Ancient 'air-conditioning' cools building sustainably

[xchrom]

http://edition.cnn.com/2012/02/28/world/asia/ancient-air-conditioning-architecture/index.html?hpt=wo_bn1


Built in the arid suburbs of Jaipur, Rajasthan, The Pearl Academy of Fashion combines modern exterior styling with ancient Rajasthani architecture -- designed to keep temperatures down without artificial cooling systems.

aipur, India (CNN) -- How did buildings keep cool before the invention of air conditioning? As architects consider how to reduce the energy demands of new builds, some are turning to the past for simple, low-tech solutions.

At the height of summer, in the sweltering industrial suburbs of Jaipur, Rajasthan in north-west India, the Pearl Academy of Fashion remains 20 degrees cooler inside than out -- by drawing on Rajasthan's ancient architecture.

While the exterior appears very much in keeping with the trends of contemporary design, at the base of the building is a vast pool of water -- a cooling concept taken directly from the stepwell structures developed locally over 1,500 years ago to provide refuge from the desert heat.

Award-winning architect Manit Rastogi, who designed the academy, explains that baoli -- the Hindi word for stepwell -- are bodies of water encased by a descending set of steps.
Green lessons from Mughal architecture

"When water evaporates in heat, it immediately brings down the temperature of the space around it," he says.

While traditional stepwells often go many stories below ground level, Rastogi's go down just four meters. However, the effect is the same and -- like the ancient Mughal palaces before it -- the academy enjoys its own microclimate.

[NEOhiodemocrat]

1. Very interesting article

Thanks for posting

[peacebird]

2. Fascinating! Great article, Thank You!

[cachukis]

3. Very Cool

[aquart]

4. Humans! The things they think of!

[annabanana]

5. Kicking for History lessons!. . .n/t

[MADem]

6. The video at your link is marvellous. nt

[NewJeffCT]

7. so, when it's a dry 110 degrees outside

it's a humid 90 in the building?

[SolutionisSolidarity]

8. Actually, if it's dry outside, the cooling should be much more effective than that.

The wet bulb temperature at 110 F and 0% humidity is 53.7 F. At 30% humidity it is 75.7 F, and by 70% it's 102.8 F. An evaporative cooling system like this would work very well in a dry climate. And there are ways to get around the humidity issue. Through the use of heat exchange systems, there's no real reason why the air in the cooling system need ever come into contact with the indoor air. And air conditioning can provide supplemental cooling while drying out the air, as well.

[NickB79]

9. How much water would a system like this require?

I'm thinking how something like this would be applied to the US Southwest, and am a bit concerned where exactly they would get all that extra water from in such an arid region.