ABSTRACT
The internal environment of a modern building can be a comfortable one no matter how uncomfortable external environment is. In Iran certain traditional building designs achieve more than a flattening of the temperature curve; they circulate cool air through the building and can even keep water cold and ice frozen from the winter until the height of the long, hot summer of the country’s arid central and eastern plains. Three passive systems cool this building in the Iranian city of Yazd: a wind tower, a domed roof and an air vent. Although the summer days in arid regions are extremely hot, the summer nights are cool. Several features of traditional Iranian architecture are designed to take advantage of this wide daily temperature range. The wind tower operates by changing the temperature and thus the density of the air in and around the tower. Conditioning of air by a wind-tower system with an underground stream is shown in this psychrometric chart.
