Evaluating the influence of passive design techniques of warm and humid climate in a traditional building at Chennai

Abstract

In recent years, traditional buildings have gained significant attention from a number of dwellers. In a country like India, a considerable part of the county experiences warm and humid weather and such tropical conditions pose a significant challenge from a sustainable perspective. The principles of vernacular architecture and its contribution to the world of architecture have evolved. While active and passive design strategies are the best possible solutions, taken up by architects to design the traditional buildings, the current research paper takes a context-driven passive design strategy to provide the best possible comfort for the inhabitants of warm and humid climates using a traditional building design. The study identified temperature, ventilation, materials and the construction techniques as the major factors that influence design strategies, which aim at providing thermal comfort to the users. In this study, a case building was evaluated through context-driven analysis. The data was collected through field study and surveys. Then, the collected data was consolidated and analysed. The findings reveal that spatial planning, materials and the construction techniques driven by the context altogether impact the environment positively.