Wind Catcher as a Passive Cooling Device in

Hot and Dry Climate

Researcher- Saurabh Parmar

Sinhgad college of Architecture

 Introduction
• Wind catcher as a natural ventilation system is increasingly used in modern
buildings to minimize the consumption of non-renewable energy and reduce the
harmful emissions.
• Passive cooling techniques in energy efficient building of hot arid areas.
• Wind catcher earth air tunnel: a tool for passive cooling for the suggested
renewable energy efficient home for new cites in Egypt.

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 • Application of passive cooling systems in the hot and humid climate.

 Aim:
To understand the importance of passive cooling devices such as Wind catcher in
Hot and Dry Climate

 Objective:
o Passive cooling devices used to improve thermal comfort with low energy
consumption.
o Purpose of wind catchers in Hot & Dry Climate.
o Study of Wind catchers.

 Research Question:
Why are Wind Catchers a more suitable choice of ventilation in buildings.

 Key Words:
Wind-catchers
Natural cooling
Sustainability
Passive Cooling

 Methodology:
1. Literature study for understanding the need of using Natural Ventilation
Devices in Hot & Dry Climate.
2. Identification and analysis through case studies of Hassan Fathy - Hamed Said
House in Marg, New Gourna in Louxor & Mosque in Abiqiuiu.

Articles related to Passive Cooling Device (Windcatcher)

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  A review on windcatcher for passive cooling and natural ventilation in
buildings.
-By Fatemeh Jomehzadeh
The author has written briefly about the windcatchers and their effect on the thermal
comfort of the building.
 Renewable Architecture for Egypt
-By Mostafa El Gamal
The author writes about the Climate of Egypt, Vernacular Architecture and the
Modern Natural Ventilation & Cooling Devices.

Case studies
Hamed Said House, Marg
It is the first project of Hassan Fathy and is made of Mud. Hassan Fathy is considered
to be the father of Sustainable Architecture and he has shown it in almost all projects
of his. The use of vernacular architecture and conservation of resources has classified
Fathy from others.
The Said house was one of the most important projects in Fathy's career because it
was the first application of mud-brick construction and represented the first step in his
return to a traditional approach of house construction. Fathy responded to the
landscape, the earth colours and the trees and attempted to translate his understanding
into an inward looking house.

The traditional elements of Egyptian architecture are reinterpreted and respond to the context.

Hamed Said House

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 I. The plan of the first phase consisted of one large domed studio, a vaulted bed, built-in
cupboards and an open-ended loggia as an open exterior sitting area, which overlooks a
peaceful and continuous view of green fields.
II. On the other side Fathy grouped a moderate-sized kitchen, a dining room, a bathroom and
one bedroom. Said explains that the main concept of a house is to be a symbol of love and
intimacy as well as the accommodation of art, which serves both love and life.

New Gourna, Louxor

 The New Gourna village attracted the notice of King Farouk himself, and Fathy was asked to
return to Cairo to report on its progress. Fathy's absence provided an opportunity for the
Gournis, who broke the dikes and flooded the village.
 However, with enormous effort Fathy was able to drain the water away and to restore the
foundations of his buildings. Again there was increasing obstruction from the Department of
Antiquities, which led to the project coming to a standstill.
 New Gourna Village had been transferred to the Department of Housing, which preferred to
use concrete rather than mud-brick.
 especially in the assembly of vaults and domes. These elements demonstrated the chief
virtues of mud-brick such as economy of materials and equilibrium of forms and masses.

Mosque in Abiquiu

 The project was primarily intended to consist in the construction of whole village for a
Muslim community. Only the mosque was built.

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  The windcatchers were glazed.
 Adobe was covered with concrete and drains were set, the climate totally differed.
Windcatcher
One of the conventional systems for providing natural ventilation inside the buildings
without utilization of conventional energy is windcatcher. Over three thousand years,
people in Middle East used the windcatchers for many buildings. They are known by
various names like Badgir, Malghaf, etc. in different areas of this district.

Windcatcher is usually a tall construction which has height between 3 and 33m placed
on the building roof . The windcatcher design traditionally depended on the social
condition and wealth of house landlords, architects’ personal experience as well as,
and differed in the height of tower, number and position of openings, cross-section of
the air channels, and tower position with attention to the structure.
Types of Windcatcher
In terms of external shape, it is generally considered two main categories for wind
catcher including unidirectional and multidirectional wind catcher. The former also
called one-sided wind catcher and the latter is classified under three sorts: two, three
and four-sided wind catcher which usually have square plan, hexahedral and
octahedral wind catcher.
One-Sided Windcatcher
Many countries of the Middle East enjoyed unidirectional windcatcher for those
houses settling in regions which have a permanent prevailing wind. The performance
of this system is mostly dependent upon the wind direction. In other words, if there is
unfavourable wind directions, one-sided windcatcher will not function well. Hence,
inlet openings of windcatcher should be at as much as high level to enjoy stack effect
(buoyancy effect) like a solar chimney function for that special condition depicts the

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structure of one sided windcatcher, the wind goes in from the single opening and
passes via the living space and leaves the exhaust vents, doors, and windows.

One Sided Wind Catcher Two Sided Wind Catcher

Two-Sided Windcatcher
In regions with strong predominate wind, two-sided wind catcher is generally utilized
which have two vents and two distinct underneath halves. The bidirectional wind
catcher is separated into two channels in order to supplying (suction) and extraction of
air flow. The incident angle is the principal advantage of this device compared to one-
sided windcatcher in which the unidirectional tower opening exposed under the
transition angle and the airflow rate through it tends to zero.

Three-Sided Windcatcher
The three-sided wind catcher which often has larger windward side with more
openings to capture as much predominant wind as possible. When air flow enters
through the wind catcher, air velocity increases owing to curved form of openings.

Three Sided Wind Catcher Four Sided Wind Catcher

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Four-Sided Windcatcher
An abundance of four-sided windcatcher is more than other types of this system in the
Middle East. In areas where there is no specific direction for wind, four sided
windcatcher can be seen; therefore, its design is mainly dependent upon capturing the
wind from all directions. Four sided windcatchers with decorations belong to a famous
family’s house in Egypt.
Hexahedral and Octahedral Windcatchers
These types of windcatchers have been usually seen with regular multifaceted plans
and they were designed in the shape of hexagon or octagon. Generally, they are higher
than other windcatchers, especially eight-sided windcatcher; therefore, they will have
more stability against wind pressure as well as tower form causes passing air flow
with lower pressure. The tallest traditional windcatcher of the world with octagonal
plan and approximately 40 meters high, which places in a famous garden
(DolatAbaad) in Iran.

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Function and Performance of Windcatcher

Windcatcher’s performance is based on the natural ventilation with implementing both

stack effect and wind driven ventilation. There are two principal functions of
windcatcher: the first is to related to opening which should bring in fresh air inside the
building and second related to exit of windcatcher which should remove hot and
polluted air of inside the building (the suction functions) and thus works such as a
sucked and ventilation system. The windcatcher function can be explained by the fact
a flow from positive pressure to negative pressure causes the ventilation. According to
this fact, in windcatcher, the opening in the wind direction absorbs the air into the
building inside and the inside air with negative pressure depart from the exit of the
windcatcher.
Different Type of Natural Ventilation

 In natural ventilation the initial force to cause the ventilation is the wind which
is an important renewable resource.

 The natural ventilation techniques can be divided to two types as followings:

Window opening or vents. This type forms the simplest one of natural
ventilation. Via appropriate arrangement of openings, the enough current of
natural ventilation can be achieved inside the building to decrease needs of
conventional cooling.

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 Joined with windows, vents also can be used in designed position where
windows are not needed. Since this technique is economic option, various
experimental and numerical studies have been done.

 Atria and Courtyards: Courtyard which can be seen in many regions has been
an impactful method to supply natural ventilation for thousands of years for
mankind across the world. Courtyards provide a relatively enclosed area to
channel and direct airflow to some openings and cause convective natural
ventilation inside and nearby the buildings.

 Different investigations generally admit that the wind driven ventilation can be
raised by application of courtyard and atria but mostly efficient for low rise
buildings. Nonetheless, the passive nature of this method shows that its
efficiency depends basically on the existence of its driving forces.
Conclusion:

 Natural ventilation has different types which windcatcher is one of the most
effective ones.
 In hot arid climate conditions there is high potential to implement the
windcatcher.
 Windcatcher can reduce temperature and provide fresh air for occupants as
well as reduction in CO2 concentration inside the building.
 Windcatcher has different types which everyone is suitable for a specific
condition.
 This old traditional technique can be merged with new building designs to
raise the green concept in the building sector.

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References:

 Hassan Fathy, Natural Energy and Vernacular Architecture: Principles and

Examples with Reference to Hot Arid Climates. Chicago, 1986.
 Miles Danby, Privacy as a Culturally Related Factor in Built Form, in Farmer,
1993.
 Abdel-Mohsen Saleh Mito, Hassan Fathy and Balkrishna Doshi: Two Regional
Architects in the Context of Modern Architecture. Thesis (Ph.D.) - University of
Georgia. 1990.
 Gut Paul and Ackerknecht Dieter. Climate Responsive Building. SKAT, 1993.
 http://www.ocw.mit.edu/.../1-964Fall-2006/CourseHome/
 http://www.i4at.org/lib2/aircool.html
 Robert Booth, BD Magazine - Sport and Leisure, 2007.
 www.agglo-st-etienne.fr/.../index.html
 www.technovelgy.com/ct/Science-Fiction-News.a...
 http://construction.com/CE/articles/0801edit-2.asp&usg.
 Architecture Australia, January/February, 2007
 www.iranonline.com/iran/yazd/images/tower.html
 Aga Khan Program MIT
 www.flickr.com/.../mitopencourseware/3116622472/
 George Michell, Architecture of the Islamic World. London 1978
 http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:QatarUniversityEastView.jpg
 www.theconstructioncentre.co.uk/news/press-ro...
 www.solarsaver.co.uk/suncatcher.html

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