Humans have always used architecture as a means to negotiate with the natural environment, counteracting the effects of our contextual climate and making it suitable for our survival, and even further, our comfort. While the climate reality and our societal concerns shape the way we build, what we build and how we build it also shapes the climate and our societies in turn. As our global climate changes and our summer temperatures in the North American context become hotter, we are increasingly finding that our existing architectural infrastructure is ill-equipped to handle the heat. There’s a lot we can learn from “traditional” (or older, more well used and time tested) architectural typologies that have been designed for thermal comfort in other places that historically experience more extreme heat 1 .
This zine will examine the architecture of resilience, specifically through the lens of passive cooling techniques to mitigate extreme heat, by looking at five case studies from different time periods and global regionalities. Spatial elements in the plan and form of the architecture, social elements, and materials used, will be used to discuss these strategies for thermal comfort. The case studies explored in the following pages highlight how time-tested typologies of architecture respond to extreme heat by leveraging passive design strategies and local, renewable materials.
The timeline on the following page is designed to show the relevance and use of each building typology through time, across continents and countries. The flow of the river widens and narrows with use, visualizing revival periods and evolution of each typology through the years.
Arbid, George, and Philipp Oswalt, eds. Designing Modernity : Architecture in the Arab World 19451973. Berlin: Jovis Verlag GmbH, 2022. https://doi.org/10.1515/9783868598308.
Anella, Tony. Pueblo Style and Regional Architecture. Edited by Nicholas C. Markovich, Wolfgang F. E. Preiser, and Fred Gillette Sturm. Oxfordshire, [England] ; Routledge, 2015.
Blackman, Harrison. “Southwestern fantasy: Pueblo revival and regional authenticity in New Mexico.” Region. Routledge, 2024.
Hensel, Michael, Defne Sunguroğlu Hensel, Mehran Gharleghi, and Salmaan Craig. “Towards an Architectural History of Performance: Auxiliarity, Performance and Provision in Historical Persian Architectures.” Architectural Design 82, no. 3 (2012): 26–37. https://doi.org/10.1002/ad.1402.
Hosseini, Elham, Gurupiah Mursib, and Raja Nafida Bt Raja Shahminan. “Implementation of Traditional Malay Design Values in Contemporary Malay Houses.” INTERNATIONAL JOURNAL OF BUILT ENVIRONMENT AND SUSTAINABILITY 3, no. 2 (2016): 93–101. https://doi.org/10.11113/ijbes.v3.n2.125.
Juarez, Roberto Ivan Cruz. “The Impact of the Use of Adobe as Masonry in the Operational and Embodied Emissions of Dwellings, Considering the Urban Heat Island Effect and the Changing Climate in Puebla, Mexico.” ProQuest Dissertations Publishing, 2023.
Kamal, Kamarul Syahril, Lilawati Abdul Wahab and Asmalia Che Ahmad. “Climatic design of the traditional Malay house to meet the requirements of modern living.” (2014).
Lukachko, Alex. “ Designing for the Long Term.” Building Science ARC1041. Class lecture at University of Toronto, Toronto, AB, October 9, 2023.
“Riad.” The Oxford Dictionary of Architecture. Oxford University Press, 2015.
Sahebzadeh, Sadra, Zahra Dalvand, Milad Sadeghfar, and Ali Heidari. “Vernacular Architecture of Iran’s Hot Regions; Elements and Strategies for a Comfortable Living Environment.” Smart and Sustainable Built Environment 9, no. 4 (2020): 573-593. https://doi.org/10.1108/SASBE-11-2017-0065.
Toe, Doris Hooi Chyee. “Malaysia: Malay House.” In Sustainable Houses and Living in the Hot-Humid Climates of Asia, 25–35. Singapore: Springer Singapore, 2018. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-981-108465-2_3.
Zakaria, Mohd Azuan, Tetsu Kubota, and Doris Hooi Chyee Toe. “Thermal Function of Internal Courtyards in Traditional Chinese Shophouses in Malaysia.” In Sustainable Houses and Living in the Hot-Humid Climates of Asia, 387–96. Singapore: Springer Singapore, 2018. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-981-108465-2_37.
Name: Pueblo and Santa Fe Revival Styles
Location: American Southwest (North America)
Dates: Pueblo: 500 BCE;
Santa Fe Revival: 1900-30’s to present
Name: Riad (Garden) House
Location: Morocco (Africa)
Dates: Medieval Islamic period (in North Africa and the Middle East) - 7th century to the 14th century AD
Name:
Location:
Dates:
Name: The Malay
Location: The Malay sia, Indonesia, southern Philippines)
Dates: Exact dates back to at least the 14th century
Name:
Location:
Dates:
Name: Bãdgir (Windcatcher) Buildings
Location: Iran (Middle East)
Dates: 1500’s to present
The Riad (Garden) House is a traditional Moroccan house typology with a central focus on a courtyard garden, emphasizing vegetation and water elements (such as a fountain or pool) to cool the house’s interior microclimate and allow for cross ventilation. This is a case study that provides insight on the use of water and vegetation (non- architectural elements) in architectural passive cooling strategies. It is also a helpful example in tracing use across time, as built works of this kind typology, which likely has been in use since likely the 7th century, is often still preserved in the contemporary city for tourism use.
The Bãdgir (Windcatcher) Towers in Iran are both a passive cooling strategy used for centuries, and a formal typology that has defined skylines of many Iranian cities. This case study provides a look into a building element and formal typology that is enduring in its use by architects within its context in contemporary Iran, and is well studied for its effectiveness in maintaining thermal comfort.
The prehistoric Pueblo approach to building, paired with the twentieth century Pueblo Revival style, form an interesting case study into a set of time tested building techniques and material use that have been carried many centuries into a revival in today’s modern city. It is also a useful examination of the use of “vernacular” architecture as a tool in cultural myth-making.
Malay House
Malay Archipelago (present-day MalaySingapore, Brunei, southern Thailand, Philippines) (Asia)
dates difficult to pinpoint. Can be traced least the pre-Islamic period, likely around century and earlier.
The Malay house is a time-tested example of the use of passive ventilation techniques to mitigate effects of an extremely hot and humid climate. In contemporary times, the typology remains influential in the architecture of the region. It has also undergone many evolutions as it’s traveled geographically, and so it’s a useful case study to trace travel of a typology through many countries and contexts.
Name: Singapore Shophouse
Location: Singapore (Asia)
Dates: 1840 -1960’s
The Singaporean Colonial Chinese Shophouse is an example of a hybridized approach to passive cooling and the expression of cultural values through form, which resulted from the colonial context of the 1840’s to 1960’s. The traditional Chinese shophouse typology was mixed with other passive cooling building methods more suited for the tropical climate. It is another helpful case study to trace travel of a typology through many adjacent countries and contexts, as the Chinese style shophouse typology is seen in several colonial contexts through Asia such as Hong Kong, Malaysia, and Singapore.
The Malay House is a centuries-old typology that leverages the use of passive ventilation techniques to mitigate effects of an extremely hot and humid climate. Originating likely in the pre-Islamic period in the Malay Archipelago (present-day Malaysia, Indonesia, Singapore, Brunei, southern Thailand, southern Philippines), the Malay House is a detached building of an elevated structure made of lightweight timber materials. Often found in tree-filled rural areas, the passive cooling strategies used in this typology include shading from the sun with strategic placement of tree planting and long roof eaves, using tree shade to create a cooler outdoor microclimate before the house entrance2, and cross ventilation. Cross ventilation is a key feature, and it is achieved using minimal partitions, lightweight materials with low thermal capacity, fully openable windows, and an elevated floor construction.3
This case study shows how differing natural and social factors throughout both time and geographic context can modify, yet still retain the essence of, an architectural typology that is effective in providing climate resilience. The Malay House typology has undergone many adaptations based on local contexts, cultural influence, and geographically specific availability of local materials. With locally contextualized versions in Malaysia, Indonesia, Singapore, Brunei, southern Thailand, southern Philippines, this type of house continues to be well used and its key social features and passive cooling strategies carried through its many iterations, providing a framework for innovative passive cooling design in the contemporary Southeast Asian architectural context.
The diagram on the right analyzes the interplay of passive cooling techniques (ecological forces interacting with form) and socio-cultural elements in the typological design of the Malay House. As seen in the pink arrows that delineate sun and wind flow, the hot and humid natural environment is neutralized in stages as it approaches and enters the house, and then is carried out. Trees planted strategically into incrementally smaller heights provide solar shading, creating an outdoor microclimate cooling air incrementally as it moves to the house entrance 4 . Formal strategies such as an elevated main floor on stilts, eaves, minimal interior partitions, a ventilated pitched roof form, and intentionally placed windows all contribute to taming the natural environment for human thermal comfort inside the home.
The natural environment and formal characteristics of the Malay house also serve to create a specific social and cultural context and way to engage with the idea of “home”. The plan layout is community-based in nature, creating open, non-partitioned spaces inside the house for families to live communally. Large trees, both natural and strategically planted, form a significant shady and cool outdoor space for social interaction, where the bulk of work would take place, and where children can play5. The elevated structure is private, as it is not on the ground level, but still open with many large windows and an open interior plan for cross ventilation, reinforcing a communal culture.
2 Toe, Doris Hooi Chyee. “Malaysia: Malay House.” In Sustainable Houses and Living in
3 Kamal, Kamarul Syahril, Lilawati Abdul Wahab and Asmalia Che Ahmad. “Climatic design
4 Toe, Doris Hooi Chyee. “Malaysia: Malay House.”
5 Kamal, Kamarul Syahril, Lilawati Abdul Wahab and Asmalia Che Ahmad. “Climatic design
of Asia, 25–35. Singapore: Springer Singapore, 2018. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-981-10-8465-2_3. design of
traditional Malay house to meet the requirements of modern living.” (2014).
traditional Malay house to meet the requirements of modern living.”
The Bãdgir (Windcatcher) Towers in Iran are a passive cooling strategy that has been used for many centuries, originating as far back as the Safavid era. The use of the bãdgir tower, and other elements of thermal climatization, are highly regional. This case study can be understood as both a thermal conditioning strategy engineered by a system of complex infrastructure to navigate the nuanced regionality the surrounding environment, but also a formal typology that is specific to each city context, carving out distinct skylines of many Iranian cities and shaping the ways that its people occupy their homes.
Bãdgirs are just one of numerous strategies employed by contemporary Iranian architects and ancient Persian planners to combat the environmental challenges of the country’s semi-arid climate. In this mountainous area, seasonal differences are stark, and temperatures can fluctuate significantly through the day. In response to this, strategies of passive “environmental modulation” 6, soil fertilization, and water management were engineered in ways that were closely tuned to the very specific natural context, which is seen in the ways that the architectural forms of these passive cooling strategies (such as the wind ventilation elements, as seen in the diagram on the right) vary even by cities in a region.
The diagram on the right illustrates the movement of wind through the bãdgir in both the night and day. It shows the use of a naturally induced ventilation method, which are used to dehumidify and cool the building alongside other strategies such as central courtyards, roof openings, strategic windows, water and vegetation, and sun shading strategies. The structure uses suction force to bring cool air into the building, and an opposite force to extract the warm air out of the building. Openings and partitions inside the tower are modulated to catch or redirect the wind, depending on context. The use of the bãdgir is different depending on the city, contributing to the formal and functional regionality of this architectural element. The formal design and application of the wind ventilation structure is based on the direction of the most prevalent wind, as well as the orientation of the building itself and the height restrictions 7. In this way, the built form of each city is keenly felt to be shaped by its environmental context.
6Hensel, Michael, Defne Sunguroğlu Hensel, Mehran Gharleghi, and Salmaan Craig. “Towards an Architectural 7Sahebzadeh, Sadra, Zahra Dalvand, Milad Sadeghfar, and Ali Heidari. “Vernacular Architecture of Iran’s
Performance: Auxiliarity, Performance and Provision in Historical Persian Architectures.” Architectural Design 82, no. 3 (2012): 26–37. https://doi.org/10.1002/ad.1402.
Elements and Strategies for a Comfortable Living Environment.” Smart and Sustainable Built Environment 9, no. 4 (2020): 573-593. https://doi.org/10.1108/SASBE-11-2017-0065. “
The Pueblo people inhabited the Four Corners region (present day Utah, Colorado, New Mexico, and Arizona) far before Spanish conquest. This urbanizing culture built cliff palaces, houses, and settlements such as Taos Pueblo, which was established almost a thousand years ago and still continuously inhabited today8. Many of the Pueblo settlements were built in what we now would call the Pueblo building form or style, which was visually characterized by a heavy, low lying blocky mass of adobe walls with small window openings.
The Pueblo “typology” of building demonstrated a close relationship with nature and its systems, formally articulated in the way the buildings seem to emerge from the earth, made of earth itself. In the diagram on the right, the architectural form is seen as fully interconnected with the rest of the natural environment and therefore all the spiritual realms. In his chapter “Understanding the Development of Pueblo Architecture” in the key historical text Pueblo Style and Regional Architecture, David Saile argues that the built form was recognized by Pueblo builders as “living”, and they would often deciding village positions that would connect to communication with the spirit world, just as irregularities such as mountains and caves were “potential passageways to the underworld” 9. This worldview is also seen in the ways that Pueblo architectural forms interacted closely with, and in turn modified, the natural environment to create a temperate shelter, or home. Often designs utilized passive cooling and climate tempering strategies such as thick adobe walls (shown in contemporary studies to be much more effective than concrete materials in keeping buildings cool by absorbing and then releasing heat in the evening 10), small windows and other openings to control solar heat, flat roofs and overhangs for shade. In this way, houses were not just homes, but spaces of potential communion with the natural and spiritual world.
“Architecture communicates. It intimates ideas about space, structure, appropriate behavior, and social responsibility. As part of experience it also modifies or reinforces these ideas. It affects and is affected by ideas about relative permanence, change, and time. Seen in this way, architecture is one of the media through which other aspects of a society act and have their substance.” (David Saile, Pueblo Style and Regional Architecture) 11. This powerful interaction of social, formal, and environmental forces in this case study is most clearly exemplified in the later-formed Pueblo Revival (included in the overarching Santa Fe style), a renaissance of the building methods, materiality, and formal and visual style of the old Pueblo “typology”. The movement was constructed in the 1930’s by white architects and Disney-like corporations in the American Southwest with hopes for an uptick in tourism 12
The diagram contrasts these two parts of the Pueblo typology’s contested history. In the Santa Fe/ Pueblo Revival diagram mirrors the Pueblo “traditional” diagram, but instead of an interconnectedness to nature and the spiritual realm, the Santa Fe Revival holds its close connections to the still existing built form of the past (exhibited in the nearby Taos Pueblo), and the Fantasy of the American Southwest 13. Instead of the architectural form holding potential channels to the spirit world, it holds channels of communications with an idea of culture and heritage that can be surprisingly malleable. In this case study, the natural environment and architectural form serve as tools for myth making, creating a myth of American heritage and Indigenous mysticism through the built form of Santa Fe Revival.
8 Blackman, Harrison. “Southwestern fantasy: Pueblo revival and regional authenticity in New Mexico.” Region.
9 Saile, David G. “Understanding the Development of Pueblo Architecture”. Pueblo Style and Regional Architecture.
10 Juarez, Roberto Ivan Cruz. “The Impact of the Use of Adobe as Masonry in the Operational and Embodied Emissions Publishing, 2023.
11
12
13 Ibid.