Domus Research

To come up with a smart solution to this brief, we understood that we would have to research a great deal into climatic factors, which before this project we have been relatively unexposed to.
The lessons we can learn from tradition peoples is often underestimated, and their ability to create buildings suited specifically to their climate, using locally sourced materials and having low environmental impacts would become the inspiration to our solution.

By reading Hassan Fathy's Natural Energy and Vernacular Architecture, University of Chicago Press, Chicago, 1986, we gained a great understanding of the issues needed to be addressed such as Radiation, Emissivity, Absorptivity, Reflectivity, Thermal Convection, Atmospheric Pressure, Water Vapour, Thermal Gain, Thermal Loss, the sun factor and Dynamic Thermal Equilibrium, which we otherwise would have had little understanding of. Fathy's book gave solutions of which we adopted many and developed furthed. He covered appropriate building materials, shading, facades, openings and roofs and how we can create air movement using the wind, pressure differential and by convection. He introduced in depth the genius techniques, civilizations developed over centuries of experimentation which have now become scientifically admired. Techniques such as the Claustrum, the Malqaf, the Badgir, the Takhtabush, internal courtyards and he scientifically explains why and how they work.