The wind-catcher: users’ perception of a vernacular passive cooling system

Wind-catchers are often cited in academic texts as models of sustainable and ingenious cooling systems. Such studies typically avoid issues of user perception. This study used a range of different methods to investigate those perceptions including a socio-cultural questionnaire survey, semi-structured interviews and personal observations. The findings show that there are a range of positive and negative factors attributed to wind-catchers which shows on the one hand, these architectural cooling features are regarded obsolete and are no longer in use as cooling systems, while on the other hand, they have been adapted to serve various functions not just to provide cooling and ventilation. The research indicates that if wind-catchers are to survive and be incorporated into new building designs, the full range of their attributes should be taken into consideration and used appropriately. In so doing, wind-catchers can help reduce the reliance on mechanical cooling systems, and hence decrease the consumption of electricity and cut CO2 emissions.