Badgir Windcatcher: A Traditional Iranian Architecture Feature
Wind pressure, shaded rooms and water in Iranian architecture
A badgir, literally “wind catcher” in Persian, is a roof tower that moves air through a building without a fan. In Yazd, brick windcatchers rise above houses and public water reservoirs. Their shape gives clues to which winds they were designed to catch.
To read a windcatcher, look at the openings at the top, then trace where the shaft meets a room or courtyard. The route air can take through the building matters as much as the height of the tower.
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Why Iranian builders developed the windcatcher
Windcatchers take different forms across the Middle East. In Iran, builders adapted them to local winds, building layouts and the spaces they needed to ventilate.
In the dry towns of the Iranian plateau, builders used shade, thick earthen walls and moving air together. Along the Persian Gulf, some towers face the sea breeze instead of opening on several sides.
A badgir moves air, a qanat conveys groundwater by gravity, and an ab-anbar stores water. A building can have a windcatcher without a qanat or a pool.
Building materials suited to the desert
In many desert towns, builders used locally available earth for mortar, plaster and sun-dried bricks. Windcatcher towers could also be built in brick and finished with decorative plaster.
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Thick earthen walls slow the transfer of heat. Shaded courtyards and rooms below ground give the household cooler places to use when exposed rooms heat up.
How a windcatcher works
A windcatcher has openings high above the roof and one or more vertical passages. Air moves when wind creates a pressure difference across its openings or when warmer air rises through a shaft.
- Catching the wind: air pressure rises at the opening facing the wind. Air can descend that shaft and leave through another opening, such as a sheltered shaft or an opening to a courtyard. The direction of the breeze can change which shafts supply or exhaust air.
- Acting as a chimney: in calm conditions, a warmer shaft can draw air up and out. Replacement air can enter from a shaded courtyard or a lower room if the building provides a connected path.
Windcatchers can have openings on one side or several. Measurements of a four-sided tower in Yazd found that the shafts facing the prevailing winds performed better. A tower’s height alone tells you little about how well it ventilates.
Windcatchers and water cisterns
An ab-anbar often has towers around its dome. Air circulating above the water can remove heat through evaporation. Some houses also used pools or shaded basement rooms to cool incoming air. Evaporative cooling is a separate effect from ventilation and depends on the air and water conditions.
Where to see windcatchers in Iran
Architectural historian Susan Roaf describes regional forms in Encyclopaedia Iranica, from towers that face the sea in Bandar Abbas to towers with openings on several sides in Yazd.
Yazd, the city of windcatchers
In Yazd’s historic centre, look for the different opening patterns above the lanes. The Yazd Water Museum provides a separate introduction to the qanats and reservoirs that supplied the city.
Dowlat Abad Garden, Yazd
At Dowlat Abad Garden, start outside the Hashti Pavilion to see the tower’s height, about 33 metres according to the heritage documentation. Then look at how the pavilion places water basins below the ventilation route. The garden is one of nine components of The Persian Garden World Heritage property.
Kashan’s historic houses
At Borujerdi House, look across the courtyard toward the domed reception hall. Its two windcatchers are easier to understand in relation to the hall and the lower rooms than from a distant skyline.
Why windcatchers still matter
A windcatcher moves air without a powered fan. Whether that air feels cooler depends on outdoor temperature, humidity, wind direction and the rest of the building. That is why modern researchers measure performance in particular buildings and climates.
Plan a visit
In Yazd, pair a walk through the old quarter with Dowlat Abad Garden to compare ordinary roof towers with a pavilion designed around wind and water. In Kashan, start with the courtyard at Borujerdi House and look back at the towers from the far side.
