Courtyard houses in Yazd
Yazd province is located in center part of Iran in a desert area.This area has hot and arid summer and cold winter,hot days and cold nights with low amount of rainfall.To adjusting to this condition courtyard houses have been constructed to protect residents from direct sunlight,heat, cold weather,dust and sand storms that are usual in desert areas like Yazd.
Courtyard houses have few windows to sidewalks.They have yard at center of them with more windows.Because of this features courtyard houses reduce the amount of direct sunlight,sand storm,dust,heat,cold and protect the building.Furthermore this houses have two main parts for different seasons especially summer and  winter.In summer residents move to summer area.This area receive the most shadow.The winter area catch the most sunlight in winter therefore it is warmer than other parts.Other parts of house around courtyard depending on owner budget could be construct that is called four-season houses.These parts connect summer areas to winter areas.

 These kind of houses have been constructed in the way to be efficient and use low amount of energy in different seasons.Therefore they could be consider as sustainable buildings.Most of this buildings are traditional and remained from the past but they could be use as a pattern in ecovillages.

SOURCE:Keshtkaran.P (2011)Harmonization between climate and architecture in vernacular,Procedia Engineering,Published by Elsevier Ltd,pp 428-438