Passive cooling & local materials
High‑engagement design threads are pushing passive cooling strategies—orientation, shaded glazing, courtyards, cross‑ventilation and greenery—to cut overheating without mechanical cooling. Indian projects are highlighted for local, low‑carbon builds: a Thiruvananthapuram house using bricks and waste wood, and Wallmakers’ rammed earth plus recycled wood and coconut shell schemes. (x.com) (x.com)
The Thiruvananthapuram project identified in the thread is the Pirouette House by architect Vinu Daniel, which experiments with a vertical “rat‑trap” brick bond that creates air cavities for insulation rather than traditional solid courses. (thebetterindia.com (thebetterindia.com)) The scheme’s dramatic, slanted “dancing walls” are intentionally angled to channel prevailing breezes through stacked openings, a form move credited with reducing the home’s reliance on concrete by roughly 40% compared with conventional local builds. (thebetterindia.com (thebetterindia.com)) Wallmakers’ projects expand this approach at multiple scales: their Debris House uses rammed earth walls made from on‑site soil and a spiraled “debris” wall that defines a central courtyard, deliberately shaping wind paths into living spaces. (inhabitat.com (inhabitat.com)) That same project replaces portions of conventional slab concrete with a coconut‑shell filler — described in drawings and reports as a “filler slab” — to lower embodied cement while keeping structural spans intact. (wallmakers.org (wallmakers.org)) Wallmakers’ Chuzhi residence further demonstrates passive performance: the rammed‑earth mass is embedded into a rocky site and its sinuous plan snakes around trees to preserve shade, a configuration critics say stabilizes interior temperatures through thermal inertia. (dezeen.com (dezeen.com)) Vinu Daniel and Wallmakers’ work has received international attention for this material reuse ethos — Daniel won Wallpaper*’s Best Earth Builder recognition in 2023 — and several projects document integrated water features and storage (a cited Wallmakers house lists a 35m3 rainwater tank) that support evaporative cooling strategies. (wallpaper.com (wallpaper.com)) (volzero.com (volzero.com))
