How the inventive architecture of the Iranian city of Yazd keeps it cool in the summer

 These wind catchers, known as badgirs in Persian, are evidence of the creative engineering employed by the city's citizens.

Yazd is a city that is recognised by UNESCO as being a "living testimony to the intelligent use of limited available resources in the desert for survival." 

Tall chimney-like spires rise from centuries-old adobe homes in the Iranian desert city of Yazd, providing a cool air to those who live in one of the world's hottest places. 

The city's citizens used inventive engineering to create these wind catchers, known as badgirs in Persian, to protect themselves from summertime temperatures that may reach 40 degrees Celsius (104 degrees Fahrenheit). 

Badgirs are not only more affordable than energy-intensive air conditioners, but they also produce no carbon emissions.

Before electricity, wind catchers allowed for acceptable living circumstances by cooling the homes for generations, according to Abdolmajid Shakeri, the regional deputy of Iran's ministry of cultural preservation and tourism. 

Although Yazd's oldest wind catcher dates to the 14th century, it is thought that the architectural design dates back to the Persian Empire, when Yazd was a busy stop on the historic Silk Road, some 2,500 years ago.

The city's success was greatly aided by the badgirs, which drew fresh air into the structures and let heated air to exit via enormous vertical gaps. The Dowlatabad garden's Majid Oloumi, who is in charge of the towering 33-meter (100-foot) wind catcher there, appreciates the cooling technique's purity because it doesn't use power.

In 2017, UNESCO designated Yazd as a World Heritage Site, praising the city's clever utilisation of scarce desert resources to ensure its existence.

Interest in Yazd's bioclimatic design, which provides thermal comfort, has spread around the world, especially as the earth struggles with global warming.

 The badgirs dispel the myth that sustainable solutions must be sophisticated or high-tech, according to Iranian wind catchers expert Roland Dehghan Kamaraji, a Paris-based architect who has researched them. He also notes that the badgirs are a great example of how simplicity can be a crucial component of sustainability.

Although some eco-friendly architectural traditions, such as the use of wind catchers, have influenced modern designs in other cities, Yazd has tragically mostly forgotten about them. 

The invention of air conditioners caused the city's distinctive legacy to be neglected, and old-fashioned clay, mud-brick, and adobe dwellings were replaced with contemporary cement buildings that were inappropriate for the area's environment.

Along with the wind catchers, Yazd's subterranean aqueduct network, or qanats, is another example of sustainable architecture. 

These qanats move water from subterranean sources to supply water, cool homes, and maintain food at the proper temperature. 

Unfortunately, due to excessive usage and the drying up of subsurface water sources, the number of operating qanats has decreased recently.

The people of Yazd are starting to see the need of conserving these traditional practises as they prepare for problems to come when fossil fuels become scarce, though.

When contemporary comforts are no longer an option, restoring and respecting these historic systems may be crucial for guaranteeing the city's sustainability.