Part 3
Now having a 30 metre wide lot, has enabled me to make a better design and have been working on various ideas over the last 6 months. The lot stretches in a N-S direction which has allowed me to have a house across the lot with little sun on either the front or back, and this has allowed me to put ample windows on these side and keep those on the left and right to a minimum. In order to keep the house cool, I need to use aircon at times, but because electricity is expensive here I have tried to produce a design that will keep its use to a minimum. This involves having good insulation for when the aircon is on and good airflow when it is not.
Most Philippine houses have metal roofs with, at the most, a thin foil backed foam layer beneath it. This allows the attic to get unnecessarily hot; the heat then passes through the thin plywood ceilings to the rooms below. If you question this, you are told to make the ceilings high so the heat stays above head height. Surely it is better to prevent the heat from entering the room in the first place and have a lower ceiling to give less air for the aircon to cool. I would like to use Clay or concrete tiles as they are more effective than metal sheets, but are heavier and more expensive. This may be a compromise I will have to make. I also want ridge vents or some other form of top vent plus eve vents to allow a cooling airflow beneath the hot roof. I also feel that it is necessary for a layer of insulation to be placed on top of the ceiling.
For airflow, I have tried to design a house that is only one room deep with windows on opposite sides to allow unrestricted flow through all parts of the house. This led originally to a basic ‘U’ shaped design. For design ideas I looked at Spanish and Mexican houses and particularly liked some of the features found in the Mission style houses found in the southern US. I have included an ‘Arcade’ (covered patio) a feature often found on these designs. The shallow pitch roof, arched doors and windows are also typical of these designs. I have included a tower from some of the Spanish designs, which acts as a hot air vent for most of the rooms that surround it. This tower contains the stairs, which are a feature in the entrance hall/family/TV room. I have placed a ‘Crow’s nest’ on top of the tower to catch the high level breezes. This will also house the main cold water tank. I am considering the idea of placing a solar water panel on the adjacent roof to gravity feed a hot water cylinder there, but it does depend on the overall total cost.
Here are some pictures of the proposed design, more to follow.
Front view
Rear view
Some people have described this as a mansion, but it looks big because it is stretched out to follow my \'one room deep\' idea. It has a total area of 318 square metres
Continued in part 4
Topic: Building our house in the Philippines (Read 112317 times)