From traditional passive strategy to contemporary design tool: the study of a new prototype of mashrabiya

The traditional strategies of passive cooling represent a very important tool to face climate changes and to limit energy consumption, both in new and ancient buildings. In particular, natural ventilation, natural light control and passive cooling are fundamental strategies in Mediterranean Architecture, toward sustainability and the reduction of fossil fuel consumption. Starting from the traditional architectural culture, the aim of the study is to understand how using and re-interpreting ancient constructive elements that interact with the outdoor environment, in order to assure the thermo-hygrometric comfort into internal spaces. In this regard, the paper proposes the study of a new prototype of Mashrabiya to be installed in Mediterranean buildings. This system originates from the Islamic architecture and it is used especially for natural light control into the buildings. Actually, it has also the function to regulate the airflow into the indoor environment, mitigating the climatic conditions and ensuring the comfort of inhabitants. For this reason, the research proposes the analysis of this system through modern powerful computational and modeling tools, such as computational fluid dynamics, and demonstrates that this system can guarantee better indoor conditions, improving wind velocity and air change rate in the room. The study helps us to understand how the design principles of the past can be still effective in contemporary project. In fact, passive cooling strategies are sustainable design tools and can fulfill the future objective of limiting the use of plant systems that affect energy demand at local and global scale.