little Ice high point during the early colder history as the Roman Climatic 62-64). Age was developing. phase, Rome had its golden age Optimum (Zolitschka et al., 2003: after the warming began, when 98). This warming lasted from the This early medieval cooler period the political center of gravity had 1st century AD until approximately developed from AD 450 to 750, 2. CLIMATIC CHANGES IN THE shifted to the northern side of the the 5th century. During this age, and there are indications that in PAST AND THEIR INFLUENCES Mediterranean. Rome initially more people lived on our planet central England a lasting rise in ON SOCIETIES expanded southward and struck than at any time before. This level temperatures, by 1 to 2ºC, did out north only after the warming would be reached again only a not begin until around the year 2.1. The Roman Climatic had begun (Behringer, 2007: 61- thousand years later, during the 1000 (Schönwiese, 1995: 81-6 Optimum warm period of the High Middle passim). The early Middle Ages Ages. were a time of extreme insecurity The last Age, characterized in Europe: the population level by wet and cool summers and The ancient climate optimum fell to a low that was never again mild rainy winters, lasted roughly favored the creation of other reached at any later period. through the whole period of the empires through the Middle East Roman Kings and the Republic to East Asia. The Han dynasty In northern, western and central (Image 2.1). The water table was (202 BC to AD 220) flourished in Europe as well as in the northern probably higher than it is today, China at almost exactly the same Mediterranean regions, the cold and so North Africa could become time as the Roman Empire. was mainly associated with the granary of the Roman Empire wetter conditions. On the other (Lauer and Bendix, 2004: 287). 2.2. The Early Medieval hand, in parts of Asia, the Near Pessimum East and North Africa there Image 2.1. Hypothesis of the climate balance persisted a greater aridity, and in the first IPCC report (1990). Variations Harsh climatic factors also Rome’s traditional granary dried between cold and warm periods in the last contributed to the crises in the up (Lamb, 1982: 149, 159f). In 12,000 years. Adapted from: IPCC Report Roman Empire. The migration southern Italy, Greece, Anatolia 1990; C. K. Folland et al., “Observed Climate Variations and Change” (in: Houghton, 1990: of the Germanic people over the and Palestine, people moved to 195-238). territory of Rome began under the coasts and left the hinterland

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largely uninhabited. This was the in Europe and North America but at this time the water not as commonly as in the Little period when great cities went all around the world (Grove and system of Granada dating from Ice Age. The warm, often dry into decline: Ephesus, Antioch Switsur, 1994: 143-69). the 11th-12th centuries had to be autumnal weather in the second and Palmyra in Asia Minor. Some improved by the . half of the 13th century features in six hundred settlements were Lamb’s original estimate was of relatively few reports. Unfavorable abandoned in Arabia, where a 2 ºC warming (based on proxy The high Medieval Warm Period harvest periods became more elaborate irrigation systems had data). This became a matter also saw harsh climatic extremes, frequent in the early 14th century, previously kept going. for controversy, because it far such as the severe winters of at the onset of the Little Ice Age Many settlements from this time exceeded the 0.6 ºC measurement 1010-11 (Lamb, 1982: 157) or (Glaser, 2001: 61-92). were later swallowed up by the for warming in the 20th century. 1118 (Camuffo, 1987:43-66, 58- Syrian and Jordanian desert Lamb estimated the warming at 1 64). The 1180s, on the other hand, The tree line in the Alps rose to (Oesterdiekhoff, 1999: 123-32, to 2ºC above the average in the were the decade with the warmest over two thousand meters, a level 126). “normal period” from 1931 to 1960. known winters. There had been not attained even in the Bronze In the far north it was as much as warm or hot periods before then, Age Optimum and far higher than The expansion of the and four degrees warmer (Lamb, 1965: such as the one between 1021 in the 20th century (Lamb, 1982: the associated spread of 13-17). Other researchers use and 1040. The summer of 1130 157). In Germany, England, happened at this time with the instead the concept of a Medieval was so dry that it was possible southern Scotland and southern occurrence of adverse climatic Climatic Anomaly (Bradley et al., to wade across the Rhine, and Norway vines were cultivated conditions in their traditional 2003: 404-5). in 1135 the Danube had so little not only in the old Roman areas, homelands (Lamb, 1982: 160). water that people could cross it but at locations two hundred In this period there were wide on foot. meters above present-day levels 2.3. The Medieval Warm Period regional differences between and much further afield (Weber, countries north of the Alps and Hot dry summers were the rule 1980). Viniculture indicates that The idea of a Medieval Warm the Mediterranean area. There from the 1180s in a remarkably night frosts were rare and that Period was formulated in 1965 would be heavier rainfall and a long warm phase, until a cold there was sufficient sunshine in by Hubert Lamb, who based his seasonally differentiated evolution stormy season in 1251. The summer (Lamb, 1982: 170f). conclusions on historical texts of temperatures. The spring was longest phases of persistent and physical data regarding three degrees warmer between summer heat occurred in Central Pollen analysis has shown that the climate. He located its peak 1170 and 1310 than in the climatic Europe between 1261 and 1310, Norway had in the high between AD 1000 and 1300, in the period from 1891 to 1960, and and again between 1321 and Middle Ages that would disappear High Middle Ages (Flohn, 1985: the glaciers retreated. After the 1400. with the onset of cooling. The 131). During this time there was end of the warm phase there was agricultural area with a settled a pattern of warm dry summers a cooling that reached a peak in Surprisingly, the spring seasons population of farmers began and mild winters, and the large the 1340s. In the Mediterranean were quite varied during the warm to expand in the 9th and 10th glaciers retreated in the period a period of great aridity can be period of the Middle Ages. Cool or centuries, and by the height of the between 900 and the second detected between 1200 and 1310 cold temperatures alternated with warm period it had advanced on half of the 13th century, not only (Alexandre, 1987: 775-808), and moderate, warm, or hot, although average 100 to 200 metres further

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up the hillsides. The greater part The adaptation was highly After the onset of the warm natives led to the collapse of of this cultivated land was lost successful due to the warmer period, the progressive conquest these first European colonies in after 1300 (Holmsen, 1961). climatic conditions and the supply of the Iberian Peninsula territories the Americas (Graham-Campbell, of water by irrigation. Whole new by Christian kingdoms was 1994). In Asia, too, migrated trades appeared, such as paper the first attempt at southward northward, and subtropical plants production, and during the 12th expansion by the northern 2.4. The Little Ice Age have never again been as northerly century windmills came to join the kingdoms toward the south. The as they were in the 13th century. existing watermills. high Middle Ages were also the The period from the 13th to the In 1264 they were growing several age of the Vikings. In the mid 9th 19th century, in which glaciers hundred kilometers further north In the Christian kingdoms of century they conquered areas advanced in the Alps, Scandinavia than in the 20th century (De’er, Western Europe, the new Gothic of the British Isles and settled and North America, was named 1994: 289-97). architectural style was developed, in the Shetlands, Orkneys and the Little Ice Age in the late providing both brighter and lighter Hebrides. They founded states in 1930s by the US glaciologist The expanded habitat for spaces. Huge allowed Ireland, conquered “Normandy” in François Matthes (1875 1949), heat-seeking insects also had the sunlight of the medieval western France in 911, and built a to distinguish it from the great ice implications for the spread warm period to stream into the kingdom in Sicily. Vikings set up ages (Matthes, 1950: 151-60). of diseases. The Anopheles monumental cathedrals that were kings over the Slavs (Behringer, Hubert Horace Lamb (1913 1997) mosquito was present in many being built at this time. 2007: 80-81), and in the west in England (Lamb, 1972/1977), parts of Europe, and malaria some groups led by Erik the Red Christian Pfister in Switzerland was accordingly endemic as Europe’s population grew by (c. 950-1005) sailed from Iceland (Pfister, 1988), Rudolf Brádzil far north as England during the leaps and bounds, reaching to a much larger deserted country in the Czech Republic (Brádzil, Middle Ages. Swarms of locusts levels it had never seen before that he called “the green land”. 1990) and Rüdiger Glaser in repeatedly caused failures (Behringer, 2007: 80-81). The The Viking graves on the island Germany (Glaser, 1990: 129-44) not only in Africa but also in high Middle Ages were a time are in an area where permafrost have so clearly demonstrated Central Europe as late as the 14th of new farmland and village prevailed in the 20th century, climatic fluctuations in European century (Buckland and Wagner, creation even in remote areas, though evidently not at the time history that their existence is now 2001: 137-49). borderlands, and low mountainous of the burials. New lands to the beyond all doubt (Pfister, 2001: regions (Schönwiese, 1995: 2). west were discovered in North 7-43). A decline in activity There were key improvements At this time Europe developed America from Greenland; today’s is usually regarded as the main in agriculture, in comparison its characteristic landscape with Labrador in Canada, which was explanation for the global cooling. with the early Middle Ages and high settlement density (Stoob, then given the name Markland The lesser number of sunspots even in Roman Antiquity. Crop 1970). Most of the remaining (“land of forest”), Helluland, between 1675 and 1715 was rotation also helped to prevent irrigation systems still operating in today’s Baffin Island, and another interpreted as a sign of reduced soil exhaustion (Dhondt, 1968: Andalusia come from this period, island southward that was called solar activity and this period is 272-279). In al-Andalus, new when al-Andalus was ruled by the Vinland (“Vineland”). About 1005 called the Maunder Minimum crops were introduced from Muslims. they began to settle in this new (Eddy, 1978: 226-8). People tropical and sub-tropical regions. world, but the hostility of the in the late-sixteenth and early-

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seventeenth centuries were on As in the case of the Medieval environmental disasters of the the Mediterranean, drought was average shorter than ever before Warm Period, the Little Ice Age is past thousand years. Intensive the main problem. The climate or since in the past two millennia, related not to a constant cooling rainfall caused rivers to overflow zone in which agriculture could comparable only to those in the but to a dominant tendency. in July. The high water carved be pursued became dramatically critical times of the early fourteenth Along with a large number of cold deep gorges and permanently smaller during the early modern century (Würm, 1986: 101-8). and wet years there were also changed the landscape. In 1343 period, because the Sahara periods of “normal” weather and there were again long periods desert and the Sahel zone moved Ice records also indicate two even some years of extreme heat of rain in July, August, and several hundred kilometers clusters of intensified volcanism (Behringer, 2007: 85-86). A distinct September. In 1344 great aridity south. So increased aridity may that coincide with the high point climatic period began around the and drought reduced the size of be regarded as the typical feature of the Little Ice Age. There are year 1300 in the Atlantic North the harvest (Bergdolt, 2008: 212). of the global cooling in some traces of the strongest volcanic that had little in common with the The adverse climate of the 1330 meridional regions, and in the case activity since antiquity for the warm high Middle Ages; and in decade affected the whole of the of the Iberian Peninsula, diverse period between 1250 and 1500 the second decade of the 14th northern hemisphere, and a bit historical accounts suggest that and again between 1550 and century began the Little Ice Age later the Black Death plague of with the increasing cooling, the 1700 (Hammer et al., 1981: (Alexandre, 1987: 807f). A series 1346 1352 struck Europe after south of was also drying up 3-10). In the year 1452-1453 the of cold winters between 1310 and many centuries of absence in (Olagüe, 1950: vol. 4, ch. 25). explosion of the volcano Kuwae 1330 happened in Europe, notably this continent (Behringer, 2007: on Vanuatu preceded the “global in the northern region, that lead to 107-109). Thirty percent of the At this time anthropogenic changes chill” of the 1450 decade (Pang, the Great Famine of 1315 1322 population succumbed to it, with were introduced (Behringer, 1993: 106), and five volcanic (Behringer, 2007: 103-106). At the regional death rates between 2007: 102-103) that led to an eruptions have been identified for same time, the second decade of 10% and 60% (Bulst, 2003: 1915- overexploitation of nature. In the precarious decades between the 14th century had the years 18). the British Isles, Spain, Italy, 1580 and 1600 (Palmer et al., with the most rain in the whole of Dalmatia or Greece, Asia Minor, 2001: 1953), sending ash that the past millennium (Alexandre, Even if the Little Ice Age was and North Africa scarcely any entered the stratosphere with 1987: 781-5). The harshest a worldwide phenomenon, it forest was left. This deforestation such effect that solar radiation winter of the decade came in was not always completely had well-known consequences: was reduced worldwide over 1317-18, when the cold lasted synchronous (Grove, 2001, 53- lowering of the water table (which the following months (de Silva, from late November until Easter, 82). This term sounds somewhat especially in the Mediterranean Alzueta and Salas, 2000: 15-24). and excessive rainfall alternated inappropriate for arid and tropical basin intensified the problem of Climatologists have worked out with periods of drought in Europe regions. In West Africa and aridity) and greater susceptibility that eight periods with especially (Glaser, 2001: 65). A succession similar regions near the Equator, of cultivated land to soil erosion cool summers are linked to eight of difficult years happened in the it was not so much the cooling and flooding (Braudel, 1975: major volcanic explosions (Briffa mid-1330 decade. The summer as the irregularity of rainfall that 267ff). et al. 1998: 450-455). of 1342 brought one of the worst posed a threat. As in parts of

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3. BUILDING AGAINST A 3.1. Orientation and Flexibility HARSH CLIMATE IN THE ISLAMIC WORLD The first response to local climate is orientation in reference to In an unfriendly environment with sun or wind. The sun might be hot severe climatic conditions the principal source of comfort the most effective shelter is the or discomfort, thus determining courtyard house (Ragette, 2003: the orientation of buildings and 80) where different mechanisms spaces if possible. The exceptions can be improved in order to achieve are Islamic religious buildings comfort for his occupants. with their orientation toward , and other site-imposed “Perhaps the most satisfying constraints, such as orientation architectural response to the toward a view or for defense continuously dry topics is purposes. the Mediterranean residence centered on a courtyard. With While the Greco-Roman civilization a meager but well-developed rationally planned whole cities water supply, the courtyards with street grids for maximum feature , ponds, shade and breeze, the flexibility and growing plants for both of Islamic house design allows evaporative cooling and for individual orientation solutions. aesthetic enhancement. It enables the inhabitants to live Individual are in those parts of the house that connected by narrow streets are most comfortable in terms of and shared walls. By day, and ventilation. This one or two narrow, tunnel- could be a reflection of a nomadic like entrances from the street background, and as a result it provide ventilation through cool has been described as horizontal ports. But it is in the fine-tuning and vertical nomadism (Ragette, of the courtyard environment 2003: 84-85) (Image 3.1). –its optimization of heat Image 3.1. Fez (Morocco), sectional axonometric of house Lahlou (Bianca, 1991). resistance, ventilation rate and The first response is usually evaporation rate– that is most seasonal, taking advantage of dweller should move to south- warm. In the summer a high and satisfying.” (Lowry and Lowry: different orientations of . In facing rooms with low open north oriented such 1989). the cool season, sunshine is the and large windows to let the as the , qa’a, qubba and main heat factor available, so the sun’s rays enter and keep them other main rooms will serve best

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This applies to hinterland Houses close to beachfronts tend settlements, particularly in to open toward the beach to take regions with a pronounced advantage of the daytime breeze. difference between summer and Open summer rooms will be in winter climate, also characterized front, and winter accommodation by large diurnal temperature behind the courtyard in the back. differences. They are a result of the intense solar radiation during The most effective response to the day and quick cooling down temperature change is vertical under the cloudless night sky. nomadism. In extreme climates, Mass-construction of exterior walls nights are spent on the , of mud, rammed (compacted) mornings on the lower earth, adobe, , stone or any and excessive afternoon heat is combination of them will not only avoided in the . This insulate against the heat of the day, strategy is based upon cool sky but delay heat transmission due radiation at night and the fact its thermic inertia and store heat that warm air rises while cool air for cold nights and mornings. collects in low spaces. Even the

Image 3.3. Temperature variations for the average summer day-night sequence of insolation and ventilation in a traditional Gulf house in the Emirates (after Ragette, 2003: 85).

Image 3.2. Aleppo (Syria), sectional axonometric of house “C”. (Bianca, 1991 and Ragette, 2003: 166). The courtyard with the high windows above the qa’a is the source of light and air.

(Image 3.2). Under spacious rural of reeds or pierced walling. A conditions people live either in a simple alternative to the summer winter house with solid walls or a house is an open sleeping summer house with screen walls on the roof.

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closing and opening of windows a time when warmth is needed. sun in morning or afternoon, but or summer cooling is the greater and is done judiciously, During the late spring, summer one long wall partially shades the need. either to permit or inhibit circulation and early fall, shading against other at the earliest and latest of air (Image 3.3). direct sun is desired in most parts hours. Meanwhile the shorter Since buildings are predominantly of the Islamic world. Colonnaded side (facing the equator) gets closed to the outside in the Islamic Seasonal shifting from ground to or arcaded and peristyles direct sun across the length of the regions, shading elements on the first at the onset of summer give shade to passages and walls, courtyard around noon in winter façades play a mirror role and was a habit in humid seafronts, sand also protect against the rain and the walls receive its warmth visual screens act also as shades. and it resulted in a duplication of and the cold when necessary. (Image 3.4). Trellises and other devices such floor plans. In coastal areas with as sun-breaks became primary nearby mountains people take Which side of the courtyard The optimal orientation depends design features not only for the to spending the hottest month in receives direct sun and at what on the use of the long or short preservation of privacy, but also places of high altitude. time of the day determines sides, and whether winter heating for sun protection (Ragette, 2003: where and when maximum In many cases, the orientation daylight and optimum thermal Image 3.4. Shading in north-south dwellings (Cejka, unpublished manuscript and Ragette, 2003: 86). of the courtyard’s walls depends comfort is available for people upon that of the street outside and/ and plants. In rectangular but or the shape of the plot. In other non-square courtyards oriented cases, the orientation prevails to the cardinal compass, those over other variables, and a very that are elongated east-west irregular site surrounds a square and have their longer sides face courtyard oriented to the cardinal north and south, direct sunlight in points (Reynolds, 2002: 9). summer can be prevented from entering the longer sides with 3.2. Shading shallow overhangs, leaving the openings available for wind. The The desert tent is primarily a shorter sides, however, get strong shading device, and tent-like direct sun across the length of structures with canvas were the courtyard in the morning or also provided in urban areas as evening of summer. In winter, effective shades. The further when strong sunlight is welcome, north or south of the equator, it is almost absent (Reynolds, the bigger the difference of sun 2002: 9-13). angles between winter and summer solstice. This allows When the axis is north-south winter sun to penetrate more the longer walls face east-west. deeply in south-oriented rooms at There are problems with summer

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86). That can be seen in the This climate requires buildings floor rooms have large screened close the room against daytime buildings located in the Menteşe constructed in a manner that openings down to the floor heat. The roof itself looks like Mountains (southwest Anatolia) ensures effective ventilation, equipped with inner shutters, to with (Aran, 2000: 96- protection against extreme 100), protected by wide summer temperatures, and Image 3.6. Wind-scoops and wind-towers (Cejka, unpublished manuscript; Coles and Jackson, and wooden trellis of different resistance to rain storms. These 1975; Damluji, 1998 and Ragette, 2003: 87, 89, 90). high (Image 3.5). Such kinds of verandas are spaces are usually placed before the attached to rooms atop granaries, entrance of south-facing rooms, open at the sides and roofed and are where much of the daily above. household activity takes place, sometimes including a fireplace for when the weather is 3.3. Ventilation mild. This area is sensitive to the Mediterranean marine climate. The interior courtyard is an excellent modifier of hot and dry Image 3.5. Open in front of a room of climates, being an air-well that a Menteşe Mountains’ house, sunny in winter (above) and shaded in summer (down) (Aran, collects dense, cool air at night. 2000: 98-99). Protected from the morning sun, all surrounding spaces stay cool till well into the day. When the sun reaches the courtyard, the air heats up and rises, creating currents and cross- ventilation, particularly when the surrounding spaces have secondary ventilation openings from adjacent narrow and cool alleys.

Ventilation is most important in humid coastal situations with little drop of temperature during the night. The higher up one is, the more breezes can be enjoyed: from the sea during the day, from the land during the night. Upper-

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another story, being screened to the prevailing wind is parallel to by the evaporation effect of wet the outside. the wall they have tall, narrow canvas, or earthenware jugs and intakes. fountains being placed in the The most remarkable ventilation path of the air. During winter the devices are wind-scoops and Multi-directional wind-towers are wind-tower is either closed at the wind-towers (Image 3.6). In the the trademark of Gulf architecture. bottom or the room served by it is first one ventilation are set Introduced from southern Iran, they not used (Ragette, 2003: 84-89). above the roof to catch cool and range from simple framed clean air. They face the prevailing canvas screens to monumental In some parts of the Gulf region, wind direction and divert air to towers. Their X-plan catches whole parapet walls along the the rooms below in a reverse the breeze from any direction roof are turned into wind-scoops action. Through the and leads it into the room below, by making them double-walled, rooms the air passes into the while also sucking it out from the to direct the air to the screened courtyard, feeding the convection leeward side, which increases the lower part of the roof, or the cycle. In certain cases of Iraqi ventilation pull (Image 3.7). This room below. In Cairo, large wind- architecture, different floors effect provides fresh air all the catchers ventilate principal living receive independent wind-scoops time. If the ambient air has less rooms or qa’as (Image 3.8). which are decorated when they than 60% relative humidity, the open to the roof terrace. When cooling action can be improved 4. COURTYARD HOUSES Image 3.7. X-plan wind-catcher in Oman (Damluji, 1998 and Ragette, 2003: 89). The courtyard house represents a constant feature of domestic architecture in most Muslim regions. It was, however, developed in different ways as influenced by existing local Image 3.8. Wind-catcher in Cairo (Cejka, traditions, construction materials unpublished manuscript; CNRS, 1982 and and environmental factors. The Ragette, 2003: 88). courtyard houses of al-Andalus and North African medinas display different characteristics than They work well in hot and dry those of Egypt, Syria, and Iraq as climates, especially not square they feature the most formalized but more narrow and deep in configurations with an absolute order to create shade from the centrality of the courtyard (Sibley, summer sun. Their disadvantage 2006: 49). in cold winters is the limited

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access to sun and heat, and in Image 4.2. A are adjacent (Image 4.3). This in traditional humid summers the lack of wind, typical Hispanic style of courtyard may take on the hot-climate courtyard buildings but these can be counteracted arrangement of a role of the walled , or even depends greatly upon the thermal house or palace, with different devices, so they with the zaguán the of a well-fenced mass of the building for the extent are found in nearly every climate pointing to the , depending on the number that the temperature fluctuates zone (Reynolds, 2010: 145). courtyard’s center of openings in the street façade. and at what hours it reaches highs (Reynolds, 2002: and lows. Second, it depends Chapter 1, 4-5). 4.1. The Sequence from the 4.2. Taming the Climate on the personal involvement of Outside to the Courtyard the building’s occupants, whose The contrast between less actions are often called thermal The “axial” path from the street to Contrast is an essential ingredient and more comfortable spaces sailing (Reynolds, 2002: 78- the courtyard is prominent on the of courtyard aesthetics, beginning within the sequence of open 93). This includes watering the north side of the Mediterranean. with the first transition from the countryside, street, “zaguán”, courtyard, opening and closing It allows direct passage and heat, noise and smell of the courtyard, arcade, and room, shading devices and windows, street to the cool, dark and quiet greatly increases satisfaction with and adjusting their own clothing of the covered entranceway from the latter, the most private and and activity level. street to courtyard. After that is personal space (Image 4.4). The the courtyard with its contrasts of most dramatic thermal contrast is Courtyards represent and attempt light and shadow, open space and often between the street and the to control the forces of nature. As vegetation, dry and wet surfaces, courtyard, and it is reinforced by pockets of space that are open to still and flowing water (Reynolds, the change from public to private. the sky, courtyards intensify some 2002: 4-5). aspects of the climate, such as daylight, and dilute others, such Image 4.3. The arcade is the only transition Image 4.4. Sketch with the daily temperature Variations on from street to courtyard in this house from fluctuations in a courtyard house and its as the wind. the “bent” path (Spain) (from Collante de Terán surroundings in the hot season (Drawing by are typical of Delorme and Gómez Estern, 1976). Michael Cockram, in: Reynolds, 2002: Chapter The patio provides an extensive 5: 79). Islamic cultures exposure to the sky, which is very (Image 4.1). Its direct views from the street, often cold on clear nights, stressing indirectness leading straight to the courtyard’s cold in winter’s long nights. It ensures visual center (Image 4.2). This was used also emphasizes heat in the hot privacy from in the Roman domus and was season, because when the sun the street. conserved throughout Hispanic is high in the sky at noon, the cultures. widest surface of the patio is heated. In this hour the floor and Image 4.1. Double bending entrance in the An abrupt departure is a direct several walls are sunny, with only house Bairam Tourki (Revault, 1967/71 and from street to courtyard, the north-facing wall remaining Ragette, 2003: 130). where the courtyard and street a reliably shaded surface. This

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heat emphasis is partially offset walling in one or more arcades, As with its precursors from the already formalized by the 10th at night, when clear skies are encroaching upon the courtyard’s Almohads, Taifas and Caliphate century in Madinat al-Zahra’ coldest. open space, and adding upper periods (Image 5.2), in Nasrid (Córdoba) (Image 5.4). The main floors around the courtyard architecture all domestic life variations were introduced in Thermal comfort can be readily (Reynolds, 2010: 145). revolved around the patio, which the provision of pools and water controlled with movable shading was the center of family life. reservoirs flowerbeds, raised covers over the entire courtyard, It was the place for receiving walkways and galleries in the awnings, or movable 5. NASRID HOUSE TYPOLOGY light and air and the space that courtyard. In the first half of the glazing in the openings of linked the different rooms of the 13th century, when the Almohad arcades. In recent times diverse From 1232 to 1492, the last house (Image 5.3). It also had Empire drew to end, there was a strategies have been introduced Nasrid kingdom, established in bioclimatic architectural functions tendency to decrease or eliminate in the managing of traditional the southeast of modern Spain in regulating the building’s the patio garden. In post-Almohad courtyards, such as glazing of and the last one with Islamic roots microclimate naturally. They Murcia (Image 5.5) and during arcades, covering the courtyard in the Iberian Peninsula (Image produced a kind of rectangular the Nasrid period (Image 5.6) with a skylight, dividing the 5.1), developed a remarkable courtyard with porticoes on the a pool model became popular, courtyard between occupants, archetype of courtyard-houses. shorter sides, closed exteriors which was elongated along the and access through bending direction of the longitudinal axis, Image 5.1. Nasrid kingdom (1232-1492) in the southeast of the Iberian Peninsula, and its border doorways. occupying the center and, at times, evolution (Ladero Quesada, 2001). approaching the two opposite In al-Andalus, the new style was arcades. This arrangement

Image 5.2. Examples of Caliphate (10th century), Taifas (11th century) and Almohad (12th century) residences (Almagro Gorbea, 2008: 35, 40 and 46).

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Image 5.3. Examples of Nasrid (1232-1492) residences in the (Almagro Gorbea, Image 5.5. Map of al-Qasr Dār al-Sagīr (Ibn Hud, 1228-1238) in Murcia (Spain) and today’s view 2008: 53-54). of Santa Clara’s Monastery, built in the same plot (Navarro Palazón, 1995: 177-206).

Image 5.4. Plan and virtual reconstitution of Madinat al-Zahra’ (10th century) (Almagro Gorbea, 2008: 53-24).

Image 5.6. Pools and bending entrances in the Partal Alto palace and its surrounding in the Alhambra (14th century) (after Orihuela Uzal, 2011: 129-143)

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of rectangular courtyard with basic characteristics of Nasrid access openings may also have used in winter. Main rooms were north-south orientation providing courtyard-houses. Courtyards had a bioclimatic component, covered with carpets, cushions maximum entry of sunlight in were established in which the because through it and the latticed and pillows. The use of these winter and shade in summer is pool was on a more modest scale, windows located over it an energy along with tapestries on the floor an adaptation to a climate with tending to be square (Image 5.7). exchange is produced between and walls enhanced the heat and short cold winters and long hot the courtyard and the main room sound insulation inside these summers. Protection against It is also possible to detect a of the house. rooms (Image 5.8). excessive sunlight could be process of evolution in shaping achieved by using climbing plants the gateway to the main room. It The two side spaces were always During the 14th and 15th centuries trained along trellises usually began with the triple openings, lower in elevation than the main there was a gradual increase in starting from one corner of the followed by geminate openings rooms. Sometimes there is the height of the houses, with patio. The last refuge of Andalusi in the Almohad period. The final only one secondary side of the widespread use of higher stories culture, the houses of Morisco evolution to a single entrance courtyard, where they would (Image 5.9). This meant doubling society, developed in the first half occurred in the post-Almohad place the and other the height of the houses, as it of the 16th century a well-defined Murcia, becoming fully established ancillary parts such as the latrine, reproduced the pattern of the floor residential type, derived from in Morisco times. This reduction in warehouses, barns, storage below, allowing for diversification areas, and . The kitchen and in seasonal use. The upper floors Image 5.7. El Feri Morisco house in the Albaicín of Granada (Orihuela Uzal, 1996: 309). barns almost always had a room of the main rooms also caught above, to be used in winter, taking more sunlight by being open by advantage of the heat energy the portico to the south. Among provided by them from the ground other political and social causes level. The existence of a second this was probably a response to floor in these side spaces allowed climatic cooling conditions at the the eaves to be level around the end of the Middle Ages, as the perimeter of the courtyard, thus Image 5.8. Tapestries and carpets in a main enhancing the shaded areas. room of a Nasrid palace in the historicist The upper floors often had little picture “Salida de la familia de Boabdil de la height, a fact that favored heating Alhambra”, painted by Manuel Gómez-Moreno in 1880. in winter. Its occupants sat on the floor on mats or carpets, which explains the common existence of small windows to the patio with the lower sills almost at ground level. Due to their reduced space and limited openings to the exterior with exposure to the sun, these units would be best

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arcaded galleries established a were adapted to the particular the patio, which is private and inner privacy of the patio, which first element of thermal protection conditions and climate of each has a symbolic character within acted as a . According to the in residential rooms. This model region in which they settled. The the Islamic world. Houses and social category of the owner, the would have been influenced solutions they arrived at, refined palaces did not display great patio had two, one or no porticoes by the monastic cloisters and over the generations, often differences from a typological in its smaller sides. Centered in domestic architecture of the achieved appropriate layouts for point of view. Only scale devices each one of the galleries was an societies in the Christian Spanish a harsh climate and surroundings. (often 10:1) and decorative important poly-functional room, northern kingdoms (Image 5.10), The houses were constructed features differentiate a palace derived from Roman triclinium. In which adopted provisions for without openings or with some from a house (Image 5.11). palaces and the more important adapting architecture to harsh small lattice window to the street, houses, the available space temperatures before those in the while inside they opened out to The common characteristics of allowed for flexibility in alternating south did. the private patio that constituted Nasrid architecture are as follows the use of domestic chambers, a true “oasis or inner paradise.” (Orihuela Uzal, 1996: 19-40): The depending on the hour of the day The residences developed by corridor from the entrance to the and the season of the year. The the medieval Islamic culture The house is developed around street had a bend protecting the same scheme was also repeated

Image 5.9. Nasrid urban houses in the Albaicín of Granada with higher stories (Orihuela Uzal, Image 5.10. El Chapiz Morisco house (16th century) with remaining of a previous Nasrid palace 1996: 282, 286, 287, 296, 297 and 300). in the Albaicín of Granada (Orihuela Uzal, 1996: 310 and 313) and views for the courtyard of the Guadalupe’s Monastery in Cáceres (Spain).

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DAR AL-HORRA ZAFRA’S HOUSE

EX-SAN FRANCISCO MONASTERY PALACE (13th c.)

Image 5.11. Nasrid palaces and houses from Granada with the same scale and orientation (after maps from Orihuela Uzal, 1996: 53, 60, 74, 83, 104, 200, 231, 234, 283, 309).

on the upper floor, although the Image 6.1. Modern climate (Agencia Estatal de Meteorología, Ministerio de Medio Ambiente y 6. BIOCLIMATIC DEVICES OF Medio Rural y Marino, 2011: 18 and 32) and semi-arid character in some interior regions of the bioclimatic features were often NASRID ARCHITECTURE southeast of the Iberian Peninsula. reversed. So, while the lower floors served to lessen the heat There is no single way to interact air is accompanied by extreme Solar radiation is intense of the day, the upper rooms were with climate factors in architecture, temperatures, especially in the especially in summer. Winter warmer, their smaller size making but Nasrid buildings were the long hot months of summer. temperatures are usually above them easier to heat. In the early result of an intuitive process of Concentration of rain in cool to freezing point. Average rainfall is Islamic medieval period, houses background experimentation, cold winters, warm to hot dry small, but variable; it increases in would normally have only one developing what today we call summers, and intensive solar winter, in contrast to dry summers. floor. However, the increase in effective “bioclimatics skills,” in radiation especially in summer, In the Mediterranean marine population density in cities that which very precise and methods are the main characteristics of climate, the diurnal temperature resisted the Christian advance were fine-tuned, learning from the Mediterranean climate. The range is small. Vapor pressure is necessitated the need for more previous architectonic models. Mediterranean continental climate high in summer, and wind velocity space, and so a second floor is distinguished by its large usually is low, and wind direction was added. This fact could also The interior southeast of the Iberian ranges of diurnal temperature is westerly and southwesterly. The been have influenced by colder Peninsula has a Mediterranean and fluctuating relative humidity. amount of precipitation depends climatic conditions in 14th and climate with semi-arid character In general, strong westerly and on latitude and decreases 15th centuries. in many regions (Image 6.1). Dry southwesterly winds dominate. from north to south. Rains are

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concentrated within periods of a that reduce thermal fluctuations. few days of high intensity, and are Thus there is a set of passive accompanied by storms of high systems that react to an active wind velocity. The Mediterranean outer atmosphere. In this sense, marine climate requires that this architecture is environmental buildings be constructed in a or bioclimatic. manner that ensures effective ventilation, protection against Natural light is manipulated and extreme summer temperatures, deliberately controlled in Nasrid and resistance to rain storms architecture (Image 6.3). The light (Givoni, 1967: 357-358, 362). intensity and the high number of hours of sunlight experienced in Al-Andalus architecture harmo- those zones contrasts with the low nizes with the surroundings to illumination of the interiors, but obtain from them the greatest there is no shortage of examples benefits for the comfort and of attempts to bring light and its enjoyment of the inhabitants consequent calorific energy into (Image 6.2). So, the buildings certain main rooms. open onto fresh shaded , keeping out the summer sun while In order to fight against the cold, taking advantage of the winter Nasrid architecture is normally one. They ventilate the interiors to composed of thick massive cool and remove the hot air. They walls providing insulation due are insulated with heavy walls to their high thermal inertia Image 6.3. Controlled inner illumination in different spaces in the Alhambra (photographs 1 and 4 from Miguel Rodríguez Moreno, in: Orihuela Uzal, 1996: 99, 109). and heat capacity, which also some rooms that could be used provides protection against the in winter. hot summers. In short and cold winters little braziers and heaters 6.1. Natural Refrigeration would be used. Residual heat of the private baths usually situated The natural refrigeration in near the main north chamber also Nasrid architecture is achieved could be used for heating some in two different ways (Jiménez rooms. In addition strategies Alcalá, 1999: 13-29, Jiménez were developed to receive a Alcalá, 2011): Preventing heat higher incidence of sunlight and from penetrating the interior of Image 6.2. View of the Alhambra from the of the al-munya of the . the entrance of natural light in the building, by means of direct

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protection against the sun (Image main reason for internal heat in 6.4), and eliminating excess the buildings developed in the temperature from the different geographic area where Islamic areas to be cooled using a series culture spread, with medium of combined physical mechanisms to high temperatures and a (ventilation, radiation and predominance of clear days evaporation) (Image 6.5). (Image 6.6). Al-Andalus was no exception, and the buildings 6.1.A. Direct Methods of Active that were developed provided Refrigeration (Heat Prevention) protection from the rays of the sun primarily by preventing its direct 6.1.A.1. Control of Spaces and entrance. The inner illumination Natural Light is always soft, because the openings for sunlight are generally Strong solar radiation is the small and precisely located. As

Image 6.4. Passive protection against the sun in thick walls buildings (after maps from Orihuela Uzal, 1996: 131 and 141).

Image 6.5. Ventilation effect in the Las Infantas and La Cautiva towers-houses in the Alhambra Image 6.6. Controlled inner illumination in different porticoes in the Alhambra palaces (after maps from Orihuela Uzal, 1996: 131 and 141). (photographs from Miguel Rodríguez Moreno, in: Orihuela Uzal, 1996: 82, 106 and 205).

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a consequence, the influx of The inner illumination is usually presence of porticoes graduates bathed the surface of the walls sunlight and hot air is reduced indirect, and rarely comes from the ingress of light, which is and showed up their astonishing to the minimum, achieving a solar penetration (Image 6.7). reflected off successive surfaces decoration, made up of desired level of illumination and The windows always have lattice until it reaches the interior. In the inscriptions, mosaics, elaborate ventilation. The larger openings, work that filters and moderates process of transition between the wood work, ceramic skirting and such as entrance , are the influx of light. The ones outside and the interior there is a polychrome . In this protected with wooden doors, located at ground level are placed graduation in luminescence. way a sensation of splendor was deep porticoes, and pronounced in small bay windows that deflect obtained in buildings made for the eaves, always present in the direct light. Such is the case in The most common practice was most part with poor materials. sunniest wings of the . the of Ambassadors of the to confine this indirect illumination These porticoes are often made Palace of Comares, the Mirador to the higher part of the rooms, In addition, Islamic architecture up of arcades with designs of Lindaraja of the Palace of Lions which made the light from top to “plays” with the light and the visual through which there is a gradual or the Mirador of the Room of the bottom somewhat hazy, giving effects that it produces (Image adjustment of light from the floor Kings of the Generalife. In the a suggestive atmosphere to the 6.8) not only in decoration but to the upper parts of the walls. larger openings to the patios, the interiors. The light from above also when it penetrates between

Image 6.7. Controlled inner illumination in different spaces in the Alhambra palaces Image 6.8. Reflecting water surfaces in the Alhambra (photographs from Miguel Rodríguez (photographs from Miguel Rodríguez Moreno, in: Orihuela Uzal, 1996: 90, 109 and 142). Moreno, in: Orihuela Uzal, 1996: 87 and 203).

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the trees of the gardens and when sunlight from entering the White or clear surfaces were it “plays” with the water: reflecting directly through its doors, because created using a raw material that the architecture in the ponds these did not have other openings abounds in the limestone regions or shining in the water of the in the ground floor. As in other of the Iberian Peninsula, lime. So fountains and irrigation channels. cases, in the central pool of this rooted has this tradition become palace could be seen the effects that in many towns of Andalusia In the Alijares Palace (Alhambra’s of the reflection from the qubbas the houses are still painted with Hill, 14th century) the control of the and columnated galleries. lime each spring, their overall natural light was made by means white color standing out. of a profusion of vitreous panels 6.1.A.2. Reflecting Surfaces in the upper part of the qubbas The use of ceramic in skirting as (Image 6.9). The text of Ibn Asim Another direct way to avoid well as in roofs was another system makes this clear when indicating the excessive heating of the that assisted the reflection of solar that the way it was built prevented buildings was obtained through rays. This fact is demonstrated in the magnificent tiled of Image 6.9. Vitreous panels in the upper part of the qubbas of the Abencerrajes and Dos the formal qubbas in the eastern Hermanas in Lions Palace (above, photographs from Miguel Rodríguez Moreno, Orihuela Uzal, 1996: 105 and 109) and in the Alijares Palace (hypothesis) (below) (García-Pulido). Islamic cities such as Samarcand, Soltanieh or . In the case of the Alhambra, the present- day roofs are covered with non- vitreous , except for those of the ridge tiling, where often the colors are alternated green and white. Nevertheless during the Nasrid period all the roofing material could have been made Image 6.10. (Above) Vitreous roofing tiles in up of vitreous roofing tiles, as is Karaouiyine in Fez (912-933), with indicated by numerous examples two similar pavilions to those of the Palace found in archaeological remains. of the Lions built in 1613. (Below) Vitreous roofing tiles represented in the historical In addition this feature can be image from 16th century of the Alijares Palace observed in diverse constructions (Sala de las Ballatas del Escorial). of North Africa which received a great number of refugees from the reflection of a part of the solar al-Andalus after the conquest of rays from the outer surfaces of the Granada by the Christians in 1492 building, which would thus absorb and the definitive expulsion of the less solar energy (Image 6.10). last Moriscos in 1609. Among

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them is the mosque Karaouiyine climbs the opposing wall. To Mediterranean latitudes provides the latitude in which the Nasrid de Fez (912-933), with two experience the whole cycle easy protection from the sun, kingdom developed (around 40° pavilions similar to those of the takes from before sunrise until because of the different inclination north), the façades facing the Palace of the Lions built in 1613. after sundown. of the solar rays. In summer they east and west receive two and a have so high an angle of incidence half times more solar radiation in The example of Alijares Palace is Where east-west and north- that they do not penetrate the summer than in winter, whereas one of the most significant in this south spaces pierce each other, interior of the building. In winter the southern façade receives in regard. It stood on top of a red hill, we can experience both time the inclination is much smaller, summer two times less radiation highlighted by its bright white color, scales. The common volume and the solar rays penetrate with than in winter because it remains as is referred to in the epigraphic intensifies both a seasonal more depth, helping to warm up in a shaded area (Jiménez Alcalá, poems than were composed for and a daily cycle. It combines the rooms. In contrast, the east 1999: 26, Olgyay, 1957). In the the palace itself by the poet Ibn them, laying one over the and west façades are least favored central hours of a summer’s day, Zamrak. In the center of its biaxial other. The result is a crossing by the low inclination of the sun the highest solar radiation would courtyard was placed a Nasrid in space that proportions time. in the summer mornings and be received by the roofs in a style elongated pool. The floor of Its celebration has often lifted afternoons, when the incidence north-south oriented building. the palace was covered entirely architecture out of the region of sun rays is at its highest. For So the heat of the day would with white , and the skirting of fact into the realm of art” on the walls had multicolored (Knowles, 1998). Image 6.11. North-South orientation in the main palaces of the Alhambra (Orihuela Uzal and tiles. Judging from the remains García-Pulido). found in archeological digs, it The most important way of solar could also have had ceramic tiles control is choosing an appropriate on the roof. direction for the building and how the doors and windows 6.1.A.3. North-South Orientation are positioned with relation to the sun (Image 6.11). Islamic “Any space that is oriented domestic and civil constructions from north to south sharpens are not conditioned by a precise our experience of a day. direction toward Mecca, as Both main walls are lighted, happens in religious buildings. but at different hours. Every Therefore, whenever the urban or morning, light from the east topographic conditions allowed it, will cast a shadow that moves Nasrid houses and palaces tried quickly down the opposite to establish themselves along wall and across the floor. a north-south axis. The main Every afternoon, light from rooms and qubbas are placed the west will cast a shadow on the north side with its interior that crosses the floor and façade facing south, which in the

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affect the higher air masses in and a well or a pond should the main chambers and winter be placed on the upper part; rooms on the second floor, but or instead of a well, better a would hardly have any effect on canal running underneath the those for summer use, set mainly shade... All the great fruit trees on the ground floors. A façade must stand in the north part, facing south with a protective in order to protect the rest of portico brings together therefore the property from the wind” optimal conditions of natural (Eguaras, 1988). protection against sun in summer and maximun penetration of solar In Granada there are many cases Image 6.12. View of the palace of the Generalife nowdays from its orchards. energy in winter. During a typical that exemplify the preference of day in summer, the inclination Nasrid architecture for the north- Malaga. The adjacent marine there was enough space to of solar rays is so high and the south orientation, where the most breeze, whose temperature is accommodate the architectonic general direction such that there important rooms were located in pleasant and constant, can be complex with the four cardinal is no solar penetration into the the north wing of the patio, with used to cool the day long. points. Its orientation is similar to most important rooms. At noon, the main façade facing the south the of Granada, so that the sun illuminates the patio but (Image 6.13). However, east and The exceptions are those the southeastern qubba, called without affecting the interiors. west walls do not have openings constructions in which the urban al-quibliya, faced toward Mecca. In the morning and afternoon, to the patio, or only restricted layout determined their direction, Perhaps this fact could have however, the sun penetrates ones for ventilation and light, due or those in which other factors, been in relation to the religious through the hollows of the west to their unsuitable orientation. such as territorial control, took practices of the Sufix that took and east wings respectively. Among them we have: precedence over bioclimatic place in this palace. ones. An example of this is the In the 14th century, the agronomist ALHAMBRA: Palace of Comares, qubba of Cuarto Real of Santo On May 21 at 36° north latitude Ibn Luyûn wrote a treatise giving Palace of the Lions, Palace of the Domingo, whose tower is based (southern Spain), an elongated some advice about the ideal Generalife, qubba of the Palace of in one of the walls of the city of courtyard with orientation north- agricultural estate for the Nasrid the ex-convent of San Francisco, Granada, looking outwards in a south displays the following kingdom areas (Image 6.12). Palaces of the High and Low southeasterly direction. features (Reynolds, 2002: 9-13): Regarding orientation he says: Partal, Palace of the Secano. MEDINA OF GRANADA: Dār The most singular case is the At 9 AM the floor is in shadow. The “A house admidst gardens al-Horra, House of the Chapiz, Alijares Palace, in which an sun just grazes the short north should be located in a House of Zafra, Houses in Oro orientation deliberately different face, leaving its arcade in shadow. dominant position for reasons and Covertizo of Santa Inés from the four cardinal points was But sun illuminates almost all the of defence and vigilance. It streets. sought. Although its orientation is long west face and its arcade. At should face the midday sun, MALAGA: Palace of Quarters the best that suits the orography noon about 4/5 of the courtyard the entrance at one side, of Granada of the Fortress of of the hill on which it was built, floor is in sun, and the short north

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6.1.A.4. Microclimate Provided provided shade, gentle light and by Courtyards increased humidity (Image 6.14).

The patio within a house lights and Appropriate layout and orientation ventilates the rooms of the house, of patios prevented solar collects the rainwater and, at the penetration, at least in the middle same time, regulates the climate hours of the day and during the in a natural way. It is the place warmest season. The volume of around which the Muslim domestic the patio was the determining world revolved. It worked as a factor in respect to its thermal thermoregulator for the rest of the efficiency. A space higher than house, accumulating pockets of it was wide was advisable to nocturnal fresh air, which provided maintain more shade. But in varied insulation against the heat of the climates, with cold winters, large day (Jiménez Alcalá, 1999: 18). patios maximize the entrance of The vegetation inside the patio sun in winter and keep it shaded

Image 6.14. The Generalife (Orihuela Uzal, 1996: 109-220).

Image 6.13. North-South orientation in the main palaces and houses in Nasrid Granada (the green arrow belongs to the buildings with religious purposes) (Orihuela Uzal and García-Pulido). face is fully illuminated. But the the arches. At noon the courtyard high sun angle leaves much of the floor is in shadow, except for north face’s arcade in shadow. At the very back of the short north 4 PM the floor is again in shadow. arcade. The sun only grazes the The sun, due west, just grazes top of the long east and west the short north and south faces, faces. The short north face is leaving their arcades in shadow. almost fully illuminated, with deep The sun illuminates about half the penetration into the arcade. At long east façade and it arcade. 2 PM the sun penetrates more than halfway down the wall in the On December 21, at 9 AM almost northeast corner of the courtyard, all is in shadow. The sun only with a small patch of sun in that illuminates the top of the short corner of both the arcades of the north face and strikes the long north and east faces. All else is in west face, just above the top of shadow.

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in summer. Porticoes, pergolas, Lions. Only two palaces in the main axis (Image 6.16), generally patio is placed an intermediate awnings, plants and shrubs act Alhambra (Generalife and the located in the north wing, improves or transition space. The waiting as a filter against the intense light palace in the ex-Convent of San the bioclimatc conditions of a room to the qubba usually is a and reduce the contrast between Francisco) had had a cruciform palace (Jiménez Alcalá, 2000: portico (Image 6.17), which works the brightness of the outside and garden, and both come from 229-230, Jiménez Alcalá, 2011). It as thermal shock absorber for the the cool shade of the interior. the end of the 13th century. The has perimetral windows in its high patio. In the Palace of Comares, presence of an elongated pool part to illuminate and ventilate, due to its dual use as a royal The temperature and humidity in the center of the courtyard while in the lower part they are residence and throne hall, the were controlled and mitigated by would contribute to the creation usually closed to the outside, sequence is even more complex, water and vegetation in the patios. of temperature differences and although not to the garden. If they because the Sala de la Barca Both are sources of evaporative resulting through water have any opening to the street it (the Room of the Boat) (Image cooling. Cooling by radiation was evaporation. is small, designed to provide a 6.18), placed between the tower crucial as well, being the usual strategic and precise view. and the portico, is the private form of natural refrigeration in apartment of the king. Another continental climates. The high 6.1.A.5. Spatial Dispositions Between the qubba and the singular case is the Patio of the inertia or thermal capacity of the around the Courtyard. The walls surrounding the patios kept Sequence of Patio, Portico, and Image 6.15. Orientation and size of the palaces of Comares, Lions, ex-San Francisco Monastery, Generalife (Orihuela Uzal, 1996), and Alijares (García-Pulido). off and slowed down internal Qubba or Tower heating. At night, the patio cooled off easily though ventilation and In addition to the environmental the remission of long wave caloric character that the patio and the energy. With these processes, the garden have, the way in which ex-San Francisco Monastery palace patio was insulated from the heat the rooms were placed around it and dryness outside during the influences the correct distribution Lions day and, after sunset, it was able of the microclimate generated in Comares to eliminate the stored heat. the house. Alijares

In the Alijares Palace the eastern The addition of a qubba2 to the tradition of a biaxial garden was revived, particularly as the Palace of the Lions had once lacked a garden (Image 6.15). 2 Although the word qubba is normally re- This type of patio works well in ferred to a , a tomb, or a ritual space off the central hall (Ragette, 2003: 289), Generalife palaces of huge dimensions like in al-Andalus this word is also related to a the Alijares one, and would have thick-walled regal tower, generally with a provided humidity and shade for quadrangular shape and covered internally with a dome that is not usually visible from the porticoes in the Palace of the the outside.

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Lions, because in its smaller axis of the established between Images 6.16-6.19. The sequence patio, are arranged qubbas: the Room patio and tower. Finally, a portico portico, tower or qubba in the Palace of of the Two Sisters and the Room is normally inserted between Comares and Dār al-Horra (after maps from Orihuela Uzal, 1996: 97-226). of the Abencerrajes. And the patio and chamber. It shelters most complex of all would be the the hall entrance and protects Alijares Palace with its 4 qubbas, its external walls from the sun, porticoes, and covered walkways thus performing as transitional (Image 6.19). space or a thermal buffer of both microclimates. would isolate and prevent the The bioclimatic properties entrance of large quantities of hot attributed to the sequence Some experiments have shown air. The lattice windows located consist essentially in the climatic that the climatic conditions of over the main gates (between interaction among patio, portico, qubbas remain very stable 2 and 5) would work then, and and qubba or tower. The three throughout the day and within would allow the cross ventilation elements complement each other the considered margins of in the high parts of the qubbas. in order to improve the thermal comfort (Jiménez Alcalá, 1999: This retardation is produced by the conditions of the ensemble. 27, Willmert, 2011: 162-167). In radiating effect of the wide walls The patio generates a cooler the middle hours of the day the that surround these qubbas. microclimate than the exterior. ventilation is counterproductive, Nocturnal air is accumulated at whereas for the rest of the time Due to the orientation of the the base of the patio because of its effect is beneficial. Alijares Palace (Image 6.20), the its higher density and its deep four qubbas were built with the form keeps large surfaces in the Temperatures and are same dimensions and degree shade. Furthermore, vegetation much attenuated in the interior of of importance, even though the and water, always present in the qubbas, and more in the patio northwest worked as the principal patios, refrigerate by means of than in the outside. In the hours one. By its biaxial characteristics, their evaporative cooling potential. of scorching heat, the difference the palace established the On the other hand, due to its with the interior can reach 12°C sequence patio, portico, and shape, volume, and fenestration, and with a proportional increase qubba in four directions, in which the tower’s internal air is stratified of relative humidity of more than the longitudinal ones could have and, as a consequence, the 15%. Furthermore the delay had pavilions similar to those of warmer air is easily evacuated produced in the hours of maximum the Palace of the Lions. Therefore through the upper windows. The heat between inside and outside the sequence would have been tower also acts, moreover, as a is two hours. In Nasrid times the amplified having itself a central ventilation tower for the rest of the main rooms would be closed by a pool in the patio, covered walkway building. It sweeps the internal heavy wooden and perhaps flanked by vegetation, pavilion, heat from other rooms by means with tapestry in the inside, which portico, and qubba.

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6.1.B. Indirect Methods of First, the movement of the are more and larger openings night, the walls and roofs begin Passive Refrigeration (Heat air causes the loss of heat in the high part, because the to radiate the accumulated heat. Dissipation) by convection. Normally, the hot air is lighter and tends to be As a consequence, the structure temperature of the air is cooler accumulated in this zone. of the building will dissipate with In Nasrid architecture, the natural than the human skin, and reduces facility the warm air with nocturnal mechanisms of ventilation, the thermal sensation in the In climates with dry and warm ventilation. evaporation, and radiation body. summers as in the case of (Jiménez Alcalá, 1999: 16-18), Granada, from mid-morning In Nasrid buildings there are three each one effective separately, are Second, air close to the skin is to the setting of the sun, the different means to ventilate rooms combined to obtain better results saturated. The contact with the air temperature of the outer air tends in a natural way (Jiménez Alcalá, (Image 6.21). flow causes the absorption of part to be too hot and higher than 1999: 17): of the humidity of the skin, which the inside one. The buildings, 6.1.B.1. Ventilation produces a refreshing effect. therefore, usually remain closed The , which is since it is not possible to make originated by a difference of air Ventilation provides cooling The effective ventilation of a room use of the potential of density and pressure between the because of the air movement that depends on the distribution and the air. When the interior is closed heavier cold air and lighter warm evacuates and drags the heat that shape of the windows, not only to the external air, the wide walls inside a space (Image 6.22). is generated in inner spaces, as with regards to their size, but provide some cooling. These well as the heat from the surface also strategic placement with the isolate the outer atmosphere and The Venturi effect, which occurs of the human body. The benefits aim of obtaining suitable cross- store the heat during the central when a rapid air circulation produced by the ventilation are ventilation. The evacuation of hours of the day, which maintains provokes a lowering of pressure. perceived in two ways: the hot air is improved if there the interiors cool. During the This takes place in areas with Image 6.20. The sequence patio, portico, and qubba in the Alijares Palace (García-Pulido). Image 6.21. Ventilation cooling system in the Alijares Palace during day (hypothesis) (García- Pulido).

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cross ventilation, where the draft from the walls toward the Image 6.22. Stack effect in the sequence (Jiménez Alcalá, 1999: 17). In induces air from other areas, thus rooms, warming up the air, and Patio-Portico-Qubba in the Palace of Comares this case, the water in liquid state creating air convection (Image it is preferable if there a suitable (after map from Orihuela Uzal, 1996: 97). is transformed into vapor. The 6.23). nocturnal ventilation to evacuate required energy () is it. taken from the air, which is cooled, An the Wind-Driven effect, which at the same time that its humidity happens when external wind is The radiative cooling works with increases. The evaporative power induced into the interior and the effectiveness, with the help of of the air will be higher in dry and pressure difference created is materials of a great resistance warm climates, and under specific used to take out internal heat. and heat capacity, which delay conditions, the capacity of cooling Wind can be drawn internally by the heating until the nocturnal by evaporation can be so high strategically located openings dissipation. This property to alter that it is possible to reduce the (Image 6.24). the heat flow between the outer temperature by 14° C. and inner atmosphere is known Image 6.23. Venturi effect in the sequence 6.1.B.2. Radiation as thermal inertia. Therefore, Patio-Portico-Qubba in the Palace of Comares. Evaporative cooling is a resource the radiative cooling depends on used from remote times. The water Thermal radiation is the the thermal conductivity of the can be stored in different ways, energy that a surface emits in material and the thickness of the but in general the more exposed electromagnetic waveform based walls. When the temperature of it is to the air, the greater the on its temperature. If two elements the outer air rises and the wall is advantages that will be obtained. with different temperatures are exposed to the solar radiation, the We can find it from fountains, jets, opposed, a radiant flux from temperature of its external face ponds, and also obtained from the hottest to coldest is established rises, which, if it is higher than vegetation whose leaves always with the effect of balancing both that of the internal face, causes a contain superficial humidity (which temperatures (Jiménez Alcalá, heat flow towards the interior. The result in evapotranspiration). The 1999: 17-18). speed of the flow will depend on Image 6.24. Wind-Driven effect in the cooling due to vegetation can the width and the thermal inertia sequence Patio-Portico-Qubba in the Palace of reach 8º C below the surrounding Comares. The surfaces exposed to solar of the material. areas (Argirion and Santamouris, radiation, such as roofs, 1993). The vegetation not grounds and walls, store the solar 6.1.B.3. Evaporation and Evapo- only improves the thermal and energy received during the day transpiration humidity conditions of the air (Image 6.25). During the night, that crosses it, it also has other and due to the thermal radiation The physical principle of this environmental benefits, like phenomenon, they begin cooling, kind of cooling is based on water filtering the air flow, cleaning it of radiating the heat stored toward evaporation that takes place when dust and contamination, softening the celestial (Image 6.26). vapor pressure on the water is the noise, and mainly providing This radiation also takes place higher than the adjacent air one shade.

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All the interpretations with regards also the development and support to the in general, of the Alhambra on a dry hill. and the Nasrid one in particular, agree in the understanding that it is like a representation of the 7. BIOCLIMATIC DEVICES IN Paradise on Earth, used for rest OTHER ISLAMIC REGIONS and pleasure. In addition, the WITH COMPARABLE CLIMA- garden placed in the patios of the TOLOGY TO THE SOUTHEAST houses and palaces benefit them IBERIAN PENINSULA environmentally. The orchards and gardens in al-Andalus became a 7.1 The North West of Maghreb poetic genre of literature. “… le Maroc de la fin du XVème Water is always present in the siècle avait recueilli en grand gardens, where it assumes a nombre les exilés andalous transcendental meaning. The après la prise de Grenade disposition of the gardens came (1492), main-d’oeuvre appré- Image 6.25. Sketch of sunrays’ reflection and evapotranspiration in the Alijares Palace during the day (García-Pulido). be determined by the systems of ciable d’une rare qualité, à irrigation and water distribution. n’en pas douter, techniciens, The location of palaces and artistes et savants qui auraient gardens, and even cities, dû insuffler une énergie depended mainly on the water nouvelle comme cela avait été available, making possible the le cas sous les Mérinides ; il agricultural development of the es vrai que Fès avait, pour sa city of Granada (Image 6.27), and part, reçu depuis longtemps la leçon des Nasrides au point que la capitale pouvait apparaître une cité andalouse transplantée en territoire maghrébin, par ailleurs, les émigrés d’Espagne s’installèrent surtout dans les villes du Nord du Maroc...” (Le Tourneau, 1949: 73). Image 6.27. Agricultural states of the city of Granada in Nasrid times (García-Pulido, 2011: Image 6.26. Sketch of radiative cooling in the Alijares Palace during the night (García-Pulido). 261-311; García-Pulido, 2013: Fig. 101).

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The northwest of Maghreb has in various mountain villages (Image usually situated behind the front great environmental variations, 7.1), as one-story farmhouses door (Ragette, 2003: 108). due to contrasting coastal and in the Middle Atlas, where the inland zones, as well as altitudes influence of the Roman domus Clusters of courtyard houses are from zero to 4000 meters. Two is still visible. The courtyard is the main component of the urban distinct population groups, surrounded with posts as fabric of major Islamic cities in the Arabs and Berbers, share these as a remainder of the impluvium. Maghreb. The dominant formal territories, merging diverse design The most important rooms are in characteristics of the courtyard contributions. The expansion of the corners and not in the center house in these cities are the Islam beyond Egypt around 670 of the main sides. Courtyard absolute centrality of the courtyard AD meant the Arabs controlled houses were also widespread in with its perfect geometric form the north coast of Africa, including North African Roman settlements and ingenious adaptation to the Tunisia, , and Morocco, such as Volubilis in Morroco; irregular contour of the plot. The and al-Andalus in the Iberian Carthage and El Djem in Tunisia; plan of the house may vary in Peninsula. and Timgad, Djemila and others detail, but its basic characteristics in Algeria (Sibley, 2006: 49). are kept and the hierarchy of The Atlantic coast of Morocco the spaces and the general Image 7.2. Ouled Limane, a double-loaded is washed by the cool Canaries Another tradition found in Morocco patio Ksarhouse with a large entry, a twisted organization of the houses are Current that keeps summers is the Ksarhouses (Image 7.2), stairway and few and small rooms (Adam, very similar. However, the size notably cool for the latitude, the built between the wall and the 1951 and Ragette, 2003: 10) and character of the houses and highest recorded temperatures counter wall of a fortified city. their courtyards in these cities do being only just over 40ºC. Inland, They usually had a wide covered vary. The bent entrance is followed summers are hot and dry with Image 7.1. Middle Atlas courtyard 100 m2 courtyard with a quadrangular by a transitional space creating bright sunshine, but near the farmhouse with indirect entry, patio with six skylight in the center, allowing the a buffer zone. The courtyard is post and large skylight surrounded by four circulation of air and controlling coast low cloud and fog are not rooms (Laoust, 1932 and Ragette, 2003: 10) deep and the stairs and service infrequent. In winter the prevailing the entrance of light. areas are located in the corners winds are westerly, bringing of the house. The reception room rain from the Atlantic and often The Tighremts’ (Image 7.3) is the most decorated room and is heavy snow over the High Atlas shape is also conditioned by their usually near the house entrance. Mountains of the interior. defensive features, so they have a massif shape, being usually The early courtyard houses of Courtyard houses were part of arranged between four corner Fustat (Egypt) during the 8th and North African settlements well towers. Sometimes they had a 9th century show regular central before the arrival of Islam in skylight as in the Ksarhouse, square patios, with symmetric the region. The Berbers had mainly in the upper stories, and and T-shaped reception rooms their houses organized around in the lower ones a corridor take (Image 7.4). This early house form courtyards and this is still the case the place of the central courtyard, probably influenced the Maghrebi

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Image 7.4. Ninth century houses in Fustad with regular rectangular courtyards, peristyles and arranged in an irregular plot and the axis emphasized by fountains and water channels (Gabriel, Albert and Bahyat, 1928 and Ragette, 2003: 143).

courtyard house organization. The T-shaped rooms are evident in the courtyard houses of Tunis and Algiers and could be reminiscent of the early Fustat courtyard houses, but they disappear in the western regions Morocco and al- Andalus (Sibley, 2006: 49-62).

7.1.1. The Courtyard House in the Medinas of North Maghreb

Townhouses are found in the cities of the littoral and the lowlands northwest of the mountains. They subscribe to the introverted courtyard scheme with a simple gallery or complete peristyle and often elaborate courtyard elevations (Ragette, 2003: 113).

In the medina of Fez large residential quarters are still lived in today. They present entire clusters of modest courtyard houses as well as fine examples Image 7.3. Ait Hamid, symmetrical Tighremt of 24 m height and 30x30 m2, with a central corridor instead of a patio and two opposite stairs defining four corner spaces with its corner belonging to wealthy families. tower attached (Adam, 1951 and Ragette, 2003: 112). The work of Jacques Revault’s team on the courtyard houses of

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Fez (Revault et al., 1985) reveal layers of columns interrupted Image 7.6. Ground floors of Dār Mzelja, Dār Lazreq, Dār Lazreq (Derb el-Médersa), Dār Zouiten, that the typology has remained by a first floor gallery (Image Dār Demāna in Fez (14th-15th centuries) (Revault, 1985: I, 113, 127, 137, 167 and 185). with little changes from the Merinid 7.5). Most of them are built on period (14th-15th centuries) until rectangular plots with a width the 19th century and that the to height ratio varying between organisational principles are the 1.5 and 2 (Sibley, 2006: 49-62). Dār Zouiten Dār Mzelja Dār Lazreq same whether for a large palace The houses are usually three- or a modest courtyard house. Size story structures with intermediate and level of decorations are the levels. The rooms are organised only indicators of differences in along the longitudinal axis which wealth among courtyard houses’ frequently presents a north-south owners and occupants. orientation, as is the case of Dār Lahlou (Raguette, 2003: 115), Dār Courtyard houses in Fez are Mzelja, Dār Lazreq, Dār Lazreq characterized by their verticality (Derb el-Médersa), Dār Zouiten, and their deep patios. The Dār Demāna (Image 7.6) (Revault, oldest type of houses present 1985: I), Dār Ben Šeqrūn or Dār either continuous columns up Bou Helāl (Revault, 1985: II). to the projecting roof or two They share diverse compositive

Image 7.5. Ground floors of Dār Sqolli (left) and Dār Demāna in ezF (14th-15th centuries) (right) in Fez (17th-18th centuries) (Revault, 1985: II, 86 and 196).

Dār Lazreq (Derb el-Médersa) Dār Demāna

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principles with the Andalusian the Alawite period (17th-18th between the exterior and the Nasrid and Morisco houses. The centuries). In these houses the interior of the house. Other specific features can be main rooms face each other and chimney of the kitchen, placed in found in the corbelled overhanging have large double-winged rooms the ground floor, is in some cases Secondary spaces such as volumes of the external façades, and porticoes. The staircases are associated to the main north room, the kitchen, toilets, stairs, and allowing discreet side views from placed in strategic corners of the as happened in Dār Bou Helāl storage are relegated to the the house to the public streets. building without being exposed to and also in Dār Sqolli (Image 7.7). irregular-shaped corners of the the courtyard. In most regions of Thus, in winter the fireplace and house, and are usually located on The courtyards in Tunis’s medina al-Andalus, the roof were sloped chimney can contribute to heat the first floor. The courtyard and are rather wide and open (Image and covered with tiles, due to the the main rooms of each story, and the roof space, where activities 7.9). The spatial characteristics pluviosity. But in the Maghreb this should be an adaptation in take place, provide completely of these houses remained normally one staircase leads to the traditional Magrebine dwelling different spatial experiences that unchanged from the 16th to the the roof terrace. because of the colder conditions complement each other. The 19th century (Revault, 1967), of these centuries. In al-Andalus, shaded, enclosed, and highly and their architecture contains Adjacent houses are occasionally the chimney might have been private courtyard space is in features present in early al-Fustat joined to form one large dwelling. used in the massive and compact complete contrast with that of the residences in Egypt (Sibley, In that case one of the houses dwellings without patios of roof terraces. 2006: 49-62). The courtyard is becomes the private domain of mountain regions such as the the family. The other spaces are Alpujarra in the Sierra Nevada, Image 7.7. Ground floors of Dār Bou Helāl organized around a light well and but never in the . (left) and also in Dār Sqolli (right) in Fez provide a private living area for a (17th-18th centuries) (Revault, 1985: II, 65 married son or for guests. The traditional urban courtyard and 78). house in the of Algiers The courtyard is the focus also consists of a ground floor of outdoor living space and and two-story structure organized various domestic activities such around a deep square courtyard as food preparation, , (Image 7.8). The individual rooms and children’s play. As in other are long and shallow and occupy courtyard houses of the Muslim a full side of the square patio, world, there is a bent circulation normally surrounded by three- space which prevents any visual arched galleries on the four sides, intrusion from the alleyways into providing a covered circulation the private central space of the and a transitional space between house. the rooms and the open courtyard. As in other cases the patio is These features have been accessed through a small bent conserved in the dwellings from space acting as a buffer zone

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surrounded by a series of long opens onto the courtyard and and narrow rectangular T-shapep balances the two lateral sitting rooms, where the central area bays. Each room constitutes an

Image 7.8. Constantine (Algeria), house Ben Sharif, plans and oblique cut-away view. The roofs drained most of the rainy water into the quadrangular courtyard and on to the cistern (L’Habitat traditional dans le Pays Musulman autour de la Méditerranée. Variation et Muutations, 1991 and Ragette, 2003: 124).

Image 7.9. Tunis, house Husayn, surrounded by lanes on all sides and a large service wing attached garden that complements the courtyard (Revault, 1967/71 and Ragette, 2003: 132).

autonomous spatial unit with a First, the houses of Fez, the multipurpose uses and has its own Kasbah of Algiers and Tunis entrance and courtyard façade. usually have four porticoes and the shape of the patio tends to be Among the differences between quadrangular with eaves at the these courtyard townhouses of same height, remembering the the main cities from Maghreb and impluvium of the Roman domus. the latest Islamic houses of al- The Nasrid archetype house Andalus are the following: has a rectangular courtyard and

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normally two porticoes. The whole permanent solutions adapted were created by extending the undesirable weather conditions. patio surrounded by porticoes to the particular conditions heavy wooden beams beyond the The most important living spaces, is well documented in Morisco of indigenous cultures long stone walls on which they rested. like the sofa and köşk room, turn houses from the 16th century. settled in Anatolia, thus creating to face the view despite climatic new architectural forms and a The Anatolian Peninsula disadvantages, and usually face Second, the townhouses of diversity of regional house types. protrudes into the large inland northwards, even if the north and northwestern Maghreb usually Whatever the materials used, the area and is essentially subject to northwest directions are the most have three stories. Compared to fundamental principles of spatial the Mediterranean climate. The exposed to winds and precipitation the houses in Tunis, the courtyard organization remained similar, climatic conditions, orography, (Sözen, 2001: 69-70). If the site houses of Fez and Algiers have even if this gave rise to differences and particularly panoramic does not offer significantly better higher vertical proportions. This in the form of the houses. Wood considerations were the main views in any one direction, then can be explained by the steep was used in the mountain slopes factors in the layout of a settlement climatic considerations are given slopes than form the site and the facing the Black, Marmara, and the arrangement of main priority. On flat terrain the most need to increase density as the Aegean, and Mediterranean seas; spaces of the dwellings. Over appropriate direction for rooms city expanded in the 16th century, stone in eastern and southeastern the centuries the Turkish house to face is east or south. But in after the arrival of al-Andalus Anatolia and adobe and stone in has been designed principally to northern Turkey the west is also refugees. As a result, in these the hinterland and central areas of provide protection from extreme considered desirable. This was aspects they are also more similar this peninsula. In central Turkey, weather conditions while taking so for houses all over Turkey, to the houses developed by the where both wood and stone were advantage of those aspects so other measures are taken Morisco society in the southeast in short supply, adobe was the that make life easier and more to counteract the drawbacks, of the Iberian Peninsula. main building material, providing pleasant. The effects of climate such as the widespread use of extremely good insulation. Adobe on spatial organization differ from fireplaces and chimney breasts walls were reinforced at intervals region to region. Adverse climatic as an important feature of the 7.2 The Anatolian Peninsula by wooden posts, and were aspects of the northern regions main rooms (Image 7.10). This plastered with thin mud every year, are low temperatures, wind, and element is not common in Islamic The different typologies of they were not sufficiently strong high precipitation, while in the architecture, and it is only present Turkish houses derive from the unless reinforced with the timber. south they are high temperatures in northern and mountain regions, merging of different civilizations Timber was by far the most widely and lack of wind (Sözen, 2001: and also as an influence of and construction traditions, used material, at three quarters 56). European culture. established in the course of the of the total only in the Anatolian Turkish movement westwards Peninsula (Sözen, 2001: 62). However, the importance of Vernacular architecture in Turkey through Anatolia and large areas In the absence of timber, stone views and magnificent natural is also shaped by social and of the Balkans. The flexibility and was preferred if available, leaving scenery in some Anatolian cultural structure. Domestic life versatility of the principal room, wood for doors, window frames, regions influences the orientation patterns, relations between family known as sofa in the Turkish ceilings, floors, and bay windows. of a house even when this might members, and local solutions to culture, was combined with the In these buildings bay windows entail exposure to wind or other the provision of diverse needs

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all affect spatial composition There are four main climates in on hillsides facing east, south, screens the terrace against (Sözen, 2001: 65). So relations of the Anatolian Peninsula, and each or southwest. Buildings consist intense sunlight (Aran, 2000: 96). production, climate, topography one has contributed to different of single cubical structures with During summers, the terrace, and other factors give rise to pattern in housing traditions: whitewashed thick walls. equipped with a fireplace at one differences in spatial organization Window openings are small and corner, turns into an open kitchen of vernacular architecture. These 7.2.1. Mediterranean Continen- few in number; they are equipped and together with the window are accentuated and given further tal Climate with shutters that open inwards. shutters that are kept closed, diversity by people’s spiritual Roofs are covered with earth, and ensures a cooler and shaded beliefs, so that even where In the Bodrum Peninsula buildings in hillside settlements indoor environment (Image 7.11). climatic conditions, vegetation, in southwest Anatolia, the are provided with a terrace in front and building materials are settlements and buildings give of the main door. Sometimes, a 7.2.2. Mediterranean Marine identical, these beliefs give rise to evidence of sensitivity toward front trellis with climbing vines Climate differences in conception that are the Mediterranean continental reflected in architecture. climate. They are found mainly Under the Mediterranean marine climate of southwest Anatolia, buildings are oriented toward cooler winds but protection from Image 7.10. (Above) Akçaalan house in Anatolian’s Bodrum Peninsula; rectangular room with two solar radiation is also important. fireplaces. (Down) Hanay house in Southwest Anatolia (Milas, Muğla) (Aran, 2000: 138 and 140). Settlements consist of widely spaced clusters of discretely placed single-mass buildings. Living spaces of one or two rooms are built on top of ground floor granaries and usually have

Image 7.11. Terrace in front of the main door with front trellis in Southwest Anatolia (Aran, 2000: 100-101, 148 and 156).

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surrounding trees. Each room is usually require shading against Peninsula. To the south and west is dry and the reflection of solar equipped with vertically elongated solar radiation, solutions to that of Malatya (eastern Anatolia) light is intense from the light narrow windows, normally four, end are not emphasized in this settlements and buildings are colored landscape. The sky is placed in pairs just across from region, since cloudy days number sensitive to climatic conditions. cloudless over a long period of each other. Building masses are as high as three hundred a year. Heated through the day, the air the year, wind velocity generally covered with tiled roofs sloped on Furthermore, there is also the rises toward noon carrying sand Image 7.12. Timber plank house in Karaçam four sides. Two-story buildings are need to keep indoor spaces of Çaykara (Trabzon) and its veranda space and dust, and the diurnal range positioned at the northern side of luminous (Aran, 2000: 102, 104, (Anatolian Eastern Black Sea Region) (Aran, of temperature is large. Rains are the courtyard and get more and 108) (Image 7.12). 2000: 108-112). few and far between, and come more elevated above the ground during storms lasting only a few as they come closer to the hillside. 7.2.3. Mediterranean Mountain- hours (Givoni, 1967: 343). Rooms placed on top of granaries, ous Climate to the rear of widely eaved deep Some of the settlements in the loggias facing courtyards, gain In central Anatolia, colder winters dry and hot southern region protection from solar radiation of the Mediterranean mountainous consist of buildings of cubical and profit from summer breezes. climate prevail. Relative humidity masses. Exterior spaces that Nevertheless, the need to limit is low and temperatures below separate buildings maintainsthe surfaces exposed to intense the freezing point are common. togetherness of all buildings, summer solar radiation is still Stone masonry walls with including the ground. noticeable in the whitewashed small window openings ensure cubical houses protected by high insulation against cold weather Roofs are used for desiccating courtyards walls, and also in the and the maintenance of indoor fruits and cereals, as workplaces. closely clusters of courtyards. temperatures. Outdoor activities are confined to early morning hours, afternoons, In other regions, houses with In two-story houses the granary and night times. The inhabitants multi-story structures are erected and stable are placed on the sleep on roofs or in courtyards on on stone walls, rising above ground floor in order to heat the raised wooden platforms acting surrounding trees, letting air living and guest room on the as bedsteads (Aran, 2000: 114) currents reach inward to the upper story. Exterior windows, (Image 7.13). buildings. All façades rising framed with thick cut stones, are above ground floors are provided small in size (Aran, 2000: 113). 7.2.5. Courtyard Houses in with large window openings. Anatolia Wide eaves that go all around 7.2.4. Dry and Hot Climate the building protect walls against While in many regions of Anatolia rainfall. Although the multitude The dry and hot climate prevails the compact house without a of spacious windows would in the continental Anatolian patio is the norm, the house

Luis José García-Pulido Bioclimatic Devices of Nasrid Domestic Buildings AKPIA@MIT 76 The Aga Khan Program for Islamic Architecture at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology 77 2011-2012

types oriented inwardly onto a Konya houses with courtyards can living spaces were arranged in an cool courtyard are also present in have a kind of veranda, roofed L shape around a courtyard. The certain regions. They derive from and with closed sides but open houses of eastern Anatolia echo ancient northern Mesopotamia at the front, onto which the rooms the architectural characteristics of tradition and Islamic culture, and open directly (Image 7.14). Persia (Sözen, 2001: 69). have been built in these areas for centuries. The most distinctive courtyard houses of the southeastern 8. CONCLUSION The spatial layout of courtyard Anatolian region are in Ufa, houses consists of rooms with Mardin, and Diyarbakιr. In this There is no single way to interact eyvans around a fairly large patio. region summer temperatures with climate factors in architecture. The fact that houses with outer range between 40 and 45°C, and Most of the regions where Islamic and inner sofas are particularly protection from heat is the main culture spread have harsh common in cities illustrates the factor in design. Here numerous conditions due to aridity, great cultural contribution of the Turks large rooms are placed around insolation, and high temperatures in central Anatolia, where they a huge courtyard, creating a during the day. Thus, to improve first settled (Sözen, 2001: 67). house reminiscent of a small the environmental conditions for palace. The high exterior walls habitability, bioclimatic devices have few windows, giving them a had to be developed to construct plain appearance, but the interior the best shelter with the lowest spaces are richly decorated. energy cost. In preindustrial In courtyard houses of Urfa an times, the fossil stored in the imposing main gate opens into the earth during certain geological courtyard, which in some cases periods were not available, and contains a pool to cool the air. in dry regions vegetal was in Service rooms are on the ground short supply. So this civilization floor, while the principal room and had to develop bioclimatic skills other living rooms are on the upper and behaviors to make the most story. The principal room is at the of natural conditions at any time. corner of the long narrow or outer sofa. Rooms encircling a These regions were also affected courtyard as seen in southeastern by the climatic changes reported Image 7.13. Narrow passageways and courtyard Image 7.14. Konya house with a roof veranda Anatolia are also found in ancient from the 5th century. These house in Yukarı Ulupınar of Darende (Malatya, (above) and Antalia house with an exterior Anatolian dwellings revealed by changes were less intense than in Eastern Anatolian) (Aran, 2000: 116-117). sofa (below) (Sözen, 2001: 84-85). excavations. In these houses the the Atlantic North in temperature

Luis José García-Pulido Bioclimatic Devices of Nasrid Domestic Buildings AKPIA@MIT 78 The Aga Khan Program for Islamic Architecture at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology 79 2011-2012

terms, but rainfall changes can be horizontal nomadism are well and control of illumination were is provided to temper the severe detected. This factor could also developed in the bigger houses. achieved perfectly in the patio, summer conditions. In this case be related with the fast expansion In Cairo, the deep loggias open portico, and tower or qubba the solutions applied were diverse of Islam in the early times. to the exterior were placed inside sequence in the most sublime and influenced by different the courtyard in 15th century and palaces. cultures, but keeping the main Dwellings typology in Maghreb some of the wind-catchers that elements of the Turkish culture, was conserved between the bring the breeze through the iwan As in the Iberian Peninsula, as the inside or outside sofas. 14th and 19th centuries, well and are related to the qa’as were Anatolia has diverse climatic adapted to hot conditions with blocked, remaining as a symbolic patterns, but there the bioclimatic Nasrid dwellings were the result of its north-south orientation and but not practical feature of a devices were often of secondary an intuitive process of background water installations in courtyards, dwelling. importance compare to other experimentation, developing what few windows to the exterior, and conditions such as views. In the today we call effective bioclimatics small and protected quadrangular Other regions with remarkable woody regions with cold winters, skills applied in courtyard houses patios, but also with some devices bioclimatic devices are Baghdad the use of chimneys and fireplaces highly developed in this issue. against cold, like the four covered and the coastal cities of the Gulf, was widespread, one in each Al-Andalus buildings have had a porticoes of the courtyard. During where air-wells and wind-catchers room of the compact house. The great influence and predominance the peak of the Little Ice Age in were widespread, combining their chimney breast is usually in an in the Spanish patio tradition, the 17th and 18th centuries, the effects with courtyards iwans and outside wall, and the remaining surviving different forms and chimney introduced in the kitchen water. Nasrid architecture didn’t heat is not used in other rooms. styles of architecture, and have tended to heat also some of the develop these extraordinary On the other hand, in the hottest been exported to other cultures. main north rooms. Vertical and devices, but cross-ventilation areas the courtyard arrangement

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