Since his appearance on earth, man has always adapted to environmental conditions using resources available in nature. The vital needs in those areas where summer temperatures are over 40 degrees were water supply and cooling.
Water supply
In order to supply cities with water, the Romans created an impressive system of canals and monumental bridges. The aqueducts were among the greatest examples of Roman engineering.
With their amazing size they conveyed the message of man’s dominion over nature, were the symbols of the advanced civilization of Rome, were propaganda features for Roman emperors.
Along the aqueducts routes there were accumulation basins, distribution towers (castella aquarum), the canal through which the water flowed with a constant slope of 2%, settling tanks to purify the water
Cooling
In the Mediterranean architecture, in particular in the Arab-Islamic one, passive ventilation techniques were widely spread and made it possible to adapt human settlements to even extreme environmental systems.
- MALQAF – An ancient Egyptian ventilation system which consists of a frame installed on the roof which is open according to the direction of the wind. In the middle of the structure there is a subdivision that directs the wind inside the building. In modern versions, in Egypt, the mulguf has only one opening, mostly facing north-west
- SIROCCO ROOMS IN PALERMO – Underground or basement rooms dug into the tuff (a type of easy-to-work rock used since prehistoric times) beneath the buildings or in the gardens of the villas. Their features were a network of underground channels for the transport of water created during the Arab domination and a constant air current guaranteed by the creation of a ventilation shaft on the vault of the cave.
The purpose of the shafts was to facilitate the escape of hot air from inside, facilitate the evaporation of water and ensure ambient lighting.
Evaporative cooling is an air conditioning system based on the exchange of energy between water.
It consists of adding water vapor to flowing air with a low percentage of humidity.
When the water vapor partly evaporates, it lowers the temperature.
This is why Islamic architecture most common features are fountains in the center of courtyards: the movement of fountains water cools the air around.
An outstanding example of evaporative coiling usage: Granada – Alhambra
Inside the walls of this fortress-town there was everything people needed to live in: mosques, schools, services such as the Turkish bath – hamam.
It was divided into three sectors:
- the Alcazaba (al-qaṣba, the “citadel”)
- the palaces
- the medina (from the Arabic madīna, “city”) the houses of which develop inwards with courtyards and large terraces. Its narrow streets form a labyrinth without windows and with small doors typical of Arab countries and Andalusia.
“Al–Ḥamrā’” (the Red) was buit during the sultans of the Nasrids’ dynasty (13th century). Water is everywhere: it flows in canals that cool the buildings; gushes in the fountains inside large rooms and courtyards.
The Alhambra has one of the most sophisticated hydraulic network in the world, capable of defying gravity and lifting water from a river located at an altitude of 850m below the city.
Previously the Moors used simple acequias (small canal systems) to bring water to the cities.
Thanks to irrigation techniques learned from the Persians and Romans architectures during their expansion across the Mediterranean and the Iberian Peninsula, Arab engineers elevated water to the ciutadel and carried it up to the courtyard complex, to gardens and hammams (thermal baths).
The outstanding Alhambra hydraulic sistem innovation was the Acequia Real, a 6 km canal that drew from the Darro River.
A dam was built to divert the flow of the river upstream, carried by its power down the hillside before distributing the water into smaller channels.
Water wheels (na’ura), were added to raise water to different levels.
Through a complex hydraulic structure of large tanks, cisterns and a network of pipes, it was perfectly transported to the Generalife gardens and up to the Alhambra palace, via an aqueduct.
The use of primitive wheels was already established in Babylonian times and was also practiced in China since the first centuries BC.
https://www.nationalgeographic.com/premium/graphics/details-of-spains-alhambra
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7WQl9At5U38
Since the last decades of the last century, it has begun a general rediscovery of the value of water in the city. Numerous projects aimed at recovering and highlighting this presence have demonstrated how it can have a structural role in conferment of new urban qualities and in the transformation of city.
Some scholars have coined the term Water Urbanism to indicate a new urban discipline capable of transforming water into a driving force that leads to new scenarios, new developments, to new opportunities and to a new optimism for the contemporary city.
To the need for infrastructure for regulation and treatment of water we can combine functions other than merely technical ones, which contribute to the improvement of urban realities in many aspects.
We learnt form Romans and Arabian engineers that:
- water can arouse beauty in the urban landscape, enhance its places and structure in one combination between nature and artifice;
- bathing, activities and services linked to its presence are able to fuel trade and tourism;
- its potential force can generate energy that powers the city, can develop along its courses and banks complementary transport systems to those on road and rail that are continually congested;
- water can be construction site where interesting settlement models can be experimented, be they equipment for collective use or residential.
Majorana Bari – 2D
Segovia Roman aqueduct
Roman aqueduct scheme
traditional windcatcher
sirocco room in Palermo
Alhambra – Granada
Alhambra hydraulic system
primitive wheels
Case Studies for IWRA’s Smart Water Cities Project
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