How Dubai’s old wind towers inspired foreign architects

Ingenious Barajeel

These wind towers – "barajeel" in the local dialect – were constructed typically made from wood and featured vertical rectangular openings on all four sides. Holes at the top of these slits would efficiently allow the wind to flow from all points of the compass to the room below.

Dubai's wind blows from a different direction at different times of the day: east in the morning, north at noon, west in the afternoon and south in the evening. The wind towers cleverly made use of natural winds throughout the day to help the inhabitants of the house cool off.

They piqued the curiosity of foreign architects and sociologists. As they wandered the city's old streets, some were so mesmerised by the towers that they would head to the British Consulate to inquire how they can ask permission from a local family to investigate the towers from inside.

In 1969, a young British researcher, Anne Coles, visited houses to find out about life inside under the towers. Speaking to local women about their social and family lives, she thoroughly documented her findings, before heading home in 1971.

A young British architect, Peter Jackson, followed in her footsteps, making drawings of the wind towers to capture them for posterity. The mission must have been rooted in the knowledge that these unique structures could disappear as local families did well enough to be able to move to more modern houses.

Architectural inspiration

Jackson visited the house of Mohammed Sharif Bukhash built in 1925. He was told the house was the most beautiful among wind tower houses. There, Jackson measured lengths and widths, assisted by the owner's grandson, Rashad, who was only 13 at the time, teaching him in the process about measurements and blueprints.

These moments sparked a lifelong love for architecture in the young boy, who studied architecture at Syracuse University in New York City when he grew up and went on to found the UAE Architectural Heritage Society, which he currently heads.

Throughout the years, he kept looking for the British architect who sketched the wind tower of his grandfather's house. Ultimately, after 28 years of searching, the two finally met when Jackson was attending a graduation ceremony at the American University of Sharjah.

"I'm the boy who helped you sketch and measure the house of my grandfather,"Rashad told him. "I studied architecture as well, and I can now tell you more information about the wind towers if you want."

Having studied Dubai's sociology and architecture during the same period, Coles and Jackson would eventually co-author an English-language book Windtower, that includes all the rare photos they took of the city's wind towers and traditional old houses, with detailed descriptions and figures on their specifications.

Restoration in the modern age

Nowadays, Dubai is an international tourism hub, and the city's elegant ancient houses in the neighbourhoods of Al-Fahidi and Al-Shindagha play a pivotal role in its appeal. These houses were renovated thanks to efforts exerted by Rashad himself, who persuaded the Dubai Government to preserve them.

He has been working towards that purpose for two decades with the Architectural Heritage Society, and now serves as a lead consultant for any historical renovation projects in the UAE.

Other Western architects, like Australian architect Ian Jones, also took an interest in Dubai's wind towers. Jones examined the wind speed and temperature inside and outside the towers and found that when the wind was at 15 knots outside the tower, it was 10 knots inside, and when the outside temperature was 40 degrees Celsius, it would be 30 inside.

In these times of global warming and climate change, let us take inspiration from people who developed a natural, safe, and instant air-conditioning system without any reliance on hightech.