At The Hamlet Theur, the home design follows the principles of Passive Solar Architecture. So that your home is not just luxurious, but also environmentally responsible. Consideration is given to the Sun’s path and it’s azimuth through the year, the flow of wind, the shading provided by foliage and the location and size of water bodies.
The materials used are carefully selected for more than just their aesthetics. The walls insulate the home from heat and moisture, the windows are designed to take in light but exclude heat. Even the fittings and fixtures are chosen for their ability to conserve energy and water.
Passive Solar building design aims at slowing the rate of heat transfer into a building, and improving the removal of unwanted heat. It involves a good understanding of the mechanisms of heat transfer: heat conduction, convective heat transfer, and thermal radiation, primarily from the sun.
Theur is situated at Latitude 18°30’N. Therefore for the most part of the year, except for a few days between the end of June and early July, the Sun rises in the East and swings through the South to set in the West. The South faces of buildings are subject to the heaviest intensity of Solar heat radiation and need the design of the structure must afford the most protection in that direction. At the same time the Northern and Eastern faces of the structure can have large windows for natural illumination.
The movement of wind is used for passive cooling through intelligent location of windows and vents. This allows utilisation of the natural circulation of outdoor breeze. The buildings are oriented to create zones of positive and negative pressure on the windward and leeward sides respectively. The resultant push-pull effect that increases the velocity of the wind passing through the structure.This increased velocity is used for evacuation of hot air inside the building through vents located on higher floors. Since warm air rises, vents located at high points in the interior will allow warm air to escape while cooler outdoor air flows in through low vents to replace it.
The presence of Trees and shrubs has a large role to play in controlling the micro climatic conditions around the building structure. Trees prevent direct sunlight from hitting the building and increasing the temperature of the structure. Low level shrubs and grasses prevent reflected sunlight from heating the structure and play a very important role in controlling the level of humidity, which also has a reducing effect upon the amount of dust particles in the vicinity of the structure. Studies have shown that ambient air temperature in the vicinity of shaded walls is 2° to 2.5° Celsius cooler than air temperature along unshaded walls.Water bodies around the structure soak up a significantly large amount of heat through evaporative cooling, and act like heat sinks during extreme weather.
As the world gets set to face the challanges of climate change, one of the things in our arsenal in the fight to come will be solar passive design. We at The Hamlet Theur are committed to doing our bit for the greatest challange that humanity has ever faced.