Termite Air conditioning

A very good example of how nature solves the problem of keeping it cool, can be found in termite hills in southern Africa.

The termite hills are designed in such a way that they maximize airflow in the blistering sun. This of course is not only a necessity for the insect world, but even more so for us warm blooded creature.

It's amazing if you think about how these tiny insects can create such a complex structure. The termites live off of a fungus that grows inside the mound. This fungus needs a temperature of exactly 30.5 degrees celsius. But outside temperature can very from 0 till 40 degrees celsius! So you can imagine that they are the masters of the aircondition designers.

The termites constantly build shafts and vents to suck up air cool air or vent hot air through convection. They can use mud in the base to cool the air, so they a remarkable species from which we can learn alot.

The idea already has been implemented in Zimbabwee (Eastgate Centre) and it seems to do it's job in a pretty cool fashion.
That's why the specific design of this builiding might be a good thing when we think about designs for our "water storing facility / shelter", if we want to also make it an habitable shelter or other kind of facility.

Sebastien Moitzheim , Franziska Scheuermann , Mark-Michael Weltzl