Committee on the Environment

This is an interesting article on CNN.com regarding ancient A/C methods in architecture.

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.  See Full Article.

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Susan Parrish
Manager, Knowledge Communities
The American Institute of Architects
Washington DC
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I love "ancient technology" and simple solutions. I believe our engineers have been too focused on how to mechanize, electrify, and power every single thing they touch. What happened to simple no energy mechanical solutions? What happened to reducing the amount of moving parts in a solution rather than always add to that number as a first step? Engineering needs a philosophy change!

The article about the building in India is quite fascinating, but this technology would only work in a dry, desert climate. A pool of water under a building made of thermal mass in a Southeastern American climate would not have the same effect, as our air temp doesn't drop significantly enough at night for the heat to migrate away from the building. In fact, most want the air temp inside to be much cooler at night than the outside air temp causing the heat to want to keep flowing inside instead. This is why adobe doesn't work here. The pool of water would most likely cause major humidity issues in the building, which would make it uncomfortable and a bit smelly. One day someone in a humid environment will figure out how to use humidity as a tool to work with and possibly cool the building. It's just no fair that you guys in the desert have it so easy!

Thanks for sharing the article, this is the type of solution I like the most. Low tech, no moving parts, just form following function. It's not a solution if it causes two more problems to solve and this seems to be at the center of this tail chasing contest we're in. We always tend to over complicate first rather than simplify.

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Eric Rawlings AIA
Owner
Rawlings Design, Inc.
Decatur GA
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The notion that a courtyard with a water feature will not be a cooling effect in a hot humid climate is contrary to what I have seen in Merida, Yucatan, Mexico, where I own a second home. Merida is hotter and more humid than the Southeastern US. ( In fact I find Chicago, where I am from, to be more humid than Atlanta.) I have seen old houses there with fully enclosed courtyards and with pools or fountains in the middle as a typical means of cooling and providing shade. There is an old mansion turned hotel in Merida called "Casa Balam" that has a courtyard with plantings and a fountain and it is easily 10 degrees cooler there in the heat of the city. These courtyards are typically 2-3 or more stories high, providing a chimney like effect. Gisela Schmidt, AIA, LEED AP BD+C Atlanta, Georgia Just Keep Swimming.......Just Keep Swimming........ > From: noreply@egroups.aia.org > To: giselavschmidt@msn.com > Subject: [COTE]: RE:Ancient 'air-conditioning' cools building sustainably > Date: Mon, 26 Mar 2012 07:41:59 -0400 > > > > I love "ancient technology" and simple solutions. I believe our engineers have been too focused on how to mechanize, electrify, and power every single thing they touch. What happened to simple no energy mechanical solutions? What happened to reducing the amount of moving parts in a solution rather than always add to that number as a first step? Engineering needs a philosophy change! > > The article about the building in India is quite fascinating, but this technology would only work in a dry, desert climate. A pool of water under a building made of thermal mass in a Southeastern American climate would not have the same effect, as our air temp doesn't drop significantly enough at night for the heat to migrate away from the building. In fact, most want the air temp inside to be much cooler at night than the outside air temp causing the heat to want to keep flowing inside instead. This is why adobe doesn't work here. The pool of water would most likely cause major humidity issues in the building, which would make it uncomfortable and a bit smelly. One day someone in a humid environment will figure out how to use humidity as a tool to work with and possibly cool the building. It's just no fair that you guys in the desert have it so easy! > > Thanks for sharing the article, this is the type of solution I like the most. Low tech, no moving parts, just form following function. It's not a solution if it causes two more problems to solve and this seems to be at the center of this tail chasing contest we're in. We always tend to over complicate first rather than simplify. > > ------------------------------------------- > Eric Rawlings AIA > Owner > Rawlings Design, Inc. > Decatur GA > ------------------------------------------- > > > > > > ------------------------------------------- > Original Message: > Sent: 03-23-2012 13:24 > From: Susan Parrish > Subject: Ancient 'air-conditioning' cools building sustainably > > This is an interesting article on CNN.com regarding ancient A/C methods in architecture. > > 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. http://www.cnn.com/2012/02/28/world/asia/ancient-air-conditioning-architecture?iref=obinsite. > ------------------------------------------- > Susan Parrish > Manager, Knowledge Communities > The American Institute of Architects > Washington DC > ------------------------------------------- > > > > > > >

When designing for any place on the earth, it pays to investigate what people did in that area before the Industrial Revolution.  If you look at what the French settlers in south Louisiana did with their architecture, there is a lot of insight into what is appropriate for this climate - hot and humid.  They built here what they built in a cold climate where they came from and that did not work very well.  So their architecture went through a climatic adaptation for human comfort.  Mass did work for them.  It was not adobe, but bousillage(mud) and/or hand made brick laid in the walls.  With high mass structures, you have to try and keep the mass warm in the winter and cool in the summer.  The latter is harder than the former.  The early settlers shaded the mass and opened up at night.  In the French Quarter in New Orleans the courtyards did work with vegetation and a water element.  The structures that create the courtyard do act as a chimney as Gisela suggest, but not in a stack effect.  In fact what happens is that the air is cooled in the courtyard and drops down.  The street with all the mass exposed to the sun is hot and the heat rises pulling the cooler air through the building from the courtyard.  Eric is right in that it is sometimes hard to find cool, even at night, in the summer.  I have experimented with earth tubes which work until they build a heat sink around them by the end of the summer.  But you can reach dew point in them and not only cool the air, but dehumidify it also.  And I have done this passively with a solar air collector as the roof.  The easier cool to obtain is the constant ground temperature of the area.  It is 69ºF were I am at 30º latitude.  You have to go down 30' to reach that constant temperature, but the temperature is even better at 15' below grade - warmer in the winter and cooler in the summer because of the thermal lag of the mass of the earch.  When you put a building on the land, those levels rise closer to the surface because the ground does not see the sun or the night sky any more.  And the bigger the footprint the greater the rise.  So I thermally ground the structure to the earth and put insulation on the ground horizontally going away from the structure and berm over that.  And I agree with Eric that the KISS principal is the best solution to most things.

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Edward Cazayoux FAIA
Principal/architect
EnvironMental Design
Breaux Bridge LA
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Original Message:
Sent: 03-26-2012 08:09
From: Gisela Schmidt
Subject: Ancient 'air-conditioning' cools building sustainably

The notion that a courtyard with a water feature will not be a cooling effect in a hot humid climate is contrary to what I have seen in Merida, Yucatan, Mexico, where I own a second home. Merida is hotter and more humid than the Southeastern US. ( In fact I find Chicago, where I am from, to be more humid than Atlanta.) I have seen old houses there with fully enclosed courtyards and with pools or fountains in the middle as a typical means of cooling and providing shade. There is an old mansion turned hotel in Merida called "Casa Balam" that has a courtyard with plantings and a fountain and it is easily 10 degrees cooler there in the heat of the city. These courtyards are typically 2-3 or more stories high, providing a chimney like effect.

Gisela Schmidt, AIA, LEED AP BD+C
Atlanta, Georgia

Just Keep Swimming.......Just Keep Swimming........


> From: noreply@egroups.aia.org
> To: giselavschmidt@msn.com
> Subject: [COTE]: RE:Ancient 'air-conditioning' cools building sustainably
> Date: Mon, 26 Mar 2012 07:41:59 -0400
>
>
>
> I love "ancient technology" and simple solutions. I believe our engineers have been too focused on how to mechanize, electrify, and power every single thing they touch. What happened to simple no energy mechanical solutions? What happened to reducing the amount of moving parts in a solution rather than always add to that number as a first step? Engineering needs a philosophy change!
>
> The article about the building in India is quite fascinating, but this technology would only work in a dry, desert climate. A pool of water under a building made of thermal mass in a Southeastern American climate would not have the same effect, as our air temp doesn't drop significantly enough at night for the heat to migrate away from the building. In fact, most want the air temp inside to be much cooler at night than the outside air temp causing the heat to want to keep flowing inside instead. This is why adobe doesn't work here. The pool of water would most likely cause major humidity issues in the building, which would make it uncomfortable and a bit smelly. One day someone in a humid environment will figure out how to use humidity as a tool to work with and possibly cool the building. It's just no fair that you guys in the desert have it so easy!
>
> Thanks for sharing the article, this is the type of solution I like the most. Low tech, no moving parts, just form following function. It's not a solution if it causes two more problems to solve and this seems to be at the center of this tail chasing contest we're in. We always tend to over complicate first rather than simplify.
>
> -------------------------------------------
> Eric Rawlings AIA
> Owner
> Rawlings Design, Inc.
> Decatur GA
> -------------------------------------------
>
>
>
>
>
> -------------------------------------------
> Original Message:
> Sent: 03-23-2012 13:24
> From: Susan Parrish
> Subject: Ancient 'air-conditioning' cools building sustainably
>
> This is an interesting article on CNN.com regarding ancient A/C methods in architecture.
>
> 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. http://www.cnn.com/2012/02/28/world/asia/ancient-air-conditioning-architecture?iref=obinsite.
> -------------------------------------------
> Susan Parrish
> Manager, Knowledge Communities
> The American Institute of Architects
> Washington DC
> -------------------------------------------
>
>
>
>
>
>
>

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Lawrence Maxwell AIA
Spacecoast Architects, P.A.
Indialantic FL
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This is a very interesting article and well presented.  It is important to note that it is a strategy that is ONLY effective in Hot-Dry climates such as Jaipur, Rajasthan in north-west India or in the southwestern United States in areas such as Colorado, Utah, Nevada, New Mexico, and Arizona, and there is some good examples where such simple yet tremendously effective and beautiful examples have been designed by knowledgeable contemporary architects.  It does not work however in hot humid climates unfortunately.

LM