Architects in India Use Natural Cooling to Take the Edge off Factory Emissions

Thousands of years before air conditioners were invented, architects in hot climates were well-versed in making the most of natural materials and weather patterns to keep buildings and their occupants cool.

Builders in India during the time of the Mughal Empire, which ruled much of the subcontinent between the 16th and 18th centuries, relied on a few tricks to ward off the hot climate that dominates two-thirds of the year. For example, they installed adjustable bamboo screens, which could be lowered depending on the position of the sun, or built vaulted roofs to deflect the full force of the sun during the hottest part of the day. They also employed evaporative cooling, or using water to take the edge off a hot breeze. The emperor’s throne room in Dehli’s Red Fort, for instance, was surrounded by four open gates that were sprinkled with water, according to a 2013 article from Aligarh Muslim University.

The Mughals got the trick from Persia, but fundamentals of evaporative cooling go back to ancient Egypt at least. Now a team of Dehli-based architects, Ant-Studio, has turned to this common-sense technique to cool down emissions from an electronics factory in the capital—with little cost, energy use, or environmental impact.

Monish Siripurapu and colleagues stacked dozens of conical terracotta tubes, and rigged a system to send a flow of water over them. Hot air from the factory’s generators get directed through the tubes. Their first attempt dropped the temperature of the surrounding area from 107 to 96 degrees Fahrenheit.

Long time ago, human use some teasels in the windway, soaked them and made cooler. Ever after, they find so many different ways to become the weather less warm; such as funnels, windwards and… Ant studio, has made the special traditional cooling by clay on june 2017. They used traditional evaporative cooling techniques that converts hot air to cool air. Because it doesnt need any technologic energy, its a fully ecological way for cooling, specially on xerothemic weather. @studio.ant قديما، كه كولر و سيستم تهويه اي وجود نداشت، مردم در مسیر بادی که از پنجره می گذشت یک بوته خار می گذاشتند و اون رو مرطوب می کردند واز هوای خنکش استفاده مي كردند. بعد ها، روش هاي مختلف ديگه اي رو مثل بادگير و تونل ها براي خنك كردن اتاق هاشون پيدا كردند. انت استوديو، يك كولر خاص با روش قديمي رو در ژوئن امسال (٢٠١٧) درست كرد كه با استفاده از همون تكنيك قديمي، اما به وسيله ي سفال، هواي گرم رو به هواي خنك تبديل مي كنه. بخاطر اينكه توي اين روش هيچ احتياجي به تكنولوژي و انرژي نداريم، اين كولر، يك كار كاملا اكولوژيك محسوب ميشه، و خب خيلي به درد مناطق گرم و خشك مي خوره. #beehive#antstudio #traditional #ecology #evaporative #clay #modern #cooling #aircondition #warm #xerothermic #design #boomsoostudio #noida #india

A post shared by Boomsoo (@boomsoostudio) on Sep 11, 2017 at 11:04am PDT

“I believe this experiment worked quite well functionally,” Siripurapu told architecture magazine ArchDaily. He also sees beauty in the cellular tube structure, and the potential for a new art and craft form that could engage local artisans. “There are many factories throughout the country that face a similar issue,” he said, “and this is a solution that can be easily adopted and a widespread multiplication of this concept may even assist the local potters.”