Mangh (Sindhi Windcatcher)

A mangh is a rooftop wind scoop, the Sindhi form of the windcatcher. In the old city of Hyderabad in Sindh, Pakistan, nearly every house once had one or more manghs rising from its flat roof, all facing the same way to catch the cool breeze that blows inland from the Arabian Sea in summer. The city was nicknamed Manghan jo Shahar, "city of windcatchers". In southern Sindh the device is also called badigar.

How it works

Hyderabad's manghs were fixed, one-directional scoops. Because the cooling summer wind came reliably from the south-west, the scoops could be built permanently in one position. Each mangh was a triangular, chimney-like shaft with a lip opening towards the breeze. The shaft carried air down through the roof into the main room of the house, called the wado sufo. Older houses usually had one mangh per room, though one placed on a shared corner wall could serve two rooms.

The opening was fitted with shutters worked by a lever and rope from inside, so the household could control the airflow. In summer the shutters were opened before sunset and closed late the next morning, around 11:00; in winter they were opened only in the middle of the day, from about 11:00 to 14:30, to let in daylight and a little warm air.

The design suited old Hyderabad, where narrow lanes left little room for street-facing windows and the town lay between the Indus and the Phuleli canal.

History

Some accounts say the technique was in use in Hyderabad about 500 years ago, and old photographs of the Hirabad district show manghs on most houses. Bernard Rudofsky's 1964 book Architecture Without Architects introduced the Hyderabad skyline to architects around the world, and it has since become a common example in discussions of passive cooling.

Decline

The decline of the mangh is linked to the power station built by the British in the 1920s, which brought electricity to the city. Other suggested reasons are the lack of attention in town planning and education, the unsuitability of the device for mass housing, and a tendency to treat manghs as heritage rather than as working climate control.

Related forms

The mangh belongs to the wider family of windcatchers found from Egypt to the Persian Gulf and Iran; see badgir. Its distinguishing feature is that it is permanently aimed in a single direction.