Street Context

ELEMENT:

The effect of the surrounding build environment on the Healthy Home.

AIM:

The Healthy Home is located four blocks west of the Pacific Ocean. A mixture of building types from high rise to low rise apartments surround the house. In the immediate area buildings can be up to five storeys in height. Whilst overshadowing from surrounding buildings is not an issue, access to the breeze is reduced due to the positions of these buildings.

In dense urban areas the high proportion of "hard surfaces" and the decrease in landscape vegetation causes an increase in local air temperatures. This is due to the surfaces absorbing the heat from the sun and radiating it back to the immediate environment.

The two storey buildings adjacent to the house and significant landscape objects cause the prevailing breeze to be redirected. The house has been designed to accommodate these local conditions in order to make the best use of the natural breeze available.

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