Revitalizing Tropical Living Spaces

Hey Archi enthusiasts! It has been a while since I have been here. These days I’ve been mostly studying about building and designing a house in the tropics. I am really compelled with the idea because now that I have a building and a plot to work on, I decided to learn more about designing the best optimal living space that is comfortable for the people who live in it including myself.

While I know the trend is still demanding on the Scandinavian and minimalist look but these days along with 2024 that it appears putting biophilic design first, I find it to be resonating with the tropical living. In the past, I wanted to renovate the house with a minimalist look and have them follow Scandinavian design principles and tear down almost 90% of the building. But these days, with my first year living in the house and experiencing extreme heat, I wanted to make it more airy.

The house was designed by my late grandfather with a high ceiling and incorporates artificial stone carving inside. It has had a few renovations throughout the year. When I was a kid, we used to have a fish pond near the living space. I thought about lowering down the ceiling before but I intend to keep it that way with adding more exposed ceiling. As you can see they only have one part that has the glass roof tile. So, adding one more would add natural light and the fun part about the house is that in some months, we can even see the moon shine above us.

Another part about renovation that comes to mind is basically changing the living area by fixing the current wall. An inspiration that I have is basically from this video where it has different leveling from the other areas of the house as well as places to store perhaps family pictures or small plants.

I find that video also interesting because the layout of my house is similar like that except we have a lot more staircase and misplaced bathroom. So, changing it to only have one stairs and replacing it with a swimming pool would be a great idea to have. But that is still up to debate because my mom also wants to have a guest room where family/friends can comfortably stay in our little nook.

The house also has some ventilation but they just need a little cleaning and maintenance. So, it’s not the part that I would be changing too much rather just cleaning it. They also need another repaint because the last time was many years ago.

We are now focusing on my room and I am already done with the cleaning phase. The room needs a little repaint and some minor fixes especially with the ventilation. So, once I fully move in, everything will be ready and I’ll just have to occupy the place without thinking about cleaning it again.

This is going to be a two year project of mine. It’s almost like I am paying a mortgage but it all goes to designing a space that I would love to enjoy for half of the year or something esp when I am back in the country.

I am also a lot less demanding with my choices because I realize how climate is an important factor when deciding a design of a space. I have been to many spaces that don’t consider the climate of their areas/land and it was not too comfortable being inside. The materials are also something that needs to be considered because in tropical areas with heavy rain, there are some things that need to be avoided. I also think optimizing on maintenance would be my focus too. So, see you in my next progress which might take a while!