Compact Residential Design and Ventilation Efficiency: Indoor Environmental Quality in Hot-Arid Zones, Ghadames, Libya

This study examined the ventilation system of the old city of Ghadames, a UNESCO World Heritage site located in the hot and arid Libyan Sahara. Specifically, the study working mechanism of the ventilation system without using technical machines and the rules that helped generating air flow effectively. The study is important step towards understand how we may develop architectural pattern using natural ventilation to provide thermal comfort within a building complexes in a hot and arid climate zone. The study was based on personal observations, thermal measurements, and maps. Two key findings resulted from this study which can simplify in the spatial and urban integrity, and social corroboration are the most important keys that created air-flow processes in the inherited urban complex of old Ghadames.