ABSTRACT
The tradition of ‘Natural Cooling’, which incorporates a range of design responses to climate, has its origins in Egypt, where frescoes from the 13th century BC depict buildings with a ‘malqaf’ used to help ventilate and cool the interior. The natural cooling of buildings developed, based on an understanding of seasonal and diurnal changes in the local climate, and through a process of trial and error, to provide relief from the extreme heat of summer. The intense dry heat and dust of the summer in north India calls for the creation of an internal ‘refuge’ or haven from the extremes of the external world. In comparison with the hot dry summer conditions of north-west India, the warm humid summer conditions of south-west China prompted another response to promote convective cooling. The fishing village of Zhouzhuang is located at the junction of two large lakes about 30km south-east of Souzhou, and west of Shanghai.
