The aim of this study was to investigate the bio-climatic characteristics of
traditional and contemporary residential architecture in three different
climatic/geographical regions of Libya, which are represented by Tripoli in the
&ldquo / coastal region&rdquo / Gharyan in the &ldquo / mountainous region&rdquo / and Ghadames in the
&ldquo / desert region&rdquo / . It was undertaken to understand and evaluate the effects of building
layout and orientation, wall thicknesses, ceiling height, construction materials,
thermal mass and size of windows, on the resultant thermal comfort conditions of
the buildings/dwellings in question.
An architectural survey of the dwellings was carried out and indoor and outdoor
photos of houses were taken. Temperature and humidity data in pre-determined
rooms of the dwellings, in addition to data relevant to exterior weather conditions
were recorded by thermo-hygrometers. Residents who had experience of living in
both traditional and contemporary dwellings were interviewed informally before
preparing a comprehensive questionnaire, which was distributed to them to gather
the required data.
It was found that traditional dwellings in Tripoli and Ghadames, in their present
condition, did not provide the desired level of thermal comfort. This was attributed
to a number of reasons. One was the abandonment of these dwellings by their
occupants, in favor of those of modern style. The resulting collapse of some parts of
adjacent house blocks, which used to provide a degree of protection against climatic
conditions when working as a whole block of several attached houses. Another was
the introduction of new construction materials that were incompatible with the
original ones. However, traditional dwellings in both cities appeared to provide
relatively better thermal comfort conditions in comparison with the use
contemporary dwellings of recent years, except for those with air conditioning.
This situation was different in Gharyan, where the troglodyte dwellings were
concerned. These dwellings were thermally more comfortable than the modern ones
in the city. This was attributed to the fact that most of the existing troglodyte
dwellings still preserved their original features to a large extent.
At length, this study recommends that modern types of dwellings should adapt
those features of the traditional ones that are more compatible and suitable for the
local climatic conditions, in a way which guarantees optimum exploitation of local
resources in terms of energy consumption and cost.
| Identifer | oai:union.ndltd.org:METU/oai:etd.lib.metu.edu.tr:http://etd.lib.metu.edu.tr/upload/12608674/index.pdf |
| Date | 01 July 2007 |
| Creators | Elwefati, Nahla Adel |
| Contributors | Elias Ozkan, Soofia Tahira |
| Publisher | METU |
| Source Sets | Middle East Technical Univ. |
| Language | English |
| Detected Language | English |
| Type | M.S. Thesis |
| Format | text/pdf |
| Rights | To liberate the content for public access |
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