A Design Framework for a Climate-Responsive Interactive Building Envelope Using Locally Calibrated Thermal Comfort Models: The Case of Isfahan, Iran

Document Type : Original Article

Authors

Department of Architecture and Urban Planning, Faculty of Engineering and Technology, Ashrafi Esfahani University, Esfahan, Iran.

Abstract

Thermal comfort in buildings located in Iran’s hot–arid regions, and in Isfahan in particular, remains a difficult problem for designers to solve. Among the layers that mediate between occupants and the outdoor environment, the building envelope is arguably the most consequential, since it shapes both indoor comfort and the energy a building draws to maintain it. The climatic variety across Iran, together with the well-documented shortcomings of static, universally applied comfort models, has made the case for locally calibrated and climate-specific envelope strategies hard to ignore. This paper sets out to develop and assess, at a conceptual level, an interactive building envelope informed by the indigenous thermal comfort equations derived for Iranian conditions, with the analysis anchored in the climate of Isfahan. Methodologically, the work is a climate-data-driven design study supported by documentary analysis and complemented by the fabrication of a functional prototype for operational validation; it draws on long-term meteorological records from ten Iranian cities together with a review of the relevant comfort literature and standards. The analysis suggests that coupling passive climatic measures with an adaptive, movable envelope, one whose configuration tracks occupants’ thermal behavior, which we term an interactive envelope, offers clear potential to moderate indoor conditions and raise indoor environmental quality. To demonstrate the feasibility of this concept, a 1:20 functional prototype was fabricated, confirming that the control chain, temperature sensing, control logic, motorized actuation, and louvre movement across open, half-open, and closed states operate as intended. It should be stressed that this prototype was built to validate the kinematic and control behavior of the system rather than to reproduce or measure its full-scale thermal performance, which remains to be tested through measurement or simulation. On this basis we propose a design framework for an interactive envelope built on the comfort equations calibrated for Isfahan. The framework is intended to respond to the demands of a hot–arid setting while allowing thermal adaptability, control of solar gain, better use of natural ventilation, and reduced reliance on mechanical conditioning alone. Taken together, the study offers a reasoned starting point for climate-responsive and adaptive envelope design in contemporary Iranian architecture.

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Journal of Design Thinking
Volume 7, Issue 1
June 2026
Pages 79-97

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