Spend five minutes in a tropical city, and you’ll be running into the nearest air-conditioned place quickly. In some Asian countries, air conditioning is increasingly being considered a necessity. But one architecture firm T3 Architecture Asia is trying to use a different way to keep cool. It has offices in Vietnam and France, and specializes in “bioclimatic architecture”. By making use of the climate and vegetation, the firm can naturally create a comfortable indoor climate.
In cooperation with the World Bank, T3 Architecture Asia built an affordable apartment building in Vietnam, which houses 350 families in a neighborhood where people don’t need to spend money on air conditioning in hot days.
Covered with open-air, ventilated roofs, fiber-glass insulation and the use of natural materials make the building both light and ventilated.
“We try to avoid big glass walls facing east or west, because that would make the building like an oven,” said the designer. “If you work with the main wind stream and smart sun protection, you really can design buildings that need no air conditioning in a hot place.”
A typical bioclimatic T3 building is naturally about 22℃ cooler than the outside temperature, with the ceiling fans doing the rest of the work. Since that first project, the firm has built several luxury bioclimatic hotels, a concept restaurant, and even its own green office for the T3 team.
In China, an American architecture firm took a bioclimatic way to the new Shanghai Natural History Museum. While the building provides air conditioning in gallery areas to protect the artworks from humidity, it also has automated windows and skylights to naturally ventilate public areas. The museum saves 15% on energy consumption compared to a standard-design museum.