Reassessing vernacular building envelopes for energy efficiency in hot-dry climates: a case study from Diyarbakır

The building sector is a sector that consumes high levels of energy and has intensive environmental impacts throughout its entire life cycle, from design to construction, use, demolition and recycling. According to the International Energy Agency (IEA), the share of the residential sector in global energy consumption has increased significantly. This situation necessitates sustainable design strategies to increase energy efficiency and a re-evaluation of local building cultures. The study presents a comparative analysis of local (basalt, limestone, adobe) and modern (brick, reinforced concrete) materials used in the building envelope under constant thermal conductivity conditions, taking only the thickness parameter as variable, in terms of energy loads and carbon emissions, based on a traditional courtyard housing typology in Diyarbakır Suriçi, located in a hot-dry climate zone. According to the findings obtained with the DesignBuilder simulation program, basalt stone showed the best performance in terms of both heating-cooling loads and CO₂ emissions. The high thermal masses, low embodied energy values and region-specific production advantages of local materials support energy efficiency, while increasing the thickness of modern materials leads to economic and structural limitations. In this context, the study reveals the impact of building envelope material choices on both operational energy and environmental performance and provides recommendations for future hybrid strategies where modern and local materials are considered together.