Determining Appropriate Method of Cooling Air in Desert Houses by Implementing Value Engineering Methodology

This study represents implementation of value engineering technique to determine appropriate method of cooling air for buildings in deserts. Deserts are usually very hot in the summer and there is a tremendous need for providing cool air inside the residential, commercial and industrial buildings. There are many alternative sources for providing the required energy for this purpose, but the aim of this paper is to introduce and implement the best method in order to be environmentally and economically feasible. Middle Eastern desert architecture represents a significant wealth of traditional technologies based on climate-responsive buildings. This study uses value engineering (VE) methodology for choosing the best alternative source to provide cool air for desert houses. The city of Yazd in desert of Iran was chosen as a case study for this purpose. Results showed that constructing the wind catchers could easily provide necessary cool air for buildings in arid and semi arid regions. The wind catchers can be employed to catch the wind blowing at higher elevations and direct it to the building, causing it to exit through windows, doors or other exhausted segments.