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BOOK REVIEWS: Stay Cool - A Design Guide for the Built Environment in Hot
Climates by Holger Koch-Nielsen

Article · January 2003

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Gryphon Sou
Hong Kong Institute of Education for Sustainable Development
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 STAY COOL
A DESIGN GUIDE
FOR THE BUILT ENVIRONMENT IN
HOT CLIMATES

reviewed by

Prof. Gryphon Sou

BS(Eng) MAdmin DMgt (A+)

PEng(Int) IngPEur PEng(UK) BIng(Germany) IPF(France) PrEng(Africa)

MBEng

Unit D, 9th Floor,

183 Hammer Hill Road,
Diamond Hill, Kowloon,
Hongkong, China.
Tel: (852)9213-8321
Fax: (852)2630-9001
Email: Gryphon@CTIMail.com

A Book Review submitted for publication in

the Journal of the
Association of Building Engineers

© 2003 ©
STAY COOL
A Design guide for the Built Environment in Hot Climates
by Holger Koch-Nielsen

First of all, there are some printing problems, mainly overlaid/missing/misplaced pages,
in this book:

— Contents (pp 4 – 5)
— Foreword (pp 6 – 7)
— Unknown Text (p. 8)
— The contents of this Guide and its use (pp 9 - 10)
— Introduction (pp 11, 13 – 16)

Despite the printing problems, this book can be regarded as an educational tool and
handbook for architects, engineers, building designers and town planners. The Author
does not give an answer to ‘how to design’ in hot dry and warm humid climates.
Instead, he introduces the basic principles and tools that can be used in built
environment in the light of saving energy. It is wise for him to use mass pictures and
photographs in illustrating this topic.

The illustrations may not be ‘the best architecture’ or ‘the best solutions’ in built
environment. However, they can be taken as food for thought in using ‘active design’
and ‘passive measures’ to satisfy human comfort requirements for specific climates.
According to the Author, the former is achieved by a close professional cooperation
between the architects and engineers while the latter supplements the design of a
building to achieve energy-efficient solutions.

In today’s world of building industry, architects, engineers or town planners are

constantly watching for energy-efficient building design. This book will be asset to
those who read it, apply it and consequently gain results from the ‘active design’ and
‘passive means’. As a result, both developers and clients can be benefited from the
energy-efficient buildings.

The Author quotes live examples by illustration of line drawings, plans and
black-and-white photographs. They are of international context in built environments:

© Prof. Gryphon Sou © 2

 Africa Burkina Faso Guadeloupe Middle East Spain
Algeria Cuba Guinea Mozambique Sweden
America England Indonesia Nigeria Tunisia
Australia Egypt Iran Omar Zimbabwe
Bangladesh Finland Japan Pakistan
Botswana France Malaysia Saudi Arabia
Brazil Germany Mexico South Africa

Chapter 1 is well-structured and comprehensible. It covers the climatic issues, namely

solar radiation, air temperature, humidity, wind and precipitation. The presentation is
not too technical whereas the laypersons will find it readable. In page 27, the Author
brings up the broad concept of ‘Two Climatic Zones’ in the world. Apart from the
foregoing climatic issues, rainfall, sky and groundcover of ‘Hot Dry Zone’ and ‘Warm
Humid Zone’ have been briefly compared. However, the headings and sub-headings
are a bit confused from page 27 to 30.

In Chapter 2, the Author focuses on the built environment vis-à-vis human comfort
requirements. He adopts a business writing style and uses less formal citations. There
is a typo in page 39: Diagram by B. Givoni … From Chapter 3 onwards, the Author
discusses the ‘passive measure’ in built environment in details. He introduces design
principles for ‘Hot Dry Zones’ and ‘Warm Humid Zones’ with photographs showing the
architectures in urban/building environment, outdoor spaces, roofs, walls, floors,
openings, shading devices, … etc.
(P.S. Unfortunately in page 65, the photos at the top left and top right mismatches with
their descriptions in the text.)

When affluent principles in built environment come to light, the Author inevitably draws
cross-reference in the context. Occasionally, there are ‘forward-and-backward’
syndromes in the latter Chapters (pp 88, 90, 92, 94, 113 & 122). In Chapter 6, the
Author has gathered data from various sources and compiled tables of thermal
properties of building materials and elements. They are handy reference and useful
indices for the engineers. Nonetheless, readability of some tables can be enhanced if
their data are sorted by ascending or descending orders (pp 104, 107-08).

Finally, this Book is ended up with Chapter 7: Natural Ventilation and Cooling. There
are 3 Appendices to this Book. Appendix A is a 3-page Checklist of Active Design
Process while Appendix B is a Rehabilitation Guide for Existing Urban, External and
Building Environments. In parallel with the text, they appear to be handy tools for the

© Prof. Gryphon Sou © 3

 architects, engineers, building designers and town planners. In line with the Author’s
intention, this Book proves to be an ‘inspirational introduction to general design
principles for energy efficiency and comfort taken from the urban planning scale through
to the detailing or structures that has to be addressed when working in the climatic
characteristics of these two climatic zones’.

Prof. Gryphon Sou

Visiting Professor of Asia International Open University (Macau)
Adjunct Professor of Irish International University
Visiting Associate Professor of Shanghai PCEC East Asia International Institute

z 2002. James & James (Science Publishers) Ltd. ISBN: 1-902916-29-8

© Prof. Gryphon Sou © 4

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