ALDRIN T.

SERRANO 1-23
TROPICAL DESIGN
INTRODUCTION
CLIMATE RESPONSIVE Is a must in Building Design.
ARCHITECTURE
ARCHITECTS must realize that the building skin is not just specifying materials and creating a façade for
aesthetics.
BUILDING ENVELOPE serves as a climatic mesh that filters the outside environment to create a proper and hopefully a
comfortable indoor environment.
CLIMATE RESPONSIVE is only one functional criterion for correct design.
BUILDING ENVELOPE
HOT HUMID CONDITIONS require protection from heat and maximum ventilation for interiors, therefore, local designs should
firmly consider these issues.
OPENING such as sun-shading devices should be considered by designers.
FENESTRATIONS
BASIC CONCEPT Weather and Climate
WEATHER is the set of atmospheric conditions prevailing at a given place and time.
CLIMATE can be defined as the integration in time of weather conditions, characteristics of a certain
geographical location.
GLOBAL LEVEL formed by the differential solar heat input and the uniform heat emission over the earth's surface.
CLIMATES
MOVEMENT OF AIR is driven by temperature differentials and strongly influenced by the Coriolis force.
MASSES AND OF
MOISTURE-BEARING
CLOUDS
CLASSIFICATION OF
CLIMATES
ARCTIC EXAMPLE Iceland, Greenland, Northern Russia, and China Arch./EnP. Rey S. Gabitan
COOL TEMPERATE N.W. Europe, Canada, and parts of North America
EXAMPLE
WARM TEMPERATE Mediterranean Countries
EXAMPLE
EQUATORIAL EXAMPLE Those countries lying just above or below the equator, Southeast Asian Countries, Central America
and the Amazon Basin in South America
CLASSIFICATION OF For the purposes of building design a simple system based on the nature of the thermal problem in
CLIMATES the particular location is often used.
FURTHER
CLASSIFICATION OF
TROPICAL, SUB-
TROPICAL &
EQUATORIAL CLIMATES:
WARM HUMID (TROPICAL overheating is not as great as in hot-dry areas, but it is aggravated by very high humidities,
ISLAND) restricting the evaporation potential. The diurnal temperature variation is small.
HOT DRY (ARID/MARITIME main problem is overheating, but the air is dry, so the evaporative cooling mechanism of the body is
DESERT) not restricted. There is usually a large diurnal (day - night) temperature variation.
COMPOSITE (TROPICAL
UPLANDS)
Warm Humid Hot Dry Composite
DBT High temp during the day, low Very high temp during the day; Mixture of warm/humid and
diurnal change large diurnal range; can be
quite low in winter
RH Relatively high Low and very low humidity; hot/dry
fairly constant throughout the
year.
PRECIPITATION Heavy rains especially during Often low or very low 1/3 to 2/3 ratio of monsoon
monsoon season period
SKY Cloudy and glaring Little or no cloud. Cold and
non-glaring sky
GROUND Lesser vegetation Sparse and often bare. Very
high glare from ground. Rich
soil which only requires water
MACROCLIMATE is influenced by the topography, the vegetation and the nature of the environment
MESOCLIMATE regional scale
MICROCLIMATE local level within the site itself
TROPICAL CLIMATE Temperature, Humidity Levels, Wind Conditions, Sky Conditions and Precipitation
TEMPERATURE average mean temperature (dbt) 20 – 30 deg C small diurnal temperature change/range 2-5 deg
HUMIDITY LEVELS Slow Wind Flow Average of 2 m/s
Sky Conditions Overcast Sky most of the time; a lot of reflected heat/ solar gain
Precipitation high during the year – average of 1000mm/yr
PREVAILING WIND IN THE  Amihan (NE) – November to April
PHILIPPINES  Habagat (SW) - May to October
MICRO-CLIMATE Many factors contribute to micro-climate, for instance, the location of hills, rivers, streams and lakes,
the position of buildings and trees, whether the site is on coast or inland, in a town or in the rural
areas, whether the location is above sea level, etc.
SOME MICRO-CLIMATE -land/sea breeze
PHENOMENA ARE: -Courtyards
-Evaporative cooling
-Orientation
-Slope of land height in relation to air movement, rainfall and
temperature
URBAN CLIMATE Almost every city in the world today is hotter - usually between 1 to 4 deg C hotter - than its
surrounding area. This difference between urban and rural temperatures is called the "urban-
heatisland" effect", and it has been intensifying throughout this century.
ELEMENTS OF CLIMATE
NEEDED IN DESIGN
ELEMENTS OF CLIMATE  DBT (Dry-Bulb Temperature)
NEEDED IN DESIGN  Contour Map of DBT
 Wind
 RH (Relative Humidity)
 Contour map of relative humidity
 Precipitation
 Sky
 Solar Radiation
 Contour map of global solar radiation
DBT (DRY-BULB measurement of the temperature of the air and as far as possible excludes any radiant temperature;
TEMPERATURE) measured in the shade.
WIND direction, frequency and force of the wind throughout the year.
instrument
 vane anemometer for high speeds
 kata thermometer for low speeds
WIND amount of water in the air. instrument – hygrometer (in %) or sling psychrometer measured in 0F or
0C if WBT (wet-bulb temperature)
PRECIPITATION mainly rainfall but could also be dew.
instrument
 rain gauge measured in inches or centimeters
SKY either cloud cover, measured in 1/8 or 1/10 or % of the sky covered, or it could be measured in
hours of sunshine
Cloud cover - based on visual observation and expressed as a fraction of the sky hemisphere
(tenths, or 'octas' = eights) covered by clouds.
 Sunshine duration - the period of clear sunshine (when a sharp shadow is cast), measured by a
sunshine recorder which burns a trace on a paper strip, expressed as hours per day or month.
SOLAR RADIATION measured by a pyranometer, on an unobstructed horizontal surface and recorded either as the
continuously varying irradiance (W/m2), or through an electronic integrator as irradiance over the
hour or day.
Four environmental variables directly affecting thermal comfort
 Temperature
 Humidity
 solar radiation
 air movement
Rainfall data may sometimes be needed, such as for designing drainage systems and assessing the
level of precipitation.
TROPICAL DESIGN This is concerned with countries where discomfort due to heat and humidity are the dominant
problems.
Tropical Design is applicable to Tropical and Sub-tropical climates and Equatorial Climates covering
the Southeast Asian Countries.
IMPORTANCE OF Climate has a major effect on building performance and energy consumption.
CLIMATIC DESIGN
The key objectives of climatic design include:
 To reduce energy cost of a building
 To use "natural energy" instead of mechanical system and power
 To provide comfortable and healthy environment for people
FACTORS AFFECTING The local micro-climate and site factors will affect the actual environmental conditions of the building.
CLIMATIC DESIGN
THE IMPORTANT SITE-RELATED FACTORS SHOULD BE CONSIDERED WHEN MAKING THE CLIMATE ANALYSIS:
TOPOGRAPHY elevation, slopes, hills and valleys, ground surface conditions.
VEGETATION height, mass, silhouette, texture, location, growth patterns
BUILT FORMS nearby buildings, surface conditions.
MAJOR THERMAL DESIGN  solar heat gain
FACTORS TO BE STUDIED  conduction heat flow
INCLUDE:  ventilation heat flow.
THE DESIGN VARIABLES  Shape
IN ARCHITECTURAL  Building fabric
EXPRESSION THAT ARE  Fenestration
IMPORTANT WILL  Ventilation
INCLUDE:
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