Yakhchāl

This is cool technology. The first thing I thought was, that looks a lot like the building that contains the Dead Sea Scrolls (1). This was also designed to stay cool in the desert.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shrine_of_the_Book

This topic has come up a few times before.

Most commented thread was: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=17384177

I wonder how easy it would be to construct something like this today.

Someone I worked with wanted to build a lookout tower on his house, imitating something he saw on another (very old) house elsewhere, and got into all sorts of disputes with the municipality regarding how to interpret zoning laws.

The houses shown on those photos look really quite beautifully designed. Fascinating how they make use of effects and how they might have tried many designs over time, before arriving at those ones on the photos.