RealClearWorld links to a podcast at a site called The Conversation the topic of which is that global warming will cause us to reexamine architectural techniques and designs that, following World War II, fell into disuse.
Some architects and researchers are working to rehabilitate and improve traditional passive techniques that help keep buildings cool without using energy. Susan Abed Hassan, a professor of architectural engineering at Al-Nahrain University in Baghdad, Iraq, focuses a lot on windcatchers in her work, a type of chimney which funnels air through houses to keep them cooler in hot climates. She’s now looking at how to combining underground water pipes with windcatchers to enhance their cooling effects.
Let me tell you about a building the DrsC have experienced that does this passive cooling very well. I have in mind the former presidential palace in what was once Saigon, now called Ho Chi Minh City, and the building is now named the Reunification Palace or Independence Palace.
The current building was designed by Vietnamese architect Ngô Viết Thụ in the post-colonial era. I remember it to be non-air conditioned but naturally cool in otherwise sweltering Vietnam. If designing buildings to remain cool without a/c becomes important, applying the design features of this beautiful building should be high on the list.
