20/05/2026
2,500 years before modern air conditioning, Iran was cooling buildings with wind.
In Iran’s desert city of Yazd, traditional windcatchers—known as badgirs—rise above the rooftops like architectural chimneys. But they were not just decorative.
These towers capture breezes and direct moving air into the rooms below, while warm indoor air rises and escapes through the structure. In some buildings, the system was paired with qanats or water channels for extra cooling through evaporation.
Before machines controlled indoor climate, architecture was already learning how to work with the wind.
