With a foreword by HRH the Prince of Wales
Windtowers have, for many, come to serve as a symbol of the Persian Gulf's cultural heritage. These dramatic architectural features, popular in the courtyard houses of notable trading families up and down the Gulf long before the modern age, were not only strikingly beautiful, but were also highly functional, intuitively capturing scientific techniques that would harness the wind to provide natural air conditioning.
This book, however, expands its scope to cover far more than the raw architecture of these windtower dwellings. Building on original research and a detailed architectural survey undertaken by the authors in Dubai between 1969 and 1974,
Windtower includes their latest historical, social and technical research to provide a substantial book which offers a unique insight into the way of life the inhabitants, their culture and history.
'This is a very important book for which the authors spent considerable time researching and interviewing...I believe that this book will be an important reference for students of architecture and history to observe the link between architecture and social life, recording a portion of the rapidly changing history of Dubai.' Rashad Mohammed Bukhash, Architect, Director of Projects, Dubai Municipality
On the 1975 publication: 'This monograph is a unique record of part of Dubai's architectural heritage, and gives an insight into the way of life of an earlier age.' John R Harris, Architect
Published in October 2007.
Please follow this link to read a new review of Windtower, by Archie Walls, from The Architectural Review