https://www.cell.com/iscience/fulltext/S2589-0042(23)02842-0
19th-century thermosiphon ventilation and its potential for heat recovery in buildings today: iScience
A friend in France was looking into a similar thing using a double wall that was apparently common construction in the 1800s and quite efficient, but supposedly after WWI it died out because so many skilled carpenters didn't return and they switched to thick-wall concrete construction (you see this a lot even in residential construction in France).
I wonder, though, whether the development of central heat with ducting was the real reason for the decline. In any case, there was a sort of movement to revive the technique.
I've always been interested in cob buildings (called wattle and daub in Europe). In the middle east, where it is super dry, cooling towers are used to passively cool buildings. It's basically a giant swamp cooler -- often used in greenhouses. I love simple, effective technology.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Windcatcher
QuoteWindcatchers that cool by drawing air over water use the water as a heat reservoir, but if the air is dry, they are also cooling the air with evaporative cooling.[2] The heat in the air goes into evaporating some of the water, and will not be released until the water re-condenses. This is a very effective way of cooling dry air.[2]
I've always been disappointed that swamp coolers do not work here because of high humidity. In ultra-dry areas like Arizona, some houses have misting nozzles installed inside the house for evaporative cooling. Try that here and you'd be sloshing around in puddles.