Evaluation of innovative sustainable design techniques from traditional architecture: a case study for the cold dry climatic region in Turkey

This paper demonstrates the architectural design of an energy-efficient sustainable single-family house with verified results of computational fluid dynamics (CFD) and energy performance analyses. The main objective is to take advantage of local architecture by identifying and analysing the traditional design strategies and techniques that applied often in practice through making use of the natural environment to create efficient and sustainable building. The study reveals the importance of using the natural environmental forces as well as the topographic and climatic features that were incorporated into the architectural design, to achieve optimized building energy performance. The site’s topography with hilly features and climate with dry and diurnal temperature variations adds thermal advancements of the house design. The house utilizes sun energy, wind pressures and building envelope’s thermal properties by precisely integrating them into the design. The challenge of this design is to take advantage of traditional architectural techniques to minimize the need for mechanical systems.