Abstract

In order to design energy conscious buildings we need to know the climate of each country. In this study a bioclimatic analysis of Iranian climate had been done. Iran is a large country with different kinds of climate and basically includes four different climatic regions such as temperate-humid in southern shores of Caspian Sea, hot-humid in northern shores of Persian Gulf and Oman Sea, very cold and long winter sessions and very hot and dry summers at the central part of Iran. At first the authors surveyed the existing climatic classifications of Iran. Afterwards by retrieving the climatic data from sixty eight Iranian Meteorological stations, and using the new bioclimatic chart a new climatic classification for architectural purposes has been made. As a result of this, five climates were identified for Iran. In order to prove that this new classification is valid, the traditional architecture of these climatic regions was compared. It was found that the traditional buildings have different features in these five regions.

Key words: Climate, climatic classification, vernacular architecture of Iran, bioclimatic analysis.