The House Design: What Worked and What Didn't

No.052 — Read old posts on Tinyfarmlab.com
Reading Time 4 minutes

We often reflect on the question:

What would we do differently if we could rebuild the house?

They say, “If everything goes perfectly the first time, you probably haven’t learned anything.”

For us, it was far from perfect—and that’s where the learning happened.

We built the mud house in Rishikesh, which has a humid subtropical climate. Although it’s in the Himalayas, the village sits at a low elevation of just 450 meters.

Let’s talk about the climate of Rishikesh:

• Summer highs used to average around 40°C (104°F)

• Winter lows drop to about 7°C

  However, this year brought unexpected challenges, with daytime temperatures peaking at 45°C and nighttime temperatures staying around 35°C instead of the usual 24°C.

The House Design: What Worked and What Didn't

We designed the house using passive solar techniques:

• Proper orientation

• Skylight to allow heat to escape

• Trees on the southern side for shade

• Larger overhangs for sun protection

• Living roof for insulation

• Adding straw in cob for insulation

• Providing ventilator pipes at multiple places high on the wall

These features helped, but not enough to handle the extreme heat we faced this year.

The 18- to 24-inch thick cob walls did a great job keeping the house cool during the day, with an estimated 10°C temperature drop inside. But the high unusual nighttime temperatures made it uncomfortable.

The concept of thermal mass—where cob absorbs heat during the day and releases it at night, where it will be cooled naturally by the winds and dropping temperature.

This worked well in theory but didn’t perform as expected because this summer nighttime air stayed warm.

We learned that we should have planned for even more extreme temperatures—about 5°C higher and lower than we originally anticipated.

What We Should Have Done Differently

Here are 7 things we should have incorporated to make the house more resilient to climate changes:

1) Provide a Covered Passage on the Southwestern Side with Screens
The southwest walls received the most intense evening sun.

A covered passage with screens would have blocked direct sunlight while allowing airflow. This would have reduced heat buildup on the walls during the hottest time of the day.

2) Add a Porch as an Outdoor Room with Vines
A porch would have created a shaded outdoor living space and served as a buffer against heat. By growing vines on the porch, the dense foliage would block the harsh summer sun, keeping the walls cool.

However, vines would lose their leaves in the winter, allowing the low-angled winter sun to reach the walls, naturally warming the house when it’s most needed.

3) Add More Insulation with Clay Slip Straw Walls on Western Walls
While cob provides excellent thermal mass, additional insulation like clay slip straw with a plaster finish would slow down heat transfer even more, keeping the house cooler during the day and warmer during cold nights.

4) Install More Ventilators in the Attic
Hot air rises, so adding more ventilators in the attic would allow trapped hot air to escape more effectively, preventing heat buildup and promoting better air circulation inside the house, especially during the night.

The idea is to allow the hot air to be replaced by cooler air faster.

5) Incorporate an Earth air tunnel from the Lower Terrace into the Bedroom
A wind tunnel is designed to cool the air and bring fresh air directly into the bedroom.

This natural ventilation would make the house more comfortable during hot nights by increasing airflow.

6) Add a Water Body and Trees to Cool the Surrounding Area
A small water body near the house, as originally planned, would have helped cool the surrounding air through evaporative cooling.

Combined with strategically planted trees, the water and foliage would lower temperatures around the house, creating a shaded, cooler environment that benefits both the indoor and outdoor spaces.

7) Install Drip Irrigation to Keep the Living Roof Cool
The living roof would have performed better with drip irrigation to keep the plants and soil cool.

Moisture on the roof would enhance its cooling effect, reducing heat gain inside the house and keeping the roof temperature down.

We are going to try this next summer!

If you’re considering building your own sustainable, natural home, learn from our experiences!

Let us know your thoughts on tiny changes and efforts by replying to this email :)

Love,

Raghav and Ansh

What you can watch - Incredible Small Off-Grid Earthship Home

This off-grid home has an earth air tunnel to cool the house.

What you can listen to - Passive Solar House Design: Resilient Building Design Principles for Climate Extremes

In this video, our friend Christina explains the properties of Resilient Building Design.

What You Can Read - How to incorporate passive solar design in your building, using thermal mass and insulation.

“ Passive solar design can dramatically reduce our demands on fossil fuels and other forms of energy input, allowing our buildings to become producers and not consumers of energy and resources, supporting us in a healthier more comfortable abundant way. “

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