Basic house design consideration for Tropical Countries

As you notice everywhere here in the Philippines, you can easily observe a poorly designed house that doesn't have any respect for the country's hot and humid climate. Everyone seems to be fascinated with western things and other influences. Now we all wonder why we don't feel comfortable staying indoors without air conditioning system.

Bermido Group of Architects will be enumerating the basic and pretty straightforward solutions to consider in cooling your house for a tropical climate.

1. High Ceiling.

Aside from making your house look bigger, it is one of the least appreciated design consideration for tropical climate. Having a high ceiling allows warm air on the lower parts of your house to circulate and go up. As one of the basic principles of air movement is warm air goes up and cool air goes down.

2. Solar Orientation

This is one expertise of an Architect that a homeowner can leverage. Little you know that there are certain parts and areas of house that needs to be oriented in a certain way. For example, it is best to locate you kitchen on the west or south areas to maximize its exposure to sunlight, thus prohibiting unnecessary bacteria from growing. One of the best location of your bedroom should be on the East or North part of your house. It is where you will get to have the good morning sunlight.

2. Passive Cooling.

Passive cooling in lay mans term is the way openings such as doors and windows are sized and located to allow the maximum efficiency of air flow without relying too much on mechanical ventilation. Locating this effectively on natural flows of the prevailing winds and providing squeeze points to increase the air intensity.

3. Roof Insulation.

Every house located in tropical countries should have a good roof insulation. But it seems that roof decks are more popular due to limited spaces for gatherings. It is one of the protection layers from extreme solar radiation. It prevents sun's heat from penetrating you living spaces.

4. Long and Sturdy Overhangs

Overhangs should be carefully considered due to the fact that we are prone to experiencing strong tropical storms. But this should not hinder us from utilizing this one feature for a better tropical designed home. Long overhangs do not only protect us from rain but it also shields the windows from having a direct exposure to sunlight. The more we minimize direct exposure to sunlight and maximize indirect exposure, the more it is comfortable to stay indoors.

5. Sun breakers

Sun breakers or what technical architects call as brise soleil. These are secondary barriers provided over openings or below overhangs as additional filters to direct sun exposure. This makes direct sun more bearable. The key here is to minimize the heat absorb by the house, and direct sun exposure. Sun breakers are usually made up of wood, aluminum or any other types of steel.

6. Trees and plants.

If your lucky to have a good space around your house. Think twice before cutting a tree down. It may serve as the primary filter for extreme wind and sun exposure before it hits your house. During the summer. It will cool down the temperature of your surroundings.

7. Opening your windows at evening.

It is one hack that most of us do not do. Right after we went home, open your windows and doors for about 30 minutes to allow the trapped and absorbed heat to dissipate. Concrete hollow blocks absorbs heat during the day and trap it only to release on the evening. This is the reason sometimes we feel hot during the night.

There you go! hope you find some useful tips that you might consider when designing and building your dream home.

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