in MENA they had wind towers http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wind_Tower for thousands of years, a free, ecological and efficient system of ventilation and cooling. Ironically, nowadays they dump megawatts on A/C.
possible. still better to reduce those problems architecturally upfront and attach expensive technology as additional support, than rely on huge-ass installations running 24/7/365.
A well insulated low solar gain building does not need to spend all that much energy on AC. Especially if people are willing to keep the temperature at 80f in the summer. The real issue is energy is cheap so people are more than happy to use it to keep cool. Also nothing prevents you from using geothermal energy to lower energy costs even further.
office buildings in say, the developped cities on the Arabian Peninsula, are basically high, very exposed glass and steel cages, where their 4 seasons can be qualified as: summer, hotter summer, unbearably hot summer and tiny itty bitty less hot summer.
I've been to UAE and Oman, both for xmas/ny, I wouldn't call it moderate. when I had to put up long pants in mid-day to enter the mosque and sadly they happenned to be jeans (you make this mistake only once), I thought I'd die on my way from the parking lot. cold nights are typical for desert in the sense of no civilization open area desert, not cities located on the coastline near a desert. maybe KSA's Riyadh is different because it's located inland, but still cities usually hold temperature pretty well, hence 'summer in the city' tends to be a painful experience during peaks even here in Central Europe.
I somehow doubt even http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wind_Towers will use wind towers, lol, I hope I'm wrong.