Re-Designing Contemporary City Blocks: Designing in Favour of Energy Conservation for a City in Desert: Kerman, Iran

In Iran, urban block morphology has changed as a result of the architectural focus shifting away from traditional concerns such as climate-and-energy sensitivity onto issues such as land use, transportation and finance. Current architectural practice while has completely overlooked the architecture of the past, failed to improve the quality of life. The hot, arid climate in combination with non-responsive urban building design has resulted in high energy consumption to keep occupants comfortable. Although it is possible to overcome many of the negative effects of an inefficient design by the use of mechanical systems, this thesis through an architectural response, explores the role of climate sensitive strategies, practiced in the traditional architecture, in recognizing the importance of energy conservation. While it is only at the urban scale that energy-saving strategies could effectively tackle problems, the applicability of these principles will be studied at a neighbourhood scale.