I made a trip to Abu Dhabi to attend 2012 ADIPEC (Abu Dhabi International Petroleum Exhibition Conference). I stopped at Dubai and spent one night in a hotel called XVA Art Hotel.

The hotel is in an old and traditional Arabic style area by the creek. There is no drive way access. I had to drag my luggage and walked a few blocks to reach the house-like hotel.

My room took one tenth of hotel capacity because there are only 10 rooms total, with a lovely courtyard in the center.  Room is nice with internet access, but no TV, telephone or door bell. Yes, it has AC.

My stay turned into an educational experience when one of the hotel staff showed me the traditional wind tower located by the courtyard, which was used to divert wind into the house to cool down the air inside. No electricity was available or required: a pure twist of natural force to our benefit.

The following pictures show a wind tower from outside and a view from inside up.  The triangle diverts the wind downward.

Of course, wind tower becomes a symbol of traditional Arabic living. Not many people are actually using it for cooling.  We use AC instead.

Looking back into the history of drilling technology, we see many similar evolutions. The first kind of bit was heavy chisel, which now replaced by PDC bit, bamboo, which was originally used in fishing in ancient China, replaced by steel pipe, even the purpose of drilling shifted from brine (Salt) to oil, …

Simple form of engineering was replaced by sophisticated system. We may not be inventors of new technologies, but our needs contribute to the wind of change. There is no best solution, only the better ones waiting for us to discover.

Long live innovation!