Terracotta air conditioner cools rooms without electricity

Drawing on Egyptian architecture and traditional Palestinian cooling systems, Yael Issacharov presents " Nave", an environmentally friendly air conditioning system made of terracotta tiles combined with a water flow . Designed for autonomous cooling of spaces in desert buildings , Nave works with an automatic irrigation system that allows water to drain from its internal structure through the permeable terracotta walls, keeping the space in a constant state of climatic comfort. The arrangement is customizable and modular, consisting of independent wall-mounted units that can be installed anywhere in the house. The structure operates with an automatic irrigation system and starts working as soon as water is poured into its hollow internal part. water moves through the permeable walls, evaporates and is turned into vapor by the heat of the air. This reaction absorbs heat from the surrounding air, cooling the water, the material itself and therefore the air in the room. According to the designer, the main focus of the project is to adapt the system to the surrounding walls, transforming them from a passive factor into an active one. The main inspiration was the work of Egyptian architect Hassan Fathy, a pioneer in the use of traditional construction methods to designing buildings with local connectivity. The new cooling method is also based on the Palestinian Jara, a traditional terracotta water container suspended from the ceiling and used to keep the space and drinking water cool.

Nave is adaptable and modular and easily fits into any interior environment. The grid patterns are an important allusion to Nave’s Arabic origins and give a real aesthetic touch to the environment in which it is used. All the ceramic bodies are composed of local terracotta, made with plaster molds. A special formula controls the system’s irrigation, optimizing temperature, water consumption and humidity, as well as preventing the growth of fungi. Nave’s assembly system was developed based on existing solutions in the construction industry. Despite having won the A' Design Award & Competition in the Building Materials and Construction Components Design category, Nave is still in the development phase and does not yet have the funding to begin production on a commercial scale. (via Designboom)