Basrah’s climate is hot, dry summer, mild to cold winter, and a pleasant spring and fall. The old builders from this region putted a big effort to create passive bioclimatic houses that corresponds the negative effects Basrah’s macroclimate. The courtyard is the central and dominant space in the house plan with a direct access to the living spaces. Houses from the city are compact with interior courtyard; the streets are sinuous and pass through houses volumes. The shady interior courtyard has the effect that the rooms do not communicate directly with the overheated air outside, but through intermediate buffer spaces. In the mean time between courtyard and street at least a wall or a building is always interposed. The House plan had an endomorphic form, {open tree form}. The volumes were concept to create shadow which helps to move the air by natural movement to the deep superior side, that can be achieve through special holes. The architectural elements are strongly decorated, reproducing special typologies and traditional houses. Open spaces, covered by large roofs, are interesting due to the mix of diffuse light and shade that are an essential aesthetic factor in these buildings.
Keywords: bioclimatic architecture, shadow, compact volumes, spaces, courtyard
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