Case study paper AA

Tibet Namchabawa Visitor Centre: Adaptation of heat insulation in passive design to
provide thermal comfort in Tibetan vernacular dwelling.
Asian Architecture [ARC 2213/2234]
PROJECT 1: CASE STUDY
Tibet Namchabawa Visitor Centre: Adaptation of heat
insulation in passive design to provide thermal comfort
in Tibetan vernacular dwelling
NAME: NG YUHENG
STUDENT ID: 0315476
LECTURER: MS. ALIA
SUBMISSION DATE: 28th
June 2016
ARC 2213/2234 Asian Architecture 1

Tibet Namchabawa Visitor Centre: Adaptation of heat
insulation in passive design to provide thermal comfort
in Tibetan vernacular dwelling
Table of contents: PG
Abstract 3
Introduction 4
Content:
1. What are the topography and climate that affects 6
the design of Tibetan vernacular dwelling?
2. What are the features in Tibetan vernacular
architecture that response to the topography and
climate to provide thermal comfort?
• Building Form 8
• Building Orientation 11
• Building Materials 11
3. How does the building form help achieve thermal comfort 14
in Tibet Namchabawa Visitor Centre?
4. How does the building orientation help achieve thermal comfort 18
5. How does the building materials help achieve thermal comfort 20
Conclusion 22
References 23

Abstract
This study investigates the similarities in the adaptation of heat insulation in
passive design to provide thermal comfort between Tibetan vernacular dwelling
and Tibet Namchabawa Visitor Centre. Tibet is known for its rich cultural
background and significant contextual response in its vernacular architecture,
with extreme cold climate being the factor for its architectural design
requirements, the harmony between architectural form, orientation and
materials to provide thermal comfort while responding to the context of Tibet’s
vast rocky landscape is the most significant feature in Tibetan architecture.
Several literature reviews based on reliable resources have been conducted to
further verify the validation of this research. Elements that portrays the true
essence of Tibetan vernacular architecture includes buildings that are compact
in form, Tibetan vernacular buildings are usually heighted between 2.2 to 2.6
meters to minimize heat loss from the building envelop, adoption of such
element is present in the Tibet Namchabawa Visitor Centre whereby the floor to
ceiling height is only 3.0 meters with the addition of skylights that enhances
solar heat gain and ventilation. Tibetan vernacular building possesses massive
walls that functions as heat storage where it gains heat from the sun. The walls
envelope the building, mainly acting as the façade of the building utilizing high
density material such as clay and mud plaster. It is understood that the addition
of composite materials in the massive walls of Tibet Namchabawa Visitor
Centre are made, where stone slabs are used in the foundation and façade to
avoid erosion of water and increasing heat capacity while aesthetically blends
with Tibet’s rocky landscape. Orientation of Tibetan vernacular architecture
reflects the influence of Buddhism whereby the entrance never faces the North,
reason being religious beliefs stating it being magnets of bad fortune. Modern
Tibet architecture adopts such cultural influence by cleverly placing the
entrance and orientation of said building to increase building’s exposure to sun
and positioning to views and vista. Therefore, this concludes that Tibet
Namchabawa Visitor Centre has adopted several vernacular passive design
elements with the addition of modern improvisation to provide thermal comfort.

Introduction
Tibetan architecture represents a significant style of architecture that survived
through the long history of Tibetan civilization. The main factor that inspired
Tibetan architecture is its surrounding environmental context which includes the
Tibetan plateau and extreme temperature, causing the Tibetan civilization to
innovate architecturally in order to create a habitable dwelling that could provide
the suitable thermal comfort with response to the surrounding context. Essence
of Tibetan Buddhism has also been implemented architecturally as cultural
influence that affects the spatial arrangement and building orientation with
added response to surrounding climate.
Dating back to the 7th
century, Tibetan civilizations have developed various
architectural aspects to create a habitable dwelling to provide thermal comfort.
One of the aspect that could be commonly observed from most Tibetan
vernacular dwellings is the compact building form, Tibetan vernacular dwellings
can mostly be seen in rectangular or trapezoidal form ranging from two to three
stories based on the wealth and the status in society of the users, but
nevertheless the ceiling height between floors are marginally lesser compared
to modern standards. The orientation of the building also plays a role in
providing thermal comfort to the inhabitants whereby it faces the direction to
provide an optimal internal thermal comfort. Moreover, the building materials in
Tibetan architecture mainly consists of high density materials that excels in heat
capacity in response to the surrounding climate to provide thermal comfort and
adaptation of the contextual response. Nevertheless, there aforementioned
passive designs strategies have proven to be effective as the Tibetan

civilization and architecture strive to surface through its extreme climate and
harsh topography.
This paper investigates on the passive design strategies that contributes to the
thermal comfort in terms of building form, orientation and materials by
responding to the following questions:
1. What are the topography and climate that affects the design of Tibetan
vernacular dwelling?
2. What are the features in Tibetan vernacular architecture that response to
the topography and climate to provide thermal comfort?
3. How does the building form help achieve thermal comfort in Tibet
Namchabawa Visitor Centre?

4. How does the building orientation help achieve thermal comfort in Tibet
5. How does the building materials help achieve thermal comfort in Tibet
1.0 What are the topography and climate that affects the design of Tibetan
vernacular dwelling?
The Tibet Autonomous Region is located near the Tibetan Plateau, the tallest
region on earth, therefore known as “Roof of the World”. Tibet may be divided
into two parts, the “lake region”, which is located in the west and north-west,
and the “river region”, which spreads out on three sides of the former on the
east, south and west. Both regions receives limited amounts of rainfall as they
are shaded by the Himalayas. The objective of our study mainly focuses on the
“river region” whereby it is characterized by amounts of mountain valleys which
covers the Namchabawa, one of the longest canyon in the world.
Topographically it consists of many mountains which amongst them are narrow
valleys and mostly covered with fertile soil and vast trees, well irrigated and
richly cultivated.

Due to its geographical characteristic, the climate in Tibet is mostly cold and
has only an average annual temperature of 7.5 degrees Celsius. Due to its
geographically higher altitude in the plateau, it receives higher amount of
sunshine which results to stronger radiation during the day, but the temperature
drops under -7 degrees Celsius. Besides, the winds in winter are ferocious
therefore many aspects of heat insulation in passive design comes into play to
provide thermal comfort within Tibetan vernacular dwellings.
Figure 1: Map indicating location of research area
Source: http://oak.ucc.nau.edu/wittke/tibet/plateau.html
Figure 2: Table showing annual meteorology report
of research area
Source: http://www.tibet.climatemps.com/

2.0 What are the features in Tibetan vernacular architecture that response
to the topography and climate to provide thermal comfort?
2.1 Building Form
Tibetan vernacular building consists of compact form of rectangle building plan,
while the form is very simple with little variation. The building form responses
both contextually and culturally focusing more on the aesthetic and the
simplicity while harmonizing with the surrounding context. Tibetan buildings are
not only a fascinating blend of man-made structure and nature, but they are
well-suited for local climatic and geographic conditions. After they have outlived
their usefulness, every part can be re-used, and if lived to decay, they simply
become hills of earth and stones again, Tibetan buildings are known to seem
like rocks protruding out from the Tibetan plateau while having such simplistic
form.

The reasoning behind its trapezoidal and rectangular form is a response to the
context’s tectonic activity, walls are thicker ranging 50 to 70cm from on the
lower levels of the walls to increase the stability and weight at the bottom while
the walls taper upwards. This creates a stronger foundation at the lower levels
while lessening the weight on the upper floors thus creating lesser vibration
caused from the earthquake to the whole building.
The use of a rectangular form also benefits
the amount of solar exposure it is available to in such extreme climate like in
Tibet where heat storage and heat absorption is crucial for the thermal comfort
of the inhabitants. With its rectangular form it is purposed to have the longer
side of the façade facing south while having flat roofs made of multi layered
structure of materials of high heat storage properties acts to prevent heat loss
from indoor to outside whilst conserving heat within the building.
Figure 3: Section sketch indicating tapered walls
Source: http://iaste.berkeley.edu/pdfs/15.1f-Fall03ewing-sml.pdf
Figure 4: Indicating sun exposure area
Source: http://iaste.berkeley.edu/pdfs/15.1f-
Fall03ewing-sml.pdf
Figure 5: Detail section of roof
Source:http://waset.org/publications/4412/th
ermal-analysis-of-tibetan-vernacular-
building-case-of-lhasa
Figure 7: Detail section of floor
Figure 6: Section showing heat transfer

Besides, the usage of the rectangular form affects the spatial arrangement of
the dwelling, normal Tibetan dwelling consists of 3 types of space differentiated
by its function and hierarchy in the Tibetan Buddhism culture. Usually the
ground floor of the dwelling will be used as storage and space for the user’s
livestock, then the first floor will be the living spaces for the inhabitants and the
upper floor will be used as prayer room or room tribute to Buddhist gods. While
Tibetan vernacular dwelling is built in a compact form, ceiling height of the
dwelling is significantly lower, ranging from 2.4m – 2.6m. By lowering the ceiling
height, it lowers the ventilation and through the building and allows heat to
radiate upwards from the ground floor where during the cold climate, livestocks
stored below will hibernate during cold winter nights and radiate heat where the
heat will be transferred upwards into the living space to provide thermal comfort.
Traditionally, courtyards are introduced to larger scaled Tibetan vernacular
architecture, which are connected by narrow roads and alleys. By doing so, the
courtyard can receive sunshine during winter months where many activities take
place. Besides, courtyards can also be used for sleeping during hot summer
nights.
Figure 8: Tibetan Courtyard
Source:http://www.vam.ac.uk/__data/assets/image/0011/210035/54151-large.jpg

2.2 Building Orientation
The Tibetan vernacular dwelling orientation plays a role in reducing the heat
loss of the building whilst increasing the solar heat gain of the dwelling as well.
Dwellings with longer facades are usually orientated to face south where it
gains most of the sunlight during the day. Fenestrations are strategically placed
according to the orientation of the building to allow more sunlight to enter the
dwelling thus increasing heat gain from the interior of the dwelling, while
avoiding winter winds that could potentially increase the heat loss of the
dwelling due it the ferocious freezing wind in the Himalayan region.
2.3 Building Material
The common building materials used by vernacular Tibetan building are timber,
stone and rammed earth. Timber is usually used as the framework of the
building or main structural frame of the dwelling, timber is also used for
decoration and ornamentation and symbolism of Tibetan Buddhism teachings,
where it displays the wealth and status of the owner.
Figure 9: Indicating sun exposure area
and prevailing wind direction
Source: http://iaste.berkeley.edu/pdfs/15.1f-
Fall03ewing-sml.pdf

Walls are usually made of stone slab due to its material density and high
thermal capacity which is required to contain the heat needed for the site’s
climate and air tightness by using stone slab is the crucial part affecting the
material selection for vernacular Tibetan dwelling where thermal comfort is the
goal of these dwellings. Material such as stone slab with such thermal mass
properties and high amount of air tightness, it absorbs and stores more heat
than it allows cold air into the building. Stone walls are commonly seen Tibetan
Vernacular dwellings with thickness ranging from 50cm to 70cm, in addition with
such thickness and material density, these massive walls becomes viable heat
storage options as exterior walls to provide thermal comfort. Besides, stone wall
is utilised because of its abundance at the surrounding of the site while causing
the building to be visually part of the site’s context.
Rammed earth is a technique for building walls, foundations and floors primarily
using raw materials such as earth, chalk, lime or gravel, it is another type of
material that has been utilised by vernacular Tibetan dwelling, it originated in
the central plains or china and is spread through migration, the influence of
climate, topography and culture created varied traditional rammed earth Tibetan
dwelling. Rammed earth wall is considered to be a good thermal mass to keep
a relatively stable indoor comfort with appropriate design parameters. However,
Figure 10: Detail section of stone wall

the thermal environment during winter time in most rammed earth dwelling is
not that satisfying, but comparatively more satisfying during the summer.
Reason being the lack of air-tightness in most rammed earth house, which can
also affect the thermal performance of rammed earth walls, this meant that only
using rammed earth as the exterior walls is not enough to provide a comfortable
indoor environment for the cold climate in Tibet therefore inducing the usage of
composite material in vernacular Tibetan dwelling whereby stone slabs are
combined with rammed earth to provide both air-tightness and thermal mass.
Figure 11: Composite RE stone wall

3.0 How does the building form help achieve thermal comfort in
Tibet Namchabawa Visitor Centre?
While located in Tibet as well, the Tibet Namchabawa Visitor Centre faces the
same climatic issue as the traditional vernacular dwelling as well, which is
extreme cold climate. Therefore, to achieve thermal comfort for the building
users, several design considerations are made, one of the considerations
include similarities in compact building form of the visitor centre as the
vernacular dwelling.
Form wise, the visitor centre has adopted the essence of the surrounding
context by adopting a longitudinal rectangular form that follows the landscape
and topography of the site. In addition to that, the visitor centre is designed to
look as though it is a few slices of rock that is protruding out of the mountain,
and the building is viewed as a series of stone walls set into the slope.
Figure 12: Exterior view showing building blending in nature
Source: http://www.archdaily.com/775227/tibet-namchabawa-visitor-
centre-standardarchitecture

The visitor centre has also adopted the compact building form from the Tibetan
vernacular dwelling purposed to minimize the heat loss from the building
envelop. The lowered ceiling that measures around 2.6m for a public building is
considered low according to modern standard of 3.3m, lowering the ceiling that
is made from heat insulation materials reduces the amount of heat escaping
from the building and with the addition of thick stone walls along the building
façade it thoroughly reduces heat loss, thus providing thermal comfort despite
such cold climate. But a disadvantage by having a compact building form
results to lesser heat gained from the sun because of the lack of building area.
Figure 13: Site plan showing building built according to contours
Figure 14: Section showing heat trapped in building

But to defeat the disadvantage of compact building form resulting to lower solar
heat gain, another consideration is made whereby the architects overlap
multiple storey of the building therefore creating a bigger volume as whole
whilst increasing the surface area of the façade with the addition of large
expansive stone walls along the façade, which contributes in absorbing heat,
transferring heat to the interior of the building to increase solar heat gain.
The visitor centre has also implemented courtyard with a modern twist that
response to the climate. Whereby it allows sun light to enter the building by slits
of skylight but preventing interior hot air from escaping, causing hot air to
continuously circulate in the building keeping the occupants warm and
increasing heat gain.
Figure 15: Plan showing exposed surfaces
Figure 16: Section showing trapped heated air and skylights

Figure 17: perspective showing massive stone walls
Figure 18: perspective showing stacked exposed surfaces
Source: http://www.archdaily.com/775227/tibet-namchabawa-visitor-centre-
standardarchitecture

4.0 How does the building orientation help achieve thermal
comfort in Tibet Namchabawa Visitor Centre?
The fenestration and orientation of the Namchabawa Visitor Centre is
strategically planned in order to maximize the amount of sun exposure and to
avoid the cold winter wind similar to the orientation of the Tibetan vernacular
dwelling. By placing large opening and windows on the south, this increases the
amount of sunlight coming into the building. By doing so, it will increase the heat
gain throughout the building. In addition of the windows, double glazing
windows are used to further reduce heat loss from the building.
Figure 20: Plan showing fenestrated area
Figure 19: perspective showing modern courtyard
Source: http://www.archdaily.com/775227/tibet-namchabawa-visitor-centre-

With the usage of double glazing windows, it involves two layers of glass with a
small gap in between them, it functions as a heat insulator whereby the air gap
in between is too small to circulate air therefore preventing heat transfer by
convection thus reducing heat loss through the window. This method is adopted
from the Tibetan vernacular practice to lay thick blankets over fenestrations to
contain heat within the building.
The orientation of the visitor centre is also strategically shifted away
perpendicularly from the wind direction to avoid wind from directly blowing into
the open area and fenestration, the orientation consideration is also adopted
from Tibetan vernacular dwelling orientation to reduce cold winter wind from
blowing into the dwelling thus possibly increasing the heat loss and further
lowering the temperature of the interior despite such cold climate. Furthermore,
massive walls along the façade acts as a wind shield to block prevailing winds
from entering the open area of the visitor centre. With that in mind, the massive
Figure 21: Diagram showing component of double glazing windows

walls do also function as a sun screen to prevent direct exposure of internal
spaces from the sun to prevent temperature fluctuation within the visitor centre.
5.0 How does the building materials help achieve thermal
comfort in Tibet Namchabawa Visitor Centre?
The Namchabawa visitor centre uses stone as its main façade and construction
material, as a response to its surrounding context and vernacular relation. The
visitor centre is located near the Mount Namchabawa, in order to blend in with
the site’s raw rocky surrounding, stone material was used while the thick
massive stone wall were inspired by the Tibetan mountain plateau.

Reason behind the usage of stone as the main building material is because of
its high thermal mass as compared to other modern material such as concrete
and bricks. Thermal mass is basically the ability of a mass of a building to store
heat, in a way providing “inertia” against temperature fluctuation. Heavier and
denser materials like stone and rammed earth tend to have higher thermal
mass than materials like timber.
Figure 17: Plan showing fenestrated area
Figure 17: Thermal mass of various material
Source: http://www.hobartcity.com .au

From the diagram above, it can be clearly observed that the material “stone”
clearly has an advantage in terms of thermal mass compared to other materials.
This poses one of the contribution in terms of increasing the heat gain and
reducing heat loss of the building to provide thermal comfort. Another reason
behind utilizing the material stone is because of its air-tight properties, air
tightness basically stands for the uncontrolled inward leakage of outdoor air
through building cracks or unintentional openings caused by defects or other
causes. Stone possesses a very air-tight property because of its dense volume
therefore lowering the possibility of having inward leakage of cold winter air that
could provide discomfort for the users in the building.
Conclusion
In conclusion, it is obvious that the architect of Namchabawa Visitor Centre has
managed to adopt few of the key characteristics of the traditional Tibetan
vernacular dwelling and implement them into the passive design of the visitor
centre in aims to achieve thermal comfort while located at Tibet alongside its
cold climate. It can be seen that the synergy between these three responses is
what resulted to achieving the desired thermal comfort in the building. The form
of the building responses to the site’s context and climate successfully by
increasing the built area to receive more sunlight without sacrificing the organic

aesthetic that managed to blend in well within the site. The inclusion of the
modern courtyard does leave an impact on how modernization of traditional
vernacular architectural feature could improve its function in providing opening
for light to enter whilst act as a heat storage to prison heated air circulating in
the interior. Though the effectiveness of the form would not be enough without
strategic orientation of the building to fully utilize its large area for heat
absorption and preventing cold prevailing wind from cooling the building thus
increasing the heat loss of the building. While several inclusion of modern
materials such as double glazing windows are used to further improve the
insulation of heat within the building. Last but not least, the usage of stone as
the main material for the building’s façade and envelope, due to its thermal
properties, it increases the heat insulation properties and heat absorption
properties of the overall building, therefore the synergy between form,
orientation and materials is what made achieving thermal comfort in
Namchabawa Visitor Centre possible. The adaption of heat insulation in passive
design to provide thermal comfort in Tibetan vernacular dwelling into modern
architecture is considered successful.
References
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Transmissions in the Himalayas and Karakoram. BRILL
2) H. L. (2010, November 8). Thermal Analysis of Tibetan Vernacular
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http://waset.org/publications/4412/thermal-analysis-of-tibetan-vernacular-

3) Paul, M., Cathy, K. (2015) Redefining architecture to accommodate
cultural difference: designing for cultural sustainability. Architectural
Science Review 58, 278-289.
4) Suzanne, E. (2003). Tradition of Appearance: Adaptation and Change in
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5) Woodford, Chris. (2008) Heat insulation. Retrieved June 27th
, 2016, from
http://www.explainthatstuff.com/heatinsulation.html
6) "Tibet Namchabawa Visitor Centre / standardarchitecture" 15 Oct
2015. ArchDaily. Accessed 28 Jun 2016.
http://www.archdaily.com/775227/tibet-namchabawa-visitor-centre-
7) Chris, R. (n.d.). Passive solar heating. Retrieved June 28, 2016, from
http://www.yourhome.gov.au/passive-design/passive-solar-heating
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(n.d.). Retrieved June 28, 2016 from:
http://www.tibetheritagefund.org/old_web/5_architecture/5_02/5_02_01_
en.html
9) Discoveries in Western Tibet and the Western Himalayas: Essays on
History, Literature…, Marialaura Di Mattia, by International Association
for Tibetan Studies Seminar, BRILL, 2007, p.66
10)The Evolution of the Indian Stupa Architecture in East Asia, by Eric
Stratton, Vedams eBooks (P) Ltd, 2002, p. 129

11)Tibet October 2010(Pt.2):Lhasa and Beyond, by Vrindavan,
http://www.omfactorynyc.com/blog/2010/11/lhasa-and-beyond-october-
2010/
12) Geology of the Tibetan Plateau. (n.d.). Retrieved June 28, 2016, from
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13) Ottawa Friends of Tibet. (2003). Retrieved June 27, 2016 from
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