House Orientation/design For Natural Cooling

[simon43]

My plans to build a small teak/hardwood house in Phuket are progressing well.

The type of design that I'm considering is 'a-la Jim Thomson', similar to the attached picture, (ignoring the elephant mount!).

I want to provide as much natural cooling/wind-flow as possible, so that AC units are not required. What would be the best orientation to ensure this? What other house design and/or building material factors should I consider to obtain a light, cool, airy house with cool floors?

Thanks

Simon

[londonthai]

predominant winds in thailand are from N-E - so it's good to have a front of the house with a big, two part entrance door or if it's a back of your house a lot of windows. If you are planning to have thai style traditional wooden shutters on the windows position them such, so they can catch more wind from that direction.

however, on the seaside and islands the breeze would be most of the time from sea (hot air rising over the land being replaced by the cooler air from over the water).

even if you are going to use wood (expensive) and a lot of windows and doors, high sealings and elevation on piles - still think about modern designes (sealing insulation, high trees + double walls/protestive net/insulation from the south-west, big sealing fans) or even a small air cons in the master bedroom and in the guest room.

don't build a cement perimeter wall close to the house, because it will obstruct wind to you house - for same cut regularly bushes

[Crossy]

Agree with LT ^^^ (the word is 'ceiling' by the way).

Arrange so the prevailing wind goes through and being on stilts is a must for a cool interior (sit underneath when it's really hot out). The high roof of the traditional style also helps to get the hot air out (you need vents at the top of the gables).

Lots of trees nearby will absorb a lot of the heat from the sun, plants on any deck / verandah are also great for cooling.

Augment with fans to move the air around when there's little wind and you're good to go.

[eddiemonster]

I think in Phuket you will get wind from the south west during the rainy season and from the (north) east during the dry season, so I would bear this in mind.

In my experience, while high ceilings obviously help, possibly of more importance is the ability of the wind to be able to pass through the house by having openings opposite each other. If you can have substantial openings on all sides it will give the opportunity for a nice through draft at all times of the year.

Having it high up off the ground above walls, bushes etc will maximise this.

Also try to make sure the sun doesn't hit the windows so it doesn't get too hot in the first place. Depending on where you are in Phuket and if you are building the same as the house in the photo I would position the house in (S)W/(N)E direction. To allow the wind to pass straight through the house and (I can't see any windows on the side) to keep the sun off any glass.

Of course, then the monsoon rains are going to be hitting the (S) west facing side directly so ensure your doors/windows have good closure.

Also, depending on your position in Phuket and how open to the elements your house will be, if you are relying on open windows/doors for cooling, careful consideration needs to be given to how you will keep the house cool AND dry during the rainy season eg the size of the overhang of the roof.

But this will impact on how light it is inside. It is always a balancing act between light and shade, rain and sun, hot and cool. I am not sure if anyone has found a 100% perfect solution just from the structure of the house.

With this style of house I would imagine a nice wooden floor, well off the ground, with lots of gaps would have a very cooling effect. My friends overcame the problem of mozzies etc coming through the gaps by putting mosquito netting on the underside of the floor. It certainly seemed to work in the short term but don't know about the practicalities long term.

And then with open windows/doors comes the tricky issue of security....

[simon43]

Some very good advice here. Note that this style of house doesn't usually sit on stilts. But it would make sense to raise the building off the ground by a small amount, so as to allow underfloor cooling.

The intended location is inland Phuket, close to the Ton Sai waterfall/national park. I'm just tying up final details for lifetime rental of the landplot and then I can start building!

I do need to find a source of old teak/redwood. I know that I can buy old teak houses/rice-barns from north Thailand. But when I took a drive around to Ao Nang last week, I saw many hardwood houses. So I imagine there is a local supplier in this area. One point that I am concerned about is to ensure that my supply of old hardwood is 'legal', in that it is not illegally imported from Myanmar etc.

After the frustration of building my hotel, (where the workmen basically ignored my ideas and trotted out the mantra 'this is Thailand - we do it this way, not farang way'), I am very keen to avoid a similar situation. Ideally, I would love to physically build this house myself, or use one or two competent workers who are open to 'crazy' farang ideas about house-building!

Simon

[Crossy]

Interesting to note Simon that all the similar wooden houses up here in Central Thailand (Ayutthaya) are raised 2m or so off the ground (actually 5'10", so I at 5'11", am forever bashing my head on a very solid teak beam). Communal area is underneath, family seem to spend 90% of their non-sleeping time in this area gassing

Jim Thompson's house is mainly on sticks

Edited January 8, 2009 by Crossy

[Samuian]

yeah simon, Ayutthaya Province would be the area where you can (still) find the craftsmen and the material!check this out: