Ice in the desert

I just learned about ice-making in ancient Persia.¹ In insulated ice-houses called yakhchāl, ice would form overnight in the winter along a shallow tunnel, then be harvested and placed at the bottom of a pit. The design of the building allowed it to keep through summer.

That ice could be made in the desert, with no electricity, made me think of the role of architects and engineers today pouring over the future with a long view of the past, merging ancient wisdom with modern technology to pull us from the greenhouse gas-emitting comforts of the 20th century to sustainable living in the 21st.

There are people looking to do just that—for example, using “daily/seasonal ice production and storage methods to reduce electricity use in buildings, particularly at peak times, while simultaneously meeting inhabitants’ thermal comfort needs and decreasing GHG emissions.”²