Living in Extremes: Dynamic Indoor Environment and Thermal Performance of Traditional Nomadic Yurts

In modern society, we spent more than 90% of our time indoors, and almost 50% of energy in buildings goes to indoor space thermal conditioning to maintain the uniform indoor temperature in compliance with the indoor environmental standards. Thus, the indoor climate is typically tightly controlled and, typically, cold, and heat exposures are usually avoided in buildings, and the design of the indoor environment aims towards achieving thermoneutrality of occupants. However, current global climate change urges the built environment to cope with extreme outdoor conditions. Looking for inspiration for designing the sustainable and healthy built environment in modern societies in times of climate change, we studied the lifestyle of Asian nomads traditionally living in semi-natural conditions in yurts and daily exposed to temperature extremes. Temporal variation of indoor microclimate, outdoor conditions, and thermo-physical characteristics of the selected yurt was monitored for three days in January 2020. The relationship between physical parameters such as temperatures, relative humidity, air speed, and daily activities of a nomadic pastoralist is presented in this work. Measurements reveal a significant temporal and spatial variation of the indoor thermal environment. Remarkably, a pastoralist working close to the yurt goes in and out of the yurt many times during a day and is thereby exposed to frequent temperature variations of up to 50 K.