Flower pergolas in Provence, Spanish shaded patios, Amerindian carbets … These traditional structures are very useful to protect themselves from the sun and bring a little freshness, and are increasingly interested in architects looking for solutions to global warming. “There are really a lot of very interesting examples” From the past to make the habitat more comfortable in case of strong heat, estimates Cristiana Mazzoni, architect and urban planner in Paris.
Professor at the National School of Architecture of Paris-Belleville, she studied architecture along the old silk roads, which cross the Asian continent from China to the Mediterranean basin, and particularly the “Houses in court, patio or loggia”.
In an interior courtyard, “it is the shadow and vegetation that bring freshness and, as it is built in the thickness of the building”, the sun’s rays do not directly heat the walls. “Often there is a fountain or a well that brings back the water from the depths, which brings even more freshness”details Cristiana Mazzoni. These interior courses are characteristic of Moroccan riads, Roman houses (Domus), Venetian palaces, or Ottoman residences with covered central hall.
“Continuing on the silk roads, there are wind towers”the ecological ancestors of air conditioning, numerous in Iran, which refresh housing with a natural ventilation system. As well as “Houses on the ground”very insulating material, which today inspire many architects, adds the architect. Another very widespread example, the traditional Provencal house – from the south of France – is designed to protect itself from the wind and the sun with in particular the installation of a southern side trellis.
A “renewal of thought”
“We enter an era when we risk giving great importance to hyper technology”at the risk of “Getting away from humans”underlines Cristiana Mazzoni, who must organize in September a conference to bring the architects together around all these examples of vernacular architecture. “We built with the materials available and according to climates and ways of living”recalls Jacques Boulnois, architect at the BHPR office, and teacher at the University of Orleans, in the center of France.
Come back to ancestral know-how constitutede “a renewal of thought”with taking into account that“We can’t do everything anymore” facing the climate and that he “You have to find a new contemporary architecture”he believes. “Without fuel oil or electricity, it was not easy for our ancestors, but they put intelligence”supports Jacques Boulnois. Examples of modern reuse exist, like rue de Meaux, in the north of Paris, where the famous Italian architect Renzo Piano designed in 1991 a large interior courtyard in the middle of the social housing he also designed.
“You will notice the small difference of 2 degrees between the street and the court” Planted by birch and goatfeuilles, note Colette, a long -standing resident of the residence.
South -exposed, she does not directly feel the benefits of the freshness of the court on her accommodation, just like Ilan, 35, who nevertheless underlines that he does not “Never stifling heat like where (he) lived before, a 19th century building”.
Still in Paris, in the Chapel district, the French architect Françoise-Hélène Jourda rehabilitated in 2014 the pajol hall, dating from the beginning of the 20th century, integrating a rainwater recovery system, solar panels and a Canadian well (also called Provençal well) which uses the temperature of the soil to ventilate a house with more hot or cooler air.
“No miracle solution” However, warns Jacques Boulnois, for whom we will have to think about “Make contemporaries” This knowledge, not necessarily adapted to all regions. In the case of Iranian wind towers for example, “Natural ventilation” by air currents is “extremely complicated” Understanding and exploiting according to places.
