Environmental effect of courtyard in sustainable architecture of Iran (Cold regions)

This paper concentrates on the results of sustainability caused by Courtyard as a climatic element in Iranian traditionalarchitecture of cold regions. Traditional architectureof Iran is perceived sustainable for having sustainablefeatures. It is able to response to environmental problems from a long period. Its features are based on climatic factors as well as local construction materials of cold regions and Courtyard (hayate- markazi) is one of this features .Courtyard as one of the determining and organizing factor of traditional architecture in cold regions involves varies aspects. This research uses librarydocuments and Internet sites as well as analyzing building plans. Result of this paper; show that consideringthe experience in traditional architecture of cold regions, it is possible to create an environmental and sustainable architecture.