Bioclimatic approach of passive cooling techniques for the design of buildings in southern Algeria

The bioclimatic approach looks into the opportunities for building conception under the local climatic conditions. The first bioclimatic chart has been developed by Olgyay which combines temperature with relative humidity to characterize the comfort zone. It is founded on outside climate conditions to identify attenuation measures such as solar radiation, wind speed, or shading to reach comfortable inside conditions. Givoni created also a bioclimatic chart founded on inside conditions using the physical and thermal properties of air. Bioclimatic approach strategies contribute to decreasing the building energy loads and increasing thermal comfort for its residents over the year. The principal aim of this research is to evaluate a bioclimatic approach to passive cooling for building design in Algeria's South using Givoni's Bioclimatic chart and Olgyay's Bioclimatic chart. Climate data of various locations (Ouargla, Ghardaia, and El Oued) within this area were collected and analyzed. Furthermore, an overview of appropriated conception strategies for the hot season for each zone is developed. The results show that the maximum average temperature from June to August at around 43.1°C. After applying passive cooling strategies, the temperature indoor can be decreased from about 26.1 to 31.4°C, which can be described as being in the comfort zone for the three studied locations. Finally, these findings can contribute to understanding the thermal behavior of residential buildings and offer guidelines to develop a convenient concept of what the building composition should look like in arid and hot climates. Keywords: Thermal comfort, passive cooling, bioclimatic approach, bioclimatic chart, hot climates