N. Tayari - Department of Architecture, Bam Branch, Islamic Azad University, Bam, Iran
M. Nikpour - Department of Architecture, Bam Branch, Islamic Azad University, Bam, Iran

Most of the spaces in contemporary houses in Iran cannot achieve enough daylight during daytime. Daylight utilization has a significant impact on decreasing energy consumption in residential buildings. Residents are deprived of natural daylight when there is no attention to the design based on daylight. Iranian traditional architects use practical and straightforward methods in constructing courtyards houses to provide comfort conditions in unique rooms in courtyard houses in terms of daylight quality. In this research, the daylight quality of five separate rooms around the courtyard of Yazdanpanah's house was investigated through an experimental method. Average work plane illuminance and uniformity ratio were calculated in these rooms of the house in Kerman city, located in Iran's hot and dry climate. Findings of this research demonstrated that all rooms surrounding the courtyard of traditional houses have the ability to achieve work plane illuminance of more than acceptable value. Among all rooms around the central courtyard, one room facing the south direction achieves more than ۵۰۰ Lux work plane illuminance. The amount of uniformity in this room is acceptable with more than ۰.۵ on most of the days in a year. The findings of this research could be used to design more comfortable rooms in contemporary houses in terms of daylight quality by creating central courtyards.

Courtyard house, Hot-dry climate, Kerman climate, Uniformity, Work Plane Illuminance