ZEMCH 2015 - International Conference Proceedings | Page 752

Introduction
Passive design means a low energy and energy efficient building. Passive design in buildings uses
building architecture to minimise the energy consumption of the building and improves the thermal comfort of the occupants. According to Mikler et al. (2009), the correlation of the local climate
with the shape and the thermal performance of the building is one of the main consideration of
the passive design approach to reduce the energy use of the building and increase the thermal
comfort of the occupants. In general, the foundation of passive design depends on natural sources of energy and reduces the need for mechanical systems for cooling, heating and lighting in
the building (Light House Sustainable Building Centre and Guido 2009). Using the surrounding
environment is one of the key factor in minimising the heating and cooling loads of the building
as well as having low operating and maintenance costs (Jaques and Mardon 2008).
In recent years the quality of school design in Iran has been improved significantly but most of
the existing schools have been constructed without any concern for the comfort of the occupants and the adaptation of the building to the local climate (Iravani 2010; Ghaffari 1998) because
of the lack of environmental design guidelines. The quality of indoor environment has a great
influence on the students’ learning performance in the classrooms (CABE 2010) which confirms
the importance of providing comfortable and healthy indoor environment for the occupants. To
develop environmental school design guidelines using passive design strategies, it is necessary
to assess the current design methods used by the educational authorities in Iran and to examine
the performance of existing schools which are one of the major energy consumers in non-domestic buildings (Gorji-Mahlabani 2002; CBI 2011). According to the annual report of Central Bank
of Iran (CBI 2011), there are more than 112,500 schools in Iran including around 13,234 thousand
students in 2011-12. This statistics show how important it is to improve the quality of the schools
in Iran to provide more comfortable and healthier indoor environment with the minimum energy
consumption using passive design strategies.
This paper studies the e