Environmental performance of the Sequence Patio-Portico-Tower in Hispano-Moslem architecture.

The residences that Muslims built in the Iberian Peninsula respond to a similar architectural type. They are commonly distributed around a central elongated courtyard, in whose north wing a tower is normally attached. The spatial sequence established between the tower and the patio improves the environmental conditions of the complex through the combination of some specific cooling strategies. This article includes a typological analysis of this configuration, a study of its environmental aspects, as well as the computer simulations undertaken to evaluate the hypothesis. This paper is part of a PhD project entitled Environmental Aspects of Hispano-Islamic Architecture, which the author is currently carrying out at the AA. Graduate School in London under the supervision of the professor Simos Yannas.