This thesis is a proposed house located at Smithfield, a property that has been in the Smith family for over two centuries. Located in Russell County, Virginia, the land has a rich history, and the design of the house addresses the historical significance of the site. The house reflects both the past and the present. While the house is rooted in early regional building traditions, the proposed house is modern in the use of materials and details. The final design reflects the historical context of the site and region while incorporating modern concepts of how we live today. / Master of Architecture / This thesis is a proposed house located at Smithfield, a property that has been in my family for over two centuries. It is based on the regional architecture of Southwest Virginia and our family's history and ties to the land. While the house is rooted in early regional building traditions, the proposed house is modern in the use of materials and details. Like what has come and gone before us, the house is not meant to stand forever, but become a living memory to our family.

Dans les dernières décennies, les changements morphologiques des maisons iraniennes, l’arrivage de l'éclairage artificiel et le manque de connaissance suffisante de la valeur de la lumière du jour pour le bien-être des occupants ont résulté une diminution de l'utilisation de la lumière du jour dans les habitations iraniennes contemporaines. En conséquence, le niveau du bien-être des occupants a décru ce qui peut être corrélée avec la diminution de l'utilisation de la lumière du jour. Considérant l'architecture traditionnelle iranienne et l'importance de la lumière du jour dans les habitations traditionnelles, cette recherche étudie l’utilisation de la lumière du jour dans les habitations traditionnelles et explore comment extrapoler ces techniques dans les maisons contemporaines pourrait augmenter l'utilisation de la lumière du jour et par conséquence améliorer le bien-être des occupants. Une revue de littérature, une enquête des experts iraniens et une étude de cas des maisons à cour traditionnelles à la ville de Kashan ont permis de recueillir les données nécessaires pour cette recherche. De par le contexte de recherche, la ville de Kashan a été choisie particulièrement grâce à sa texture historique intacte. L’analyse de la lumière du jour a été faite par un logiciel de simulation pour trois maisons à cour de la ville de Kashan ayant les mêmes caractéristiques de salon d’hiver. Cette étude se concentre sur l’analyse de la lumière du jour dans les salons d'hiver du fait de la priorité obtenue de l'enquête des experts et de la revue de littérature. Les résultats de cette recherche montrent que l’extrapolation des techniques traditionnelles de l'utilisation de lumière du jour dans les habitations modernes peut être considéré comme une option de conception alternative. Cette dernière peut optimiser l'utilisation de lumière du jour et par conséquence améliorer le bien-être des occupants. L'approche utilisée dans cette recherche a fourni une occasion d’étudier l'architecture du passé et d’évaluer plus précisément son importance. Cette recherche contribue ainsi à définir un modèle en tirant les leçons du passé pour résoudre les problèmes actuels. / In the past several decades, the morphological changes of Iranian houses, the advent of artificial lighting and the lack of knowledge about the value of daylight on occupants’ well-being have caused a decrease in the use of daylight in contemporary Iranian dwellings. As a consequence, there was a reduction in occupants' well-being that may be correlated with the reduced use of daylight. Considering Iranian traditional architecture and the significance of daylight in traditional dwellings, this research has studied using daylight in traditional dwellings and has explored how extrapolating these techniques into contemporary houses might increase the use of daylight and consequently to enhance occupants’ well-being. The required data for this research were collected through literature review, the survey of Iranian experts and the case study of traditional courtyard houses in Kashan city. Kashan city was selected as the context of this research mainly because of its pure historic texture. Amongst the traditional courtyards of Kashan city, three traditional courtyard houses were chosen according to the same features of their winter living rooms and analyzed by daylight simulation software in the worst-case design scenario. The winter living rooms were selected as the focus area based on the extracted results of the survey of Iranian experts and literature review. According to the results that were extracted from this research, it was clarified that extrapolating the traditional techniques of using daylight into modern dwellings can be considered as a design option to optimize the use of daylight and as a result to enhance occupants’ well-being. The approach utilized in this research has provided an opportunity for studying the past architecture more precisely and evaluating its significance. Thus, this research contributes to define a pattern by learning from the past in order to solve the current problems.