Climate and Architecture in Asia: Regional Design Responses

Introduction: Climate as the Foundation of Architecture

Asia, the largest continent on the planet, is as diverse as it is vast. Several climatic regions exist across the continent, and concurrently several cultures have been able to co-exist with one another. History suggests that culture is often defined by climate. The food people eat, the clothes they wear, and the lifestyle and livelihood of communities are all directly dependent on the weather and climate of their region.

The architecture of a region is also directly dependent on its climate. Architecture is closely tied to the people and to the way people think about building houses and other structures. People build houses primarily to stay safe from the elements — whether cold, heat, or rain. Therefore, the type of house people build depends on the climate of the region. This has been the historic relationship between climate and architecture in every region of the world.

Architectural culture develops directly from weather conditions and indirectly from the broader culture of a region. For example, a culture with a strong tradition of art will incorporate aesthetic considerations alongside functional weather protection in its building designs. This paper examines how the varying climates of Asia have affected the culture and architecture of the continent's various regions. Ensuring that buildings stand firm and provide protection against the elements is the primary aim of the technical side of an architect's work.

The Climatic Regions of Asia

There are several climatic regions in Asia. The continent extends from the Middle Eastern countries in the west to Japan in the east, and to Mongolia and parts of the former Russian Federation in the north. Weather and climate vary significantly across this enormous geographic range.

The weather in most western regions of Asia is dry and arid. In some parts it resembles desert conditions — dry and hot for most of the year. Other sub-regions experience extreme temperature variation, with very hot days and very cold nights.

A major portion of the Asian continent experiences a hot and humid equatorial climate. Temperatures for most of the year remain around 30 degrees Celsius, accompanied by heavy rainfall and high humidity. This has had a profound effect on local culture and architecture.

Certain areas — particularly those along the China Sea and the Indian Ocean — are prone to seasonal hurricanes and typhoons. Architecture in these regions has a distinct character, with the primary aim of keeping out violent and inclement weather whenever it strikes.

The Relationship Between Climate and Architecture

Other regions of Asia, such as parts of the Himalayan range countries and Japan, are subject to regular earthquakes. The culture, and especially the architecture, of such regions is very closely tied to safety from seismic threats.

Some regions, particularly in northern Asia, face cold weather for most of the year. The lifestyle of people in these areas is organised around combating harsh weather, and the architecture is correspondingly designed to resist and exclude cold and inclement conditions.

Climate produces a number of easily observed effects on architectural form. There are many examples of such climatic influences across the regions of Asia. For instance, as one moves toward the equator, the ratio of window area to wall area diminishes. People in warm areas shun the glare and heat of the sun, which is evident from the decreasing size of windows (Shaw, Pulhin, and Pereira, 2010).

Architecture for Arid Zones in Asia

To address problems caused by excessive heat — for example in subtropical and tropical zones — more distinctive changes in architectural form are found. Deep loggias, projecting balconies, and overhangs that cast long shadows on building walls are characteristic of hot-region architecture in countries such as Egypt, Iraq, India, and Pakistan. Another notable feature is the use of wooden or marble lattices that fill large openings, subduing solar glare while allowing breezes to pass through and cool the interior. Beyond generating physical comfort, such architectural strategies also achieve a degree of aesthetic satisfaction (Nazafati Namin, 2012).

The architectural form and fabric of sustainable architecture and living style are significantly affected by climate, as the above discussion demonstrates. The indigenous architectural styles of various regions in Asia are more strongly influenced by environment and climate than by national frontiers and boundaries.

The arid, dry, and hot regions of Asia exhibit a distinctly predominant similarity in their basic building forms, regardless of national boundaries. The overriding aim of this architectural style is to exclude hot and inclement weather and create a comfortable interior environment. This basic architectural logic is consistent across arid and dry regions of Asia (Mofidi, 2007). Key design features include:

Introverted building morphology in the form of a courtyard or atrium, which reduces heat and promotes air circulation throughout the building complex. Internal open spaces constructed to reduce the ratio of exterior surface to interior volume, allowing walls to absorb the minimum amount of outside heat. Rooms arranged around the courtyard to enable the circulation of cooler air and the drainage of hot air during the night.

In modern architecture across these regions, multi-storey buildings are designed to minimise sun exposure during the day while maximising the circulation of cool air inside the building at night. This is achieved partly through the use of reflective exterior surfaces that deflect solar radiation and its associated heat (Rajapaksha and Hyde, 2012). Such measures are implemented even in buildings equipped with air conditioning, because the architectural design itself promotes greater efficiency in air circulation within the functional spaces, reducing the overall cooling load and maintaining a more pleasant interior environment.

For many modern structures in arid zones, architects frequently design roofs in the shape of domes and vaults for enclosed and semi-open spaces. This increases the volume of trapped air and thereby improves insulation, while simultaneously contributing an aesthetic element to the construction (Mofidi, 2007). The use of rough exterior building surfaces is another technique employed to decrease heat gain and increase contact with passing air movement, helping occupants remain comfortable.

Conclusion

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