Investigating the Potential for Passive and Active Environmental Retrofitting Strategies in Courtyard Housing in Hot Arid Climates to maximize Thermal Comfort for

The research is oriented around heritage reuse adaptivity and bioclimatic architecture, that can be taken further to produce models based on a case study located in hot arid climate, to be implemented to sustain the heritage fabric while optimizing thermal comfort and reducing carbon emissions through passive and active scenarios. Since early 19th century, indigenous courtyard houses in the historic area in Bahrain have been readopted by different transcultural communities in different scenarios to fit their needs, lifestyles, and thermal comfort desires. Modern lifestyles and the change of thermal expectation have placed the heritage fabric under series of intrusive interventions to facilitate indoor air-cooling, which consequently separated the indoor air from outdoor air by creating sealed indoor environment and require the need for an energy source.

Based on an assessment on the previous adaptive reuse and retrofitting projects in the historic areas in Bahrain, there was a lack of integration between passive environmental strategies and the whole process of retrofitting. Therefore, it is necessary to reactivate the passive strategies which could contribute on maintaining thermal comfort in buildings without consuming electricity, since heating and cooling require the most energy. Thus, incorporating passive cooling strategies combined with active technologies would help to create a more sustainable environment with optimized thermal comfort and less carbon emissions.

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