Passive techniques in traditional Qatari buildings

Vernacular buildings in Qatar have employed some ingenious 
passive techniques in order to restore thermal comfort within
the building particularly during the hottest hour of the day. 
Such techniques are discussed hereafter


.1. Town layout
The buildings were joined close to each other. 
The houses, on the other hand, shared walls and this minimized 
the surface exposed to the sun. The streets were like a trench.
This helped the buildings to shade one another as well as to 
shade the streets. 
The only spaces that received a great amount of sunshine were 
the open spaces such as the courtyards. 
At midday the courtyard received more solar radiation than 
the shaded areas. As these heated up, hotter air rose and denser, 
cool air rushed in automatically. The cool air was drawn from 
the shaded streets. The streets oriented in the direction of 
the prevailing wind which created a low pressure area in the open
space thus moving the air from the streets into the living spaces.


2.Massive walls
The walls of traditional buildings were massive with a thickness 
of about 60 cm . Various materials were used to construct the walls . 
Such materials include: