ABSTRACT
The wind-catcher is part of a natural ventilation system found in certain hot dry climate zones. It is a raised building element either facing in all directions, or facing the prevailing wind, in order to catch' it, bring it down into the building, and cool it with moisture from fountains, pools and salsabils. Bioclimatic design in developed countries is effecting its own resistance to the hegemony of high technology, for predominantly environmental reasons rather than cultural ones. The circle of fresh air in/stale air out, driven by the buoyancy of hot air the so-called stack effect' can be seen reproduced in different ways in much bio-climatically designed architecture in the west. Out of the wind-catcher and the salsabil has come Passive Downdraft Evaporative Cooling (PDEC), which can be used at an urban scale as well. The architectural language used in most bioclimatic architecture is entirely contemporary, and most of the materials are industrially manufactured.
