Environmental Control of Urban Covered Courtyards in Mediterranean Climates – Comparison between different strategies

Abstract

Covering urban courtyards allows the creation of pleasing public or semipublic spaces, sheltered from bad weather and possibly with a controlled climate. The use of transparent or semi-transparent roofs, that allow daylighting, is a common solution in central and northern Europe, but not in Mediterranean climates, where it would cause overheating for a good part of the year in the absence of appropriate solar control strategies. The case study examined in this work is the courtyard of a former Venetian convent. With reference to it, by means of computer simulations, some types of partially transparent roofing and some solar control strategies were compared from the points of view of energy demand, thermal and visual comfort. Given the diffusion of this type of courtyards in the Italian territory, the simulations were also performed using the climate data of the warmer climate of Palermo. The better solutions appear to be those based on the use of dynamic solar control devices.