Award Winning Tower Shows How to Beat the Saudi Heat

Perkins+Will, the 2010 Architectural Review Future Projects Award winner addresses a real problem.

By the 2300s, scientists say that (unless we reduce carbon emissions) climate change will have rendered about half this planet uninhabitable by humans, as it will be just too hot. Temperatures in the Middle East have long been close to non-survivable, already.

So the lessons of traditional sustainable architecture for desert regions will be a key to future survivability for some regions. This latticework mashrabiya is an example.

Drawing on this tradition, the Perkins and Will winning entry uses a time-honored cooling feature of Middle Eastern architecture, long employed in traditional architecture. The  mashrabiya or brise soleil screen allows cool breezes through a latticework that shades a building, by protecting it from direct sun — via Home Design Find