Environmental requirement of living in dry areas: developing climate-based architecture and an urban development planning model in Qom, Iran

Environmental factors are being increasingly taken into account in the increasing development of urbanization and citizen residential requirements. Climate and climate conditions are among the environmental factors that have always influenced human welfare. Climate has always been incorporated in old urban structures in Iran and can be easily observed. Despite the importance of climate-related elements in Iran, there has been a lack of sufficient consideration of climate conditions in urban planning during the period of fast-paced urbanization. However, in these last years the introduction of theories such as sustainable development, geographical elements and more specifically climate, have been incorporated in urban architecture and development. Accordingly, the present study first attempts to review some climate applications in the planning and construction of cities, and then proceeds to tackle some architectural factors and urban planning requirements (such as the indoor and outdoor spaces of a building) regarding the climate in the geographical area of Qom, Iran.  For this purpose, Mahoney tables have been used for climatic design, and then the data was analyzed by implementing the descriptive-analytical method. Results of the study showed that various urban and architectural planning methods including compression, reducing the size of openings, double glazing windows and others have reduced the harshness of Qom’s climate and changed a threat into an opportunity.