Courtyard as passive design solution for school buildings in hot area

Sustainability in architecture must produce buildings that give satisfaction for people with less energy consumption and less environmental problems. The sustainable design in architecture adopts passive design strategies like courtyards that produce buildings which use the wind for cooling and the sun for lighting and heating. The courtyard was a climate responsive design in the past, that provided people with easy direct solutions for their problems with the climate, and it was able to satisfy their social needs. In this study there will be an investigating for the effect of closed courtyard with different proportions on school building in UAE, to test the capability of the closed courtyard in improving the thermal performance of the school building consequently minimize the energy consumption. The study adopted a school building as a case study because courtyards are used mostly in houses while it can be beneficial for public buildings like schools. Courtyard can provide the school with private outdoor space, and can improve the thermal and ventilation properties of the school building thus minimize the energy consumption. Moreover the courtyard can provide the school with safe inner playground and learning scientific atmosphere for the students. The study will adopt a qualitative methodology which depends on descriptive and comparative analysis for the case study after the computer simulation with the Integral Environmental Solutions software (IES). After investigating the case study with different courtyard proportions and with the aid of the computer simulation, there was energy savings for the building because of the presence of the closed courtyard but with different values related to the proportions of the courtyard. The final result indicated that the courtyard effects the amount of the sun exposure, solar gain consequently the cooling sensible plant of the building, moreover the courtyard design and proportions have a direct effect on the ventilation beside the thermal performance of the interior spaces. However the courtyard should be in proportions that suits the height and the function of the building.