To continue our vacation inspired podcasts (see our retirement episode inspired by Larry’s trip to Colorado), today we’d like to talk about designing buildings for a specific climate. It’s a fundamental part of what we do as architects, but it’s not something that we encounter on a daily basis in the built environment. Big box stores, steel and glass skyscrapers, and most speculative development projects all tend to ignore the surrounding environment and climate conditions of their particular sites in favor of overpowering any obstacle to their existence by artificial or mechanical means. For example, the cities of Phoenix and Las Vegas wouldn’t exist without large air conditioning systems and without pumping water from hundreds of miles away to sustain their communities. There have been very few instances where I have experienced a building designed to fit into the local climate rather than existing to constantly fight the local conditions.

What do I mean by not fighting the local environment? I’ll give an awesome example from my vacation. We are staying in rural Florida at an old ranch house, and at first glance, it just looks like any other house in the middle of nowhere. But the first thing that really caught my eye that said there was more to the house were the 3/4” long mosquitos. So the environment is middle of nowhere Florida swamps which means heat, humidity, rain, the occasional hurricane, and way too many bugs (especially for October).And as we’ve been living here, I’ve seen 3 distinct design decisions for the house that really tickled the architecture part of my brain. First, the house is L-shaped with the interior elbow of the house facing east and south. Most of the doors, windows, and patios are here. This is important because it orients the house and major openings in the house to catch any breezes coming off the ocean which is a thirty minute drive from the house. The second design element that stood out to me is the window and door placement. Not only are the placed correctly to catch any ocean winds, but they are also placed with the big openings from sliding doors and large windows on two sides of the house and smaller windows on the other two sides. This placement of large on one side and small on the other takes advantage of the Venturi effect which magnifies any existing breezes in a space. So we also have improved air flow.

The last feature, and to me the most valuable, are the covered patios and entrances. Every exterior door has a large patio completely enclosed with bug screens, and the patios were part of the original house and not added on to after the fact. This has two benefits. First it keeps all the bugs out, and second it provides much needed shade to major parts of the building. In total, the house really responds well to the given environment. It captures natural sea breezes with the shape of the building. The windows and doors are properly sized and placed to take advantage of any wind, and the patios are deep and screened to protect the house from bugs and sun. The building still has a wonderful AC system, but it’s not 100% dependent on it to inform the design choices.

Now contrast that with most buildings we encounter on a daily basis. Grocery stores, big box stores, and most local development rely on powerful AC systems to keep people inside happy and healthy. And most spec home development will totally ignore the little things like strategically placed screened in porches in favor of maximizing interior square footage that prioritizes profit rather than add to the comfort and enjoyment of whoever would be buying the house. It has become a rare thing to walk around an average neighborhood building and find that someone actually took the time to consider where they were building. These types of small design considerations can really improve the quality of building for the inhabitants and demonstrate that we actually care what gets built around town.