I read a wonderful and frustrating book written by an Egyptian architect. He did tons of research on Ancient Egyptian homes and buildings, and came to the conclusion that the mud brick used by his ancestors is an ideal material for homes in Egypt. He also concluded that their use of small clerestory windows, and wind scoops, would indeed keep homes and other buildings more than tolerably cool. The half- and full-sized models he built bore out all of this.
He’d even found ancient homes surviving in places that were flood-prone, which belies the idea that mud brick is only temporary and fragile.
It was frustrating b/c the villagers didn’t want their kids going to school in the cool and well-lit archaic-style mud building he’d been given permission to create. They preferred the unsuitable modern Western designs 
