Archie D'Cruz, Editor, Designer, Writer
See this?
It’s called a wind tower, and you can still find a few of these scattered throughout the Middle East.
I
shot this one at Madinat Jumeirah in Dubai, and while I am not sure if
this particular wind tower is an old structure or a recreation, there
are a few I recall from my time in Bahrain that were definitely from the
era before air conditioning.
So what is a wind tower, and how does it work?
As
anyone who has lived in or visited the region will know, the summers
there can get hot…oppressively so. Temperatures of 40ºC (104F) and up
are far from uncommon.
Before air conditioning
existed, many homes were equipped with these wind towers, which rise
some five to six metres above the house, and are typically open on all
four sides.
They are designed to catch even the gentlest wind and funnel it down into the majlis
(the common area of the house), creating a cooling effect. In fact, the
wind towers would cause the inside temperature to drop by about 10ºC
from the outside (so 104F outside would be 86F inside, by my
calculations).
One that I have personally
experienced was at the Shaikh Isa bin Ali House (home of the present
King’s great great grandfather) in Bahrain.
You
can actually feel the wind draft when standing under, and when it’s
sufficiently breezy outside, someone with long hair (not me, obviously)
can expect to have it tousled.
Wind towers have actually been around since Egypt’s Early Dynastic Period
dating back to 3100BC. Here’s an ancient miniature unearthed from near
Cairo that’s currently on display at the Louvre in France:
(Pic: Wikipedia)
But if you think wind towers are relics of the past now that we have electricity, think again.
With so much focus on green technology today, several researchers[1][2] have been working on improved versions that can be incorporated into modern buildings. One of them, British scientist Ben Hughes,
has patented a system that adds a vertical pipe loop carrying a mixture
of liquid and solid refrigerant that he says will make wind towers a
feasible alternative to air conditioning.
His
zero-energy systems have attracted enough interest and funding,
including from Qatar, which may integrate them into stadiums and
structures at the FIFA soccer World Cup in 2022.
Pretty cool, huh?
Footnotes
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