Design with Nature: Windcatcher as a Paradigm of Natural Ventilation Device in Buildings

The traditional architecture of Central Asia and the Middle East is the product of land, the local climate, and people’s culture. The human needs and the environment represented the most essential factors to be considered in their designs. The traditional and vernacular architecture of this region introduced many realistic solutions and devices to the local environmental problems such as the Wind-catcher, which became a common architectural feature in buildings. The windcatcher is based on a traditional Persian architectural device, which was used to create natural ventilation in buildings. Since the energy crisis of the 1970s, the ecological or sustainable architecture movement dominated architect’s thoughts of realising buildings that are environmentally relevant to their regions. In recent decades, there has been an increasing awareness of these traditional environmental devices and their potential for possible future buildings. However, traditional and vernacular architecture, which considered the human needs and the environment, provided many realistic solutions to the more recent modern environmental problems. This paper demonstrates the value of wind-catchers and provides insight into the application of natural ventilation systems as an alternative to the inappropriate modern cooling system in hotclimate regions. It also aims to examine the theoretical status of wind-catchers and to identify its specific nature, its use and its function in the context of architectural practice and discourse, in the past, present and future.