The Ancient Method Cooling One of Europe’s Hottest Cities

Spain is using an idea from thousands of years ago to beat the heat.
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Additional footage and imagery courtesy of Grupo Termotecnia - Universidad de Sevilla, BBC, Chris Mitchell/CC BY-SA 4.0, Google Earth, International Center for Aqueducts and Historical Water Structures, Samuel Bailey/CC BY 3.0 and Sky News.
Research sources:
cartujaqanat.com/#proyecto
www.sciencedirect.com/science...
www.uia-initiative.eu/en/uia-...
www.bloomberg.com/features/20...
www.diariodesevilla.es/sevill...
news.sky.com/story/this-area-....
inews.co.uk/news/climate-chan...
www.thetimes.co.uk/article/sp...
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[@expojam1473]

I find it so odd that ancient civilisations have tried and tested methods for tackling all sorts of problems, and then we just decided to NOT use those 😭 There seems to be a resurgence of older methods which work more effectively than newer ones

[@r3d0c]

we have better solutions but they won't be implemented because of capitalism (doesn't make anyone any money), ancient civs were efficient with their resource usage because they thought long term and didnt live ina culture of instant gratification; also these are rare cases which is why they become newsworthy, 95% of modern things are better than things in the past

[@scoobydoo5447]

It can be explained this way: When we were teenagers, we knew it all and no one could teach us anything. When we get a little bit older, we begin to realize mom and dad aren’t as dumb as we once thought.

[@hugovale6360]

What's even weirder is that you would think these places would be the first to implement strict policies against the main culprits of climate change, but no. "Let's fix the symptoms instead of the cause". In the wake of the 2008 financial crisis, the Spanish government drastically cut its subsidies for solar power and capped future increases in capacity at 500 MW per year. Either they are blatant idiots or corrupt.

[@philleasthouse3791]

Capitalism certainly has a part to play but is not the main driver: modern hubris in discounting "old tech" simply because it's old or "outdated". The "unlimited" energy supply we presumed would power our brave nest world is not in fact not infinite. Nor is it free.

[@Zhiloreznik]

As mentioned costs were higher than expected. It’s a novel idea but just like using camels and horses not all ideas new or old work out in the end.

[@timmmahhhh]

How timely, my wife and I enjoyed a two-week vacation in Spain with the first week of October in Granada, Cordoba, and Seville. The first week of October, every day was right around 39c/100F. Hot indeed! We clearly understood the siesta concept after that waiting until 8:00pm/20h to eat dinner as many places had outdoor dining. At least it cools down in the evenings being a desert like climate, unlike the southeaatern US. Regardless of the heat, we will go back in a heartbeat. Wonderful place.

[@Omer1996E.C]

Hearing the names "Cordoba" "Seville" and "Granada" really makes me daydream

[@Desfighter1]

Arab cities Castilians came from Italian peninsula

[@JeremySpidle]

Hey B1M... Ever heard of a Climate Battery? They're mostly being used in greenhouses now, but in the future, I imagine most buildings will have one...

[@alejandroostos]

That is my city!! It feels surreal to see it on your channel, thank you!! ❤ However, I'd like to point out that Sevilla is nowhere near the sea (images shown in the video are from Cádiz and Málaga if I'm not mistaken) so that could make people confused about the city. Other than that it was a superb video as usual.

[@danielmarcotorrente4437]

Vamossss un español en un video en ingles

[@d33pNacho]

My city as well! beautiful as always

[@petervarley3078]

I was about to point this out until I saw you had already noted the problem. Very sloppy choices for footage to fill out the video. I was there 4 weeks ago and because of the Columbus festival, we ended up staying on a boat in the river!

[@Yormsane]

Another simple solution is being implemented by the city of Tucson, Arizona, where there's a project to plant 1,000,000 trees within the city limits, by 2030. Using native drought-resistant species to create shade, clean the air, and conserve dwindling water supplies.

[@apollo209]

Smart move, Sevilla! Let's hope it works while being energy efficient en give plenty of cooling!

[@GazMoby]

Just in time for lunch. Fantastic 👍

[@ravenfeeder1892]

Zanja is a great word in Scrabble! Also a great concept, I hope this is taken up elsewhere.

[@outofthetrash5925]

Ganja is also good 😂

[@DouglasJWalker]

This is true architecture I believe. There is also a school in India you must do a video on.

[@cristianfamigliuolo]

The Moroccan hot mass is not so criminal! It becomes so because it passes partly over the Mediterranean and partly over the Atlantic, capturing much more humidity and complicating the sensation of heat and exchanges.

[@koohami]

Im from the Bahamas its hots. Love tomorrows build, the b1m and the worlds best construction podcast

[@masoodalshibi5170]

Great team ❤

[@bobyoung1698]

This is simply a heat transfer system that integrates air and water rather than one alone. I'm glad that scientists are researching the old ways and bringing 21st-century applications for them.

[@scpatl4now]

This is a take on swamp coolers that have been around for quite some time. They work best in low humidity environments. They don't work very well if your climate has constant high humidity because it gets very hard for water to evaporate when the air is saturated. They use them quite a bit in the US desert SW.

[@brodriguez11000]

Plus only works well as long as water isn't scarce. e.g. droughts, etc.

[@antoniocampen]

then its not such a good a idea to use them in Sevilla, what really kills you in sevilla is not the only temperature but the combination with really high humidity because of the river and a lack of a cool sea breeze.

[@Spitamen]

this video literally stated that they were inspired by "Qanat" system originated about 3,000 years ago in ancient Persia. So, yeah this swamp cooling system existed at least three thousand years. Unless USA is older than 3,000 I think Old Asian world has been using swamp coolers long before SW.

[@TruDeinoz]

@@Spitamen Swamp Coolers work on electricty and were patented in United States in 1945. Unless they had electricty 3000 years ago I don't think they were using swamp coolers in the old Asian world.

[@geoffoakland]

Paris has a similar system. Water from the Seine river is used to cool buildings adjacent to the river

[@MsSjaakvaak]

Not too many fisherman on the Seine then, i suppose..

[@Yuorai]

Now it makes sense why Paris smells so much like piss

[@geoffoakland]

@@MsSjaakvaak probably not in Paris, upstream from the city I imagine that there are.

[@Zenavesta]

Are there interesting methods where people have implemented this in homes?

[@Deibid02]

I’m from Seville and I can tell you that although the idea is brilliant, due to the location and nature of the building it’s not going to be very useful. The cartuja island, the zone where it’s located it’s now kind of empty, there are basically only a few office buildings, a hotel and a concert venue. I think the idea and the building itself its amazing but it’s not gonna serve as more than an experiment. Something like this built in the city centre would be awesome, maybe in Puerta Jerez

Basement in cities often had a half "window" at street level, this was not to let light in but rather let air in, cool air that sank down, then there was a small tower where warm air could get out and that moved the cool air up. But then those basement was rebuilt to shops or apartments and that blocked the air flow and old time ventilation and AC, and the knowledge about heat have been lost, like you can see folk open their windows during a heat wave and folk turn fans into the house rather than try ventilate out the warm air, and just cover the windows from the outside with blinds van make it much cooler on the inside, but blinds on the outside as old houses had is no never seen due to "architecture".

[@Artista_Frustrado]

topic aside... it's CORdoboa, the tilde at the beginning means you put the emphasis in that sylable

[@Cerith99]

Ah that's an (acute) accent :) The tilde is this one: ~

[@Artista_Frustrado]

@@Cerith99 nope, in Spanish it's called a tilde

[@micgalovic]

Congrats to successfully watercooling a building, now add RGB to it

[@CaptCanuck4444]

Loved my weeks in Seville last January.

[@Goxilla]

More, more, more!

[@Zamun]

Thanks for the content.

[@troytousignant7231]

This is how basically how Toronto is cooled. It involves running cold water from deep down in Lake Ontario, to air-condition buildings located downtown Toronto

[@Crabman_87]

Really?? How is usage managed and meter? Who manages the infrastructure and buildings wanting to join the network? This sounds like a great B1M video

[@manumalia]

Cooling Toronto… prolly a bit easier than Seville.

[@mntbighker]

10 years ago I stopped at a Wendy's in Barstow, CA and it was 53C (128F). My AC in the VW was full blast and barely staying at 90F.

[@garryferrington811]

Yeah, Barstow and Baker are something else!

[@UniversidaddeSevilla]

Thanks for sharing!

[@andrecastillo5232]

The grand return!

[@bahadorsoori68]

Ancient Persians had a lot of innovations in terms of cooling systems ,water management and Earthquake proof infrastructures

[@nachtmacher6237]

Thanl you 😊

[@ava-he9li]

Como odio vivir aquí 🔥🔥🔥

[@zoeybella234]

Excellent Plan. Excellent video :)

[@TheH3nn3]

Wasn't there any estimated effect of this system in the proposals for the funding? It sounds great but can you expect more like 5 or 15 degree colder air in the area nearby?

[@TheMattB1984]

I believe there's already an example, in Seville, of this method in the Royal Alcazar Gardens. The room is significantly cooler but also underground. Very cool!

[@uigrad]

I'm always jealous of cities that are dry enough that expensive heating works. In the Midwest of the US, corn and soybeans release so much moisture that evaporative systems just do nothing.

[@michaelphillips2079]

"Hot" must be relative. Seville doesn't get as hot as Dallas or Houston or Phoenix in the US have gotten regularly for forever.

[@maximum94]

It's still hot. This is Europe were talking about, 40-50 is very high for Europe.

[@fishyerik]

Large scale indirect evaporate cooling have huge potential. A single liter of water that evaporates takes about 2/3 of a kWh of heat, and evaporative cooling gets more efficient the higher the temperature gets, in contrast to compressor based AC-systems that get less efficient the higher the temperature difference they have to fight. Obviously there are limitations, you don't get lower than the wet bulb temperature, not in a single stage at least, and the efficiency also depends on the air humidity. During extreme temperature peaks the relative humidity is usually low to very low, which makes evaporative cooling very efficient. To bad if the principle gets bad reputation from mismanaged projects like this.

[@bigmountain7561]

Plant More Trees!!! Everyone would be surprised

[@JamesCAlien]

I don't understand why there isnt more use of ancient,free technology.

[@garryferrington811]

Here in San Bernardino, CA, it was hitting over 40°C this summer. The sun was ferocious!

[@lokesh303101]

Better make Solar Roof mandatory in Spain. Watebodies like Lakes in the outskirts or external spaces are far better in cooling the Urbanspaces. Trees 🌲 would play its part in reducing the urban heat island effect.

[@carlosandleon]

Bro it’s not even the urban that is islanding the heat. Spain was the only place I’ve been in where riding a motorcycle at highway speeds with the jacket open served to warm you up rather than cool you down! It’s that hot!

[@keboonplumeria5266]

So advanced ... Back then

[@kmturley1]

Every building should have a cool room / basement with pipes to circulate hot air through cool soil. It would reduce the amount of AC required.

[@funny-video-YouTube-channel]

He went on vacation 🤗 They better cool the metro tubes with that.

[@howardrisby9621]

Excellent video, thanks and asa resuly of KZbin funally flagging your output, I'm now a subscriber to your channels. 👍 Re: the cooling mechanism highlighted here, I have a concern ..... The ancient Persian system was dropped into the general hydrological cycle, whereas the modern take appears to rely on 'fossil water'. This begs the question of how sustainable the notion actually is.

[@WRITER1000]

I've worked digging qanats in Iran. It's an extremely labor intensive job. We lost more than 20 of our friends and relatives due to collapse, electrocution and natural gas during 3 decades that we worked that job.

[@Desfighter1]

This is not ancient Persian invention but Egyptian iraqi and arab invention Indo-European people always steal from Afro-Asiatic inventions

[@03jalapeno]

Sounds like this system uses a lot of water

[@frodo322]

Can’t believe those poor horses having to work under that heat. It should not be allowed.

[@gaslitworldf.melissab2897]

I've heard about a few things Persians once did to keep cool and since Japanese are so innovative, I wonder why they never came up with an efficient way to either stay cool or keep warm. You just suffer in Japan (weather-wise).

[@bmanpura]

Probably because it's really humid here most of the time. Evaporation cooling doesn't work well when it's humid, I hear.

[@Desfighter1]

This is not ancient Persian invention but Egyptian iraqi and arab invention Indo-European people always steal from Afro-Asiatic inventions

[@lutzfilor8253]

Love all passive solar energy. Well, give credit to Persia where credit is due.

[@ryuuguu01]

I wonder how this compares in capital cost and operating cost to a ground-based heat pump?

[@wmtrader]

This video needs more flashing.

[@Xandalfo]

Great content as always! Please do more videos about how cities can adapt to climate change.

[@xXxno6xXx]

anyone knows how good water reserves will hold up in Spain? also, spraying warter might clog nozzles when evaporating. Same minerals that clog nozzels might be piling up on the solar panels over time so they meed to be cleaned (more water probably) i guess we will need to desalinify water from the oceans big time soon, but this might benefit dry regions. could do it with solar or exess heat from nuclear plants. maybe repurpose an oil pipeline for a water pipeline and irrigate and green the land on a big scale

[@Game_Hero]

2:31 Not an internationally recognized world fair.

[@StufffTV]

Seville during the summer isn't really for the fainted hearted, i remember thinking to myself how the elderly, out of shape people and horses were managing to stay comfortable. But a beautiful city, wouldn't mind living there.

[@ElusiveTy]

Personally couldn't live there given the heat. Perhaps if it were 10 degrees cooler, but thats what winter is for. It's crazy to me that anyone would go at any other time;

[@osasunaitor]

​@@ElusiveTyI used to share a flat with a girl from Seville. When I told her that I have never visited her city, she encouraged me to do it asap, but with one condition: she begged me to _not_ schedule my visit during July/August, because she admits that the heat is so intense that I wouldn't be able to enjoy the visit at all. Locals are well aware of how tough the living conditions get during the summer months, and recently even late spring/early autumn.

[@EyesOfByes]

There is hope in the galaxy

[@toaster4269]

It's almost as if we found the most inefficient way to cool places down after industrialization, and now we're realizing that our ancestors did it better.

[@bigtomDW]

so.. its an old school radiator lol

[@PeterTodd]

The biggest problem might come from humidity, higher temps with air coming off the sea equals higher humidity, so the whole evaporative 'cooling' goes out the door. Wait and see I guess.

[@multienergico9299]

If I am not mistaken, Seville is quite dry

[@alejandroostos]

Seville is nowhere near the sea, which is about 1h 30 min away. I get it was confusing because they used images from Cadiz and Malaga, idk why. Source: I'm from Sevilla

[@TheRicardfranca89]

Welcome to Seville. Shows an imatge of Cadis😢

[@kjeldschouten-lebbing6260]

So lets mass-evaporate water, in a region plagued by a lack of... water... Bad idea.

[@killer3883]

Soooo, just a swamp cooler system

[@toomanymarys7355]

No, a swamp cooler would be a lot cheaper.

[@TheLineCutter]

its really the principles that are the point of attention. and we should be thinking about how to be effective with implementing these principles into the complexity of buildings. not really the exact adaptation of old technology.

[@chippysteve4524]

An "energy saving building" that uses vast amounts of concrete to cool only one building for tourists??? The bar must be set pretty low for this to qualify as a good idea,by any metric.

[@temp0rand]

Anything wrong with touring Spain in winter?

[@CaptCanuck4444]

Spain in Winter is fantastic.

[@multienergico9299]

Not at all, just bear in mind it can get cold depending on where you go so you may need to bring some extra layers

[@mewosh_]

Boy, they could really use some sombritas

[@MrDavejkings]

Really interesting, but not exactly scalable. How on earth would this be retrofitted into homes and other locations at a cost that is acceptable

[@Stargate2077]

So…a heat pump?

[@katesisco]

Yes, and still awaiting heat pumps to begin the promised relief.

[@Andrew-xk8xn]

40 degrees C is 104 degrees F :)

[@dylaninnes8541]

So the free energy low tech solution wasn't good enough? Let's make it Super complicated

[@masterchuck8772]

I don't see how a building on the other side of the river, where nobody lives, can cool anyone. By the time you get to the building you die. What's the point?

[@KanyeKetchup]

Real Alcázar has the same system

[@user-pq3uz2zb9i]

Either this wasn't explained well or there seem to be some practical errors in the deployment of this system.

[@michelhedley1805]

Large trees could be planted

[@lifeinaustralia6415]

We had 52c a few years ago it was horrific. We only had fans to deal with it. Outside birds were collapsing(2 of our young chooks died even though they were in the shade) Trees and plants leaves were being burn, pavement lifted. The day after all of us had aches and pains throughout our bodyThe world as a whole cannot afford for countries reaching such high levels of temps our flora/fauna just can't take it. We are not all naked mole rats.

[@Spitamen]

Flora and fauna will do just fine, it is the people who will suffer the most. Complex life is 600 million years old. Animals and plants were decimated nearly to extinction dozens of times through out this time. Specific species will die off but new species will evolve and take their place. Animals and plants will do just fine and even better without humans. So, worry about humans when talk about climate change. Nature will greatly improve in long term if humans numbers goes down. Green or not our negative impact on life will only worsen with population increase. So, maybe climate change acts as human population control and will have positive impact on life?! Thoughts for dinner.

[@ScarfinUSA]

Wtf is a Celsius

[@relacionomia]

Strange that people cannot say "Thanks ancient Iran" even though Persia is just a synonym for Iran used by westerns.

[@Hansulf]

Wastint water on cooling in a ever drier area may not be the best idea.

[@1968Christiaan]

Accents in Spanish are a lot easier than french... if there is an accent, stress it. COORdoba very interesting but like listening to a video about London when someone calls it Lon-don.

[@daboi5779]

seVILLL

[@ignacioodm8159]

Cordoba >>>

[@arnaul_de_lapras5853]

my cointry is becoming a desert. It makes me so sad

[@Ianthe22]

It's 2024. One thing is that we try and relieve the people from their heatstrokes, but the problem still lies with the albedo of city areas which created all this heat in the first place. We are gonna be more and more people and they are all trying to flood these big cities.

[@Martyr217]

Didn't the Ancient Iraqis/Iranians whatever they were called back then have cooling towers that were that good at there job the made ice in the desert?

[@guitarazn90210]

They used radiative cooling for that.

[@P8qzxnxfP85xZ2H3wDRV]

This is a waste. They should just run an air to ground heatpump to make full use of the lower underground temperatures in summer and potentially hotter underground temperatures in winter.

[@SpecialeW]

What's an "ampitheatre"?

[@haifutter4166]

5:30 "If it works" ARE you kidding me? It's not like this works for millennia now 😂 The only catch is, that this thousands of years old cooling tech needs to be slightly adapted for hot regions with also high humidity. So it needs a dehumidification step, either via heatpumps, that could be cooled via underground cooling too, sea water, or directly via seawater.

[@MakeSomeNoiseAgencyPlaylists]

1. Sevilla is not onthe coast 2. Porto is the Sherry city 3. xxxxxx 4. xxxxxx really dude !

[@johnsonrepp]

Maybe the pyramids of ancient Egypt were just giant AC units. After this videos explanation, this seems plausible.

[@michaelwebsternz]

40C isn’t a big deal. Was 44 to 48 as 50% humidity in Dubai in July / August and it was still fine. I’ve walked all over Madrid at 45C and it wasn’t an issue at all. Cold is much much worse.

[@mrtomato5132]

rrriiiiigggghhhhtttt

[@user-cu7uz5le3h]

Air conditioning in Europe sucks. No one in the southern US states could live there if we had the same crap air conditioning

[@Nick-ox2lo]

Laughs in Floridian

[@bmgbenjiii7500]

It’s not because of climate change it’s because the farmers not properly farming, right and poor management of water so if you’re gonna say something, please inform is properly. Also, this wouldn’t work because already have shortage of water in there aquifer

[@veggieboyultimate]

The fact we are looking for older ways to cool down just shows how inefficient our modern way to cool down is.

[@panglimahitam6793]

The 'modern' way of cooling emphasized on immediate result and replicable in a large scale..

[@Artista_Frustrado]

keep in mind, Active Cooling was designed with a different goal in mind from Passive cooling

[@LukaPaja]

It shows jack squat. It shows that we will only need even more energy to survive, while we must use less. This is gonna get scary so quick. The level of migration is going to be unfathomable.

[@PaulHolder]

This is click-bait. It isn't cooling the city, it's cooling one building in the city.

[@vmoutsop]

Oh please, the change in climate was caused by the Hunga Tonga eruption. This will pass.

[@DaniMrtini]

I've lived in places where it got up go 118-119 F in summer time. 40 c is nothing but then I remember, Seville isn't used to that heat. Crazy to think it'll get to 120 at some point in the near future there.

[@KanyeKetchup]

😂 sharrdup trying to 1 up . 40c is nothing yeah ok

[@bara555]

@@KanyeKetchupBuddy has never heard of humidity.

[@osasunaitor]

Seville is very well used to that heat, did you even watch the video?