Geographical latitude determines the climates
of a location on a macro level;
however, the altitude of the land and the orientation
of slopes always influence the local climate.
Montane climates are complex due to these factors.
For example, in the deep river gorges
in the Himalayan mountain region,
where limited sunlight reaches the riverbanks,
people struggle to get much sunlight and find living spaces.
In these highlands, there are seldom enough
flat surfaces for houses to spread horizontally,
and the houses tend to be three or four storeys tall,
with stepped roofs to receive maximum amount of sunlight.
They provide flat surfaces
for drying food and insulating heat.
Japan is situated in the maritime climatic zone
and this linearity of the territory
stretches from the snow-bound Hokkaido in the north
to the typhoon-vulnerable Kyushu in the south.
It is controlled by the alternation
of summer and winter monsoons.
Different regions have their own
house types and structural forms.
However, in general, its traditional
timber-framed domestic dwelling type
is normally thinly insulated with external walls,
which are covered with clay and interlaced
with timber panels and paper shoji screens.
The most obvious insulation components
are the raised flooring made out of clay
and wooden panels and the thick thatched roofing.
The use of these common building materials
throughout Japan signifies that climate
is not the determinant factor,
but rather their traditional religious belief.
If we think about the Japanese house,
the Japanese house is built out of wood,
the traditional Japanese house
is built out of a solid wooden frame
with walls in between the frame
that can be anything, they can be
solid mud and have some thickness,
they can be very thin, like paper,
they can be wooden slats, and all of these
are found in traditional Japanese houses.
In general, though, I mean, Japan has,
or large parts of Japan, have very cold winters
and hot and humid summers.
Now, the buildings are not
suitable for both of these climates.
The buildings are optimized as buildings
much more for the summer than for the winter,
because they're raised up on wooden posts,
air flow goes through them very easily,
big overhanging roofs,
and that's really a summer condition.
Wintertime, in order for those
to be optimized for the winter,
the buildings would have to be
big solid walls, and they don't have that.
They tend to be much lighter outer walls.
So, what happens in the winter
is much more of a response to the climate
that doesn't have to do with the building,
but it has much more to do
with how people live in the building.
This shows the typical
layout of the minka.
Usually the minka is put at the center of the site,
and is surrounded by storage and a toilet
and those things, and the house
is usually faced to the south side.
Trees are planted on the north side.
It's because the, (in) many parts of Japan,
the cold winter is a harsh climate condition
so that the trees can protect the house.
One of the monks, and an essayist, is called
Yoshida Kenko, wrote an essay called Ture-dure-gusa.
He wrote in the essay that a house
should be designed for the summer,
although we can manage the coldness of winter,
the humid heat of the summer in a bad house is intolerable.
So the house, generally, is designed for the summer.
You can see that the image in the right,
the opening with the full-height sliding screens
can provide good ventilation for the living room,
and the long eaves of the house
can protect the living room from the direct sunlight,
and also the left-side image, you can see the raised floor,
so that the air can ventilate underneath of the flooring.
Subtropical climates are humid and warm.
In fact, you'll find high levels of humidity
in subtropical regions throughout the year,
especially during the summer.
An example of how people try to adjust to such climates
to achieve a comfortable living environment
is the whitewashed walls in the houses and gardens
in the subtropical Suzhou China.
In these areas, annual precipitation is high.
It rains nonstop in the spring and summer seasons.
Therefore, it is typical that whitewashed
lime plaster walls, and stone column bases
and wall skirtings are found in houses and gardens
because lime helps to absorb moisture,
whereas stone helps to stop the rising damp.
Well, we have to make the distinction
between a hot and humid climate
and a hot and dry climate, because the optimal materials
in each of these are quite different, of course.
In a hot and humid climate, it's often better
to have a thin wall, which can accomodate
airflow through the wall,
and still shade the interior.
In a hot and dry climate, it might be better
to have a solid wall,
because in hot and dry climates
it tend to be colder during the night,
and so you want to store up the heat
during the day, and let that heat
be gradually released during the night
and then by morning,
you know, the building is cool.
That's why, at the same time, you find
the fenestration, the windows that are large and small,
has direct relationship to those hot
and wet climate versus a hot and dry climate.
In a hot and dry climate,
you often want smaller windows,
and in a hot and wet climate,
you want larger windows that you can open
and let the air flow through.
So each climate has its own optimal relationship
and what's interesting is that somehow,
the materials that are chosen,
the materials that are used, tend to go along
with what's actually needed in the particular place.
This is a hot and humid climate,
and here, the idea as it is in many places
in Southeast Asia, is to allow the walls to be open,
so that the breeze will come through the house.
What's interesting in these houses is that
even interior space is divided in a way
where the walls don't necessarily go
all the way up to the ceiling,
where the walls are acting as space dividers,
but also allowing for air to go through.
So, they're not blocking the flow of air.
And the ground floor is also open so that
all sides of the house can be cooled
by the movement of air.
Likewise, here, where that addition is made
with a metal roof,
rather than a thatched roof,
but still, the open area underneath the house,
to allow for airflow.