As a group we selected the hot-dry climate zone (desert).This was a hot zone that experienced warm winters (arid).The site can be found 200km south of the Fitzroy Crossing in WA,located in the Great Sandy Desert.
We decided that the live-work envelope should cater for only 3 people such that we could make it relative to ourselves as a group.
In our first group session we essentially explored the relationships between buildings and their environment in terms of climate,landscape & culture.The central issue we would have to overcome in relation to our climate zone was diurnal flux (day/night temps 0-50 degrees Celsius) ,to ensure that our design was in fact 'comfortable' and hence liveable .In particular we looked at desert vegetation,Islamic and African architecture,right down to the clothing worn by denizens of arid climates, to give some initial context to the site.We then tried to adapt these back to the Australian context we were working with.
The major stress of our climate was the summer daytime heat.Thus in order to escape from the hot summer days our dwelling should try to exclude this hot outdoor daytime environment altogether by
-being a low,squat dwelling to the ground (insulation)
-having heat collector/barrier or thermal chimney (hot air rises)
-having a central axis courtyard living
-windscoope & water feature (evaporative cooling)
-going underground
-roofs encounter great solar gains from the sun directly overhead ,thus must be well insulated
-small windows
-any external wall to be made of thick,heavy materials as light weight materials cannot store a sufficient quality of cool from the previous night to be significant and thick to ensure that any cool pulse be delayed to arrive indoors during the hottest part of the afternoon.
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