In the heart of Iran, the thermometer often exceeds 40 degrees. Thanks to wind towers, the ecological ancestors of air conditioning, which in turn are of interest to architects, these extreme temperatures remain bearable.
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Located near the Silk Road, Yazd is one of the trendiest cities in the world. Surrounded by two deserts, summers are hot and rainfall is extremely rare.
Its inhabitants have learned to adapt to it. Using methods invented more than 2500 years ago when the Persian Empire ruled the Middle East.
Yazd is “living testimony to the intelligent use of the limited available resources that are necessary for survival in the desert,” summarizes Unesco, which added it to the World Heritage List in 2017.
Photo: AFP
This city of 530,000 is “a source of inspiration for new architecture that meets the challenges of sustainability,” adds this UN organization.
Yazd is particularly famous for its 700 or so badguirs (“wind catchers” in Persian), traditional and elegant towers that tower over the flat roofs of the historic center.
“The Badguirs played an important role in the town’s prosperity. For centuries, before the invention of electricity, they were used to cool houses. Thanks to them, people lived comfortably,” explains Abdolmajid Shakeri, head of the Ministry of Cultural Heritage of Yazd Province.
Photo: AFP
Similar to straight four-sided chimneys, Badguir feature large vertical slots and multiple chimneys inside. They let the slightest breath of fresh air into the home while the warm air is pushed out under pressure.
This cooling method is “completely clean, as it uses neither electricity nor polluting materials,” points out Majid Oloumi, director of the Dowlat-Abad Garden, which houses a 33-metre-high Badguir, the tallest in the world.
“Simplicity”
This example of bioclimatic architecture inspires a growing number of architects around the world, such as the Paris-based Franco-Iranian Roland Dehghan Kamaraji, who has studied in depth how badguirs work.
They “show that simplicity can be an essential feature of sustainability and refute the widespread notion that sustainable solutions must necessarily be complex or high-tech,” he defends.
As one of the most representative projects, he cites that of the city of Masdar in the United Arab Emirates, whose “buildings like Badguir’s are designed to use natural ventilation for cooling”.
In Melbourne, Australia, Council House 2 is also a building with a passive cooling system, like the Eastgate Center in Harare, Zimbabwe, which is “inspired by termite mounds, an approach similar to Badguirs'”.
In Yazd, towers and traditional houses are built of rammed earth, which is made of mud and raw earth and is an effective heat insulator.
The well-preserved old town is also organized around narrow streets and ‘sabats’, those partially covered passageways that protect from the sun. The contrast with the wide and straight avenues of the modern city is striking.
“Unfortunately, the legacy passed down from our ancestors has been forgotten,” regrets Majid Oloumi, especially since air conditioning has been around. “Today, the architecture of the houses that come from other countries and the cement-based construction methods no longer correspond to the climate of Yazd.”
Internationally, Mr. Dehghan Kamaraji notes that a number of bioclimatic architecture projects continue to be hampered “by economic demands and industry standards” that still favor the use of materials that consume fossil fuels.
dry out
Specialists are also interested in another specialty of Yazd: the “qanats”, those narrow underground passages that transport water from the mountains or underground water tables to places of life.
“Constructed more than 2,000 years ago for some, these underground aqueducts “are a source of water supply and help cool homes and keep food at an ideal temperature,” says Yazd-Qanats specialist Zohreh Montazer.
Photo: AFP
The number of qanats in Iran is estimated at 33,000, compared to 50,000 in the mid-20th century, a decline partly linked to the drying up of groundwater due to overuse of water, according to Unesco.
To preserve this heritage, the Iranian state has rehabilitated the country’s longest and oldest qanat, that of Zarch, which stretches more than 70 km in Yazd Province.
This narrow bowel is partially open to visitors to alert residents to the challenges ahead. “Once we run out of fossil fuels, we have to go back to the methods that have already worked in Yazd,” warns Ms. Montazer.