Why It Spreads

Air conditioning is one of the fastest-growing electricity drains on the planet, and it gets hungrier exactly when the grid is most stressed: on the hottest afternoons. That is why mound-style passive cooling is drawing fresh attention.

A building shaped to move its own air costs almost nothing to run and keeps working in a blackout. As energy gets pricier and summers get harsher, designs once dismissed as quirky are starting to look like plain common sense.