Roof-Roof House
The Roof-Roof House is located on the outskirts of Kuala Lumper near a rubber plantation. The place enjoys with prevailing winds that generally come from the south-east and south. As Kuala Lumper is a tropical city locating at a rather low latitude, intense solar radiation is said to be uncomfortable in certain periods. The design of the Roof-Roof House is to shade the enclosure of the building as an "anvironmental filter" that making good use of the climatic advantage and overcoming the climatic disadvantage。
In Ken Yeang’s design of the Roof-Roof House, he regarded culture as a reflection of climate. The pool, the concrete louvered roof, the sliding doors, the air-well and ventilator roof, the set back glazing, all respond to the climatic condition. And every contribution, in returns, provides an energy efficient environment that is an excellent solution to the tropical architecture, as well as his well-known "environmental filter".
The most interesting part of the Roof-Roof House is its roofs, which are covered with a louvered umbrella roof that shades the whole building - known as "umbrella architecture". The outer curved roof acts as a solar filter to the rest of the house, adn regulates the daylighting value of the House. In hot sunny afternoons, lots of the overheated sunlight is being reflected by the louvers out of the building. As amount of sunlight decrease, the House gets much less heat. On the other hand, during the mornings and the late afternoons, the louvered roof permits light penetration into the House can light up the space. Natural daylighting adjusts adequately and creates delightful scenes throughout the daytime。Moveable internal glass partitions and panels are set back to avoid the direct sun heat which may be kept inside the glass enclosure to give "green house effect". Moreover, these panels and partitions become the adjustable part that can be manipulated to control the wind flow and thus, the internal micro-climate.
To further enhance the effect brought by the wind, Yeang put a shaded swimming pool at the south end. The pool acts as a temperature regulator to control the air temperature of the breeze. It is because at the hot afternoons, water heatsup much slower, the prevailing wind entered first encounted the pool, which cool down the wind as it continues to blow into the house. On the other hand, during the cool night, water loses heat much slower, and it also warm up the prevailing wind.
