Emphasizing the impact of bioclimatic design elements on the energy performance of dwellings, this paper aims at comparing traditional houses with the contemporary to learn from the past experiences and implement them in new design practice. This paper’s focus is on the architectural design phase. Significant design elements mentioned in the literature are introduced. Two case study dwellings are selected from the region of Safranbolu, as representatives of the two neighbourhoods, i.e. the old part built with the “traditional” and the new part with “contemporary” architectural approach. A building performance simulation program has been used to generate data for the study. The comparison is based on the bioclimatic design elements and the thermal performance of both buildings. It is claimed that traditional Turkish houses have a better understanding of climatic responses compared to contemporary design approach, which is tested in this study.