Nº 003
badgir
A tower that catches the wind.
A rooftop shaft with openings facing the breeze: wind is pushed down into the house, warm air rises out, sometimes over a cool underground water channel (qanat).
The film, in words
This tower is an air conditioner. It has no moving parts.
It's called a badgir, Persian for wind catcher: a tower that lifts its openings into the breeze above the rooftops.
Wind pushes into the shafts and down into the rooms. On still days, warm air rises and escapes through the top.
Some houses draw air across a qanat, an underground water channel, so it cools by evaporation on the way in.
In Yazd, the tallest adobe one rises almost thirty-four metres. It was built in 1747.
Its cousins: the malqaf in Cairo, the barjeel in the Gulf, the mungh in Sindh.
Badgir. A tower that catches the wind.