Mosman 3: DOMUS

Project 3:Domus (MOSMAN 3)

Our team , (Munya,Ilya and Kartina) has decided to choose the "hot-dry" climate . The reason why this climate was chosen is because it is challenging and from our different cultural background, we have never experienced living in a desert environment before.

Week 7 Progress

For the first week of this project, we were asked to analyse our climate zone.

Characteristics of Hot-dry

• Summers are hot, and it seldom rains.
• Winter days are cool and warm, however winter nights are ultimately cold
• The air is dry
• Intense sunshine and little cloud
• Glare is a problem in this climate
• Big difference between day and night temperature.

We've discovered that there were a lot of constraints in designing a house in this particular climate. So we've decided each of the problem into several solutions.


Problem 1: Intense Sunshine

• The intensity of the sun in this area is quite high, therefore when building a roof, we need pale surfaces to reflect the sun. This does not only apply to roofs, but also to other surfaces like walls,etc.

• For windows, we did a research on the sun angle and we've discovered that the sun angle during winter days is 48'C and during summer days is 94'C. With this discovery we now know where we should place our windows and how far the eaves should go in order to block overexposed sunlight. We've also discovered that we should consider of having small north windows set high under the eaves. However, there is an disadvantage to this, because smaller windows would reduce night ventilation.

• Vegetation is also required to be planted around the house.

• The use of solar panel is highly recommended in this climate.
  

Problem 2: Low humidity of air

• Water features such as fountains and little garden pools are beneficial, if water supply permits.
• It is advisable to have a lot of plants around the house so that the house will have a natural evaporative cooling effect from the plants.

Problem 3: Large temperature difference during the day/night

• Bedrooms should be of lighter construction, so they cool quickly at night
• Areas other than bedrooms should be of heat storage materials (concrete, bricks) so that it will keep the room at a lower temperature during the day.