Environmental research

During the recent years, constructions and attitude of local people living on Qeshm island villages has been changed. Traditional knowledge of using natural resources as construction material and local architecture is now almost gone and new houses and building now depend on non-renewable energies for heating/cooling purposes. Considering the climate on the island, thirty six percent of household charges go to electricity bill mostly because of using air conditioning utilities and electricity consumption is considerably higher than average. As one of the reasons which lead to this high electricity consumption is the fact that proceeding to 2005-2008 earthquakes, constructions on Qeshm island do not follow the traditional architecture and are based on the assumptions which are not localized to the island s climate. This project aims to revitalize the traditional architecture localized to local characteristics of Qeshm including energy efficiency issues in designing new built houses. Some of the main targets of project are: Sensitization of local people on land degradation and high energy consumption on the island Introducing traditional architecture to young people living in Qeshm and focusing on energy efficiency issues in new constructions Decreasing dependency on electricity through designing energy efficient structure built based on local resources and capabilities Establishing a network to promote traditional architecture on Qeshm island and attracting local youth to promote their traditional knowledge Holding meetings with local authorities to attract their cooperation in promoting traditional architecture Designing and constructing two houses based on traditional knowledge of architecture and local resources for two married couples Holding participatory workshops with local architects to collect traditional knowledge and promote energy efficiency constructions

Iran