Tropical Design

TROPICAL DESIGN

1st Sem AY 2010-2011

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CLIMATE DESIGN

If A CENTRAL PURPOSE of planning is to create for any person or group of persons an environment suited to their needs, then climate must be a first consideration. It is fundamental, first, in the selection of an appropriate region for the proposed activities and then, within that region, in the selection of the most appropriate property. Once a site has been chosen, two new considerations suggest themselves. How do we best respond to the climatic givens in terms of site and structural design, and by what means can we modify the effects of climate to improve the situation?

The Planetary Framework

As an introduction to a better understanding of climate, it would be well to pause for a moment to contemplate the immensity of the universal framework that governs climatic and weather cycles.

The larger dimensions of world climate are determined and continually influenced by a number of imponderable factors, chief among which is the amount of solar radiation that the earth receives from the sun. This is the source of all terrestrial energy. It sets into motion and controls the thermal currents that sweep the oceans to their depths. It activates and determines the intensity of the sometimes mild, sometimes raging air currents of the troposphere. It sets the ponderous rhythm of glacial advances and retreats. Such phenomena are unalterable. We can only recognize the certainty of cause and effect and adapt our thinking accordingly.

Physical characteristics

Perhaps the most obvious facts of climate are the annual, seasonal, and daily ranges of temperature. These will vary with changing conditions of latitude, longitude, altitude, exposure, vegetation, and proximity to such weather modifiers as the Gulf Stream, water bodies, ice masses, or desert.

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The amount of precipitation in the form of dew, rainfall, frost, or snow is to be recorded, as well as seasonal variations in humidity. The...