Sunlight and Sun Heat in Tropical Climate

Buildings in tropical area has to be adapted with the tropical characteristic to perform well as a shelter. Fail to do so will make the building needs more energy to make it comfortable. Like for lighting and air conditioning. One of the tropical climate characteristic is its abundant sunlight that comes almost all year.


The abundant sunlight provides us with natural source for lighting. So it is good to make numbers of windows around the building to let the sunlight enter the building. However it has to be keep in mind that sunlight also brings more heat and too much lighting can cause discomfort. So it is suggested that we stay in moderate size of windows and opening.


We often see a building with the wall entirely made of glass. Such building is common in subtropical climate with 4 seasons to maximize natural lighting. But despite its appealing modern look, such building is not suitable for tropical climate. Sunlight in tropical area will create enourmus heat inside the room radiates through glass. So in turn it requires a large amount of cooling from air conditioning.










In tropical area such as Indonesia, the sun moves from east to west with 23.5 degree deviation each to north and south. For this reason, it is the best to make windows opening facing north/south direction. Windows facing east and moreover west direction without any obstruction will receive too much direct sunlight, and makes the room too hot

The principle to tackle the problem of heat that comes with the sunlight is to create as much shadow area as possible. This can be obtained by various ways making One solution is to make long roof overhang or creating porch which is a common practice in tropical houses. Another solution is putting solar screen in front of the window or opening which creates some sort of curtain to reduce direct sunlight.

A building that is suitable for tropical climate doesn't have to look old fashioned and traditional. Here is some example of award winning houses that is modern as well as suitable for tropical climate

A house by Alex Santoso uses long overhang to shelter the large windows from direct sunlight.

a house by Willis Kusuma uses transparent overhang and variation of wall recess to create shadow area to give the windows more shelter from sunlight

a house by Andra Matin has a series of solar screen that gives the building a distinctive looks

a house by Sukendro Sukandra uses a series of solar screen that looks like a curtain

(images came from Skala+ magazine)