The House was Rotated to Achieve Better Solar Orientation | Bernaung House

ByMyProperty Life

Bernaung means the act of sheltering, the DNA that was imprinted within the inhabitants of the tropical belt long before we embraced the concept of a house. The name emphasizes how easy it is to live in the tropics and that achieving sustainability is nothing more than attaining comfort with the minimum required energy. The design aims to reorganize all user activities during the day and cycle them within a giant roof hovering above.

The atrium, as the centerpiece of the house, acts both as a visual guide and a wind chimney, ensuring a cross and stacked effect for natural ventilation.

Read another article:Design Trends for Creating a Vacation Vibe at Home

Stretching diagonally across the site, the design intends to visually connect the elongated garden on all sides and enable the view of the sky at both ends of the building. The design seeks to frame the surrounding greenery from within and create the illusion of more spacious garden homes within the bustling urban context of Tanggerang. The internal ceiling of the roof is clad with monochrome timber, serving as an open canvas for natural shadow play during the day and framing the lighting element within the interior spaces as a facade for the night.

The house design was rotated to achieve a total north-south orientation to optimize natural light while minimizing the exposure to heat entering the building. The central point of the roof, which was subtracted for skylights and ventilation to release hot air, was also twisted, redirecting direct heat from the northwest penetrating vertically into the atrium. An experiment on a wide-span structure for a single-story house with a mezzanine was chosen to demonstrate the importance of creating a microclimate on a mere 400-square-meter site packed in dense, repetitive developer houses.

Filled with layers of diagonal walls and sandwiched within micro gardens, the design aims to optimize the rounded passive design – playing with different air openings and levels of air pressure, and light play at different hours of the day – which are the strengths of living in the tropics to achieve comfort with minimal energy.

Read another article:Hot Trends: 20 Best Farmhouse Style Kitchens in White and Wood

Credits:

Project: Bernaung House
Location: Tanggerang, Indonesia
Architects: RAD+ar (Research Artistic Design + architecture)
Area: 400 m²
Year: 2022
Photographs: William Sutanto
Manufacturers: Asahi Glass Company, Daikin, Mulia, Toto

Similar Posts

  • Collingwood Residence

    Situated on Bowen Island’s West Coast, the Collingwood Residence is located on a private 10 acre lot surrounded by forest. The home is divided into three buildings, connected by the glass breezeways, as an intentional separation of public and private spaces. The breezeways which separate the buildings afford views to the ocean as you approach the house. Social experiences are centered around the open kitchen, dining, and living space located in the central building, while the master and guest suites are located in the buildings to either side. Floor to ceiling sliding glass doors in the kitchen and dining spaces can be opened to extend the living space outdoors to the covered patio with views to the ocean. The local material selection is reflective of the home’s west coast setting: cedar shingles clad the exterior, while the natural stone grounds the home firmly on its site. The large cantilevered dual-pitch roofs with cedar soffits and exposed structure, reflect the traditional forms of the remote cabin, while they are given a contemporary feel with crisply detailed zinc fascias. The building is highly insulated and airtight to limit the need for energy usage throughout the year. Appliances were carefully selected for energy efficiency and low water consumption. Large low-e coated windows and overhangs are sited to maximize solar gain in the winter months whilst preventing overheating in the summer.