THE “ZISA” IN PALERMO: BIOCLIMATIC ASPECTS OF ITS ARCHITECTURE

In the present work is examined, as an ante-litteram example of summer residence and bioclimatic archi-tecture, the ancient castle of the Zisa (from the Arabic 'al-aziz = noble, shining, glorious), meaningful work of Arab-Islamic character built up at the beginnings of the XII century (fig. 1). The building holds a notable importance as it is one of the few examples of Norman civil architecture with elements of Arab-Islamic character and Byzantian culture, but also because it had been conceived according to the most re-fined Islamic techniques of free cooling. The building (fig. 1) presents itself like a massive rectangular construction developed on three levels. On the architectural plan t…