Cold-Arid Deserts: Global Vernacular Framework for Passive Architectural Design

Abstract

Among the most unforgiving climates, cold-arid deserts have inspired a myriad of solutions towards passive architecture. Developed over hundreds of years, lessons from vernacular architecture can be the key to challenges of the future. “Since antiquity, man has reacted to his environment, using his faculties to develop techniques and technologies, in such a psychological balance with nature that humanity historically lived attuned to the environment” (Fathy 1986)1 As concerns for the future of our planet steadily increase pertaining to the depletion of resources, energy consumption, and globalization, alternative solutions can improve the impact we have on our environment, as well as provide the ideal environment for us. The provision of housing for the rapidly growing population continually keeps architects and developers seeking ways to provide the most economically friendly, site specific design that can also be sustainable. Design solutions do not have to be costly or incorporate complicated modern technology to be sustainable and energy efficient. However, technological advancements continue to dictate the relationship between man and comfort. Can a blended principle of past solutions and modern technologies work together to improve the effects of climate on human environment? This dissertation is meant to gather vernacular lessons to develop a valid framework, in order to create environmentally and culturally sustainable residential prototypes. Through a global analysis, a framework is extrapolated from existing vernacular case studies and modeled to test their relationships and possible improvements to prove their validity today within a single site, the Chihuahua Desert in North America.