DISSERTATION REPORT ON

ETHOS OF PAST, VIABILITY IN PRESENT

SUBMITTED BY:

ANVITA JAIN
CO-ORDINATE BY:

AR. MEENAKSHI SINGH

UNDER THE GUIDANCE OF:

AR. PURVEE SHARMA

SCHOOL OF ARCHITECTURE
IPS Academy, Indore
Rajiv Gandhi Proudhyogiki Vishvavidhyalaya
Month
Year September
2013-14

Introduction

With the arrival of Muslims in India, from twelfth century AD onwards, the merger of local
and immigrated architectural techniques resulted into an astounding style.

In the same way, their passive cooling techniques in buildings were merged together to
provide new ways to cope with the extremes of the climate.

The buildings consume natural energy in three ways.

i.
Maintaining the internal environment of spaces to make them comfortable.
ii. Controlling the microclimate.
iii. Procuring and manufacturing of materials for construction.
. Passive cooling techniques are least expensive means of cooling a home which maximizes
the efficiency of the building envelope without any use of mechanical devices.
. It rely on natural heat sinks to remove heat from the building. They derive cooling directly
from evaporation, convection, and radiation without using any intermediate device.
. All passive cooling strategies rely on daily changes in temperature and relative humidity.
The applicability of each system depends on the climatic conditions.
. These design strategies reduce heat gains to internal spaces-Natural Ventilation Earth Air
Tunnels Shading Evaporative Cooling Wind Towers- Passive Down Draught CoolingCourtyard Effect Roof Sprays.

Climatic Characteristics And

Microclimatic control

Before discussing the tools of passive cooling techniques used by Mughals, it would be pertinent to have
some idea of the climate prevailing in North India.
Composite climate occurs in most of the areas ruled by Mughals in North India which is characterized by
dominated hot and dry conditions two third of the year and, a somewhat cold and a warm humid season
occur in the remaining one third of the year.
The gardens of paradise mentioned in the Holy Quran have been the source of inspiration throughout the
Islamic world .
Mughals also used this tool not only as a symbol but to improve the quality of the immediate surrounding
environment of their buildings that is microclimate. The environment outside the building is important to
control the inside temperature of the building.

Climatic Characteristics And Microclimatic

control
Canal of paradise
(water channel
passing through
indoor space)

Water body at fatehpur sikri

Vegetation around
Agra Fort

Fountain improves air

quality

Universal business school, Karjat,

Mumbai

Integrated Indoor-Outdoor Living

Red fort is entirely

surrounded by
garden

Universal business school,

Birkha bawari, Jodhpur
Karjat, Mumbai
Not all the spaces in past buildings were maintained naturally comfortable at all times.

With minor inconvenience, the users were suggested to shift from less comfortable spaces to
more comfortable spaces depending upon the seasonal changes.

Verandah act as
buffer between
indoor and
outdoor spaces.

Step wells are the

source of summer as
well as the shelter for
summers.

Integrated Indoor-Outdoor Living

In Red Fort, Delhi Emperors throne is

surrounded by two sets of opening
Bamboo roll screens for
opening to prevent suns
penetration.

Druk White Lotus

school, ladhak

Thermal Mass
Thick walls
provides thermal
insulation.
Vaults at nalanda international
school, vadodara

JDT Islam campus,

Calicut
Part of domical roof is
always shaded.

Outer surface shades the

wall itself.
When the outer temperature is lowered at night, the high emissive
property of the walls allows cooling down the wall surfaces rapidly.

Arched ceiling helps

to cool internal space
of the roof.

Flat roofs get more radiations while vaulted and domed roofs prevent the
absorption of heat of the summers vertical sun.

Courtyard as a
moderator of internal
climate

Courtyard

Courtyard with vegetation and

water body enhances humidity.

Universal Business School,

Karjat, Mumbai

Courtyard provide shade.

The Courtyard House,

Beawar, Rajasthan

Landscaped courtyard

The natural cooling may be achieved by cutting off the suns

radiations.
The sunshades not only protect from suns radiations through
the windows but walls too.

Horizontal (deciduous vine) and vertical shading

Shading
Devices

Deep carving causes

mutual shading.

Deep inclinations
protect walls and
openings from
sun.

Evaporative
Cooling
Water channel outside
building

1. Ground cover
2. Water sprinkler
3. Insulated roof
4. Shading trees
5. Water trough

a typical section showing passive solar

features of WALMI building, Bhopal

Evaporative cooling is a passive cooling technique in which outdoor air is

cooled by evaporating water before it is introduced in the building.
Salsabil increases
humidity in air

Its physical principle lies in the fact that the heat of air is used to evaporate
water, thus cooling the air, which in turn cools the living space in the
building.

To enhance the process of evaporation, fountains were used which mixed the moisture to the air and
increased the humidity.
At times, salsabilwas used to maintain the water pressure to force the water to come out of the fountain
head.

Passive Down Draught

Cooling

Passive Downdraught Evaporative Cooling in Torrent Research Centre, Ahmadabad.

Passive downdraft evaporative cooling systems consist of a downdraft tower with wetted cellulose pads at
the top of the tower.
Water is distributed on the top of the pads, collected at the bottom into a sump and re-circulated by a pump.
These towers are often described as reverse chimneys.
While the column of warm air rises in a chimney, in this case the column of cool air falls.
The air flow rate depends on the efficiency of the evaporative cooling device, tower height and cross section,
as well as the resistance to air flow in the cooling device, tower and structure (if any) into which it discharges.

Natural
Ventilation

Natural ventilation is the result of differential wind

Domed canopy and

wide entrance space
for air to get cooler.

Vent near
dome allow hot
air to escape.

forces on various building surfaces and temperature difference between outside and inside air.
There are several factors which affects the air flow within the buildings such as microclimate, size and
proportion of windows, orientation with respect to wind direction etc.
When the air with a greater velocity enters into a wider space, sudden expansion results in lowering down of
the temperature of inside spaces of the buildings.

Lattice Screen
(Jaali)

S C Techno School, Bangalore

Jaali ensures privacy and
provide diffuse light and
view.

Jaali work featured in ITM

business school, Gwalior

It controls the airflow and lower down the temperature of internal spaces on the other.
When there is sunshine outside in the day, the internal spaces are not clearly visible from outside.
however, the diffused light is spread throughout the interiors.
To get a clear outside view, a cutout is provided at eye level for the viewer sitting on the floor.
Jaali in Mughal buildings mostly have a low sill or sometimes without sill so that the air could move
near the floor.

Vernacularism

Vernacular features(courtyard with partial water

body with rest of the area being landscaped,
corridors, local material use, tribal artwork) at
Byregowdas house, kolar, karnataka

Indigenous
trebeated
system

Vernacular elements(ruggedness
of materials and shapes like
bastions, ramparts, terraces and
extensive use of water) at Virasate-Khalsa, Anandpur Sahib,
Punjab

The technology for construction of buildings like the use of local materials with the help of local artisans
made their buildings energy efficient as well.
The style and technology developed by Muslims and especially by Mughals in India had indigenous
characteristics of the region with a fragrance of foreign elements wisely induced.
For example, the buildings at Fatehpur Sikri were constructed in red sand stone which was procured from
quarries near the site only and buildings were erected by indigenous trabeated technology with the help of
local artisans.

Earth
Coupling
This technique is used for passive cooling as well as heating of buildings, which
is made possible by the earth acting as a massive heat sink.
At depths beyond 4 to 5m, both daily and seasonal fluctuations die out and the
soil temperature remains almost constant throughout the year.
Thus, the underground or partially sunk buildings will provide both cooling (in
summer) and heating (in winter) to the living space.
A building may be coupled with the earth by burying it underground or berming.

Passive Space
Conditioning Using
Earth Air Tunnel
System

Earth sheltered home-The

Meadow Dance, Hyderabad