ROJAS FERNÁNDEZ , Juan Manuel

The following doctoral thesis studies the way in which Mediterranean courtyards are used in architecture as passive energy saving systems, through a detailed understanding of their thermodynamic behaviour. In order to achieve this, one must first of all study the historical architectural importance of the courtyard, setting out to explain its...

The interaction between the buildings and the atmospheric phenomena produce microclimates in its nearby environment, characterized by air characteristics that differ from the outside average. These characteristics depend, among other factors, on its architecture. A certain building design can modify greatly the temperature in these spaces in a...

Traditionally, people in the Mediterranean region knew that the temperatures in their courtyards were cooler in summer than outside temperature. This paper provides a quantitative study on the usefulness of Mediterranean courtyards as passive energy saving systems. This work is based on the creation of a Computational Fluid Dynamics (CFD)...

This study identifies and proposes A GIS-based exploration of the relationships between aspect ratio of inner courtyards, porosity of the urban fabric and the climatic factors where it is located. To perform that comparison, morphological and measurement methods have been used to delineate spatial boundaries of urban densification. This...

The energy modelling software tools commonly used for architectural purposes do not allow a straightforward real-time implementation within the architectural design programs. In addition, the surrounding exterior spaces of the building, including the inner courtyards, hardly present a specific treatment distinguishing these spaces from the...