Some very inspiring news gets lost in archives – we’re resurrecting some Hopebuilding stories for Happyzine readers.

Termite mounds and Great Zimbabwe’s ancient stone walls inspired the innovative design for an award-winning office complex and shopping mall built in downtown Harare, Zimbabwe in 1996 that uses only natural means to cool and heat the building, dramatically saving energy and costs for its tenants.

Now an English research project is hoping to discover ways to introduce those termite mound construction secrets into the mainstream housing construction market.

Architect Mick Pearce developed a natural ventilation design that uses Eastgate’s building mass as insulation and daily temperature swings to keep the building cool and fresh.

The system mimicks how termites keep their mounds at a constant temperature of 30 to 31 degrees, by digging a “breeze-catcher at the base of their mound, which cools the air by means of chambers carved out of the wet mud below, and sends hot air out through a flue to the top. They constantly vary this construction by alternatively opening up new tunnels and blocking others to regulate the heat and humidity within the mound.” Or to put it another way, termites have “found an air-conditioning system that works without a power station.”

Eastgate uses less than 10% of the energy of a similar-sized conventional building, says the Biomimicry Institute, which promotes the idea of basing human designs on natural systems. “Eastgate’s owners have saved $3.5 million alone because of an air-conditioning system that did not have to be implemented. Outside of being eco-efficient and better for the environment, these savings also trickle down to the tenants whose rents are 20 percent lower than those of occupants in the surrounding buildings.”

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Eastgate’s exterior was inspired by the stone walls of the ancient city of Great Zimbabwe, 200 miles southeast of Harare. Pearce “looked to nature and local cultures for a solution to sustainability. This goes to show that local culture and the realities of the natural geo-climatic region have much to teach those who are willing to reject standardised ready-made solutions,”  said the citation for the 2003 Prince Claus Award presented to Pearce.  Read more on Hopebuilding.

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