Tips To Create Airy And Breathable Spaces In Our Hot And Humid Tropical Climate

Architects and interior designers share tips and thoughts on best practices and design strategies to create airy and breathable spaces in our hot and humid tropical climate.

I think the aircon is one of the greatest inventions in the 20th-century,” says Rene Tan, founder and principal architect of RT+Q Architects. He is joking, he says, but this is true for a great many denizens of Singapore, especially on a sweltering day, where we can’t wait to take refuge inside the nearest air-conditioned room. Nonetheless, aircon should be used sparingly to control the indoor climate of your home. The MVP should be your home’s ventilation system, allowing air to flow through your space, creating a breathable space.

“To use the word “breathable” to describe ventilation of spaces tells how vital it is,” says Quck Zhong Yi, architect and partner at Asolidplan. “If a space can’t breathe, its occupants stifle.” Building or renovating a house with a well-working ventilation system will save so much energy, both literally and figuratively, in the long run.

There are two kinds of ventilation systems: natural and mechanical. Natural ventilation is an airflow through openings, such as windows or doors, induced by a pressure difference between inside and outside the building, facilitating passive cooling (a term you might have heard), while mechanical ventilation is an airflow controlled by specific devices. We asked architect and interior designer friends to weigh in with tips and case studies.

THINGS TO CONSIDER Natural, Mechanical or Hybrid?