*3.2. Equivalent Energy—Morphology*

In order to carry out the analysis proposed in this section, the same building materials were assigned to all the dwellings, they were situated in the same locations and their openings were removed.

As can be observed in Figure 5, the highest values of equivalent energy correspond to the conical or hemispherical dwellings, such as the hogan, the wigwam and the tipi. The order of the dwellings does not change, except in the case of the pueblos, whose equivalent energy is similar to the ones of the hemispherical designs. This circumstance is possible because the pueblo design manages to reduce the surface of its envelope by overlapping its constituent volumes.

**Figure 5.** Timber frame-superinsulated template as the envelope of all the dwellings, situated in the New Mexican locations and without openings (KJ/kg m<sup>2</sup> of living surface).

This effect can be explained in the following way [64]. A cube composed by a 36-units<sup>3</sup> volume, has a 65-units<sup>2</sup> envelope, but if that same volume, those 36 units<sup>3</sup> are arranged horizontally, they create a 96-units2 envelope. In the first case, the shape factor is 1.8, whereas, in the second one, it is 2.6 [64]. The opposite happens about the plank houses and longhouses, whose shape tends to be horizontal.

Even though all the models were homogenized, there is another characteristic that the shape factor cannot take into account, besides the orientation. It is the indoor compartmentalization of the buildings. As indicated before, the pueblos were composed by several volumes, whose overlapping reduces the outdoor exposure of their dwellings influencing the amount of energy isolated by these constructions, but do not influence their shape factor.

As can be seen, the rest of models appear in the same order for both values. The proportions between them are the only differences. The highest and the lowest values are more distant, whereas the ones located in the middle form a different group. This way, it can be said that the equivalent energy value qualifies the information provided by the shape factor.

Figure 6 shows the results that correspond to the original locations of the dwellings. Besides, they have also been coated with their original materials. It shows that some designing decisions, such as the entrance galleries (K), the vaulted spaces (N) or the distribution in several levels (L), are normally not related to the envelopes which achieve a high Δh (11).

**Figure 6.** Scatter graph. Links between the environmental characteristics and the equivalent energy.
