In most Indian homes today, the first thing the family does on returning home is reach for the AC remote. The second thing is to debate the temperature. 24? 22? Someone always wants 18.
But across the country, a small number of homeowners have managed to escape this household sport altogether. They live in houses that simply don’t need an AC. The remote, if it exists, gathers dust. The bedrooms cool themselves. The courtyards do the work that compressors do elsewhere.
This week, let’s take a look at four such homes.
Over 40°C Outside, But This Gujarat House Stays Cool Without AC – Here’s How!
When the owners of Cool House in Bharuch went to architect Samira Rathod with a brief, it was almost embarrassingly simple. They wanted a home that beat the arid Gujarat heat without an AC. Samira designed a south-facing, “introverted” house with a channel running from the northeast to the southwest so the wind could pass through.
The breeze cools down further by skimming over a water body. Outside, it’s 45°C. Inside, around 30. “If you come and sit in the courtyard, you won’t need a fan,” says the owner. Three generations live there.
Watch: The Genius Design Keeping This Bengaluru Home Cool Without AC!
Sathya Prakash Varanashi is an architect, so when it came to building a home for his wife, Ishala and daughters, Gauri and Siri, he wrote the brief himself. No cement walls. He used hollow clay blocks instead, which regulate temperature naturally — cool in summer, warm in winter. There’s a fish pond, cascading streams, and an open well. A natural chimney lets hot air escape; sliding doors open the rooms to the garden.
The house has been standing for 21 years, stays two to three degrees cooler inside, and stores 15,000 litres of rainwater. “A house truly becomes a home, when it becomes the real manifestation of the way the family lives in it,” he says.
‘It’s 3-4 Degrees Cooler Inside’: This Gorgeous Sustainable Home is Surrounded by Mango Trees
Ayurvedic doctor Ajay Gharat had one brief for architects Shriya Parasrampuria and Prashant Dupare: don’t touch the five mango trees on the plot. They didn’t. The roof was carefully shaped to slip under the trees’ canopies so the leaves could shade the house naturally. The walls are exposed brick.
The staircase has a load-bearing wall built from upcycled beer bottles that glows at sunset. The beds and benches are brick. The house is 3 to 4 degrees cooler than the air outside, cost Rs 45 lakh, and is called Asmalay — a name that doubles as initials for Ajay, his wife Swara, and their two children.
Stunning Sustainable Home in Bengaluru Harvests Sun & Rain, Stays 12 Degrees Cooler
UX designer Satish Shastry and his wife Dharitri started this house over an evening chai. The brief: a home that breathes. Architect Sathya Prakash Varanashi gave them an arch foundation (instead of steel), hollow clay block walls, a filler-slab roof made with inverted mud pots, and Athangudi tiles on the floor.
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The 2,200 sq ft house stays 10 to 12 degrees cooler than the outside on summer afternoons, costs about 15 per cent less than a conventional build, and runs on solar power and harvested rainwater. The terrace garden grows papayas, mangoes, oranges, and chillies. The yoga room sits on a red-oxide floor that stays cool even when Bengaluru doesn’t.
Disclaimer : This story is auto aggregated by a computer programme and has not been created or edited by DOWNTHENEWS. Publisher: thebetterindia.com
