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Floor Board Cooling for Eco Hostel by Zero Energy Design

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An unusual approach to cooling was invented by ZeroEnergyDesign for this hostel in the tropics designed for eco-tourists visiting a developing country. The building is to serve as a hostel style stay in Dominica’s flourishing eco-tourism industry and act as a prototype for sustainable development in the rest of the Caribbean.

It is cooled by a basement, or rather, the lack of one.

It doesn’t merely allow cross breezes through the house, but it is actually designed to bring air up right through the floorboards of the central living area to cool it from underneath.

Like a boardwalk, the floor boards of the living room are spaced a little apart. Coming up from under the house is a completely free flow of air that is cooled by the shade cast by the house itself.

Although it looks larger, the eco hotel is just 2,600 square feet.

The building will be entirely off the grid. Along with the unusual passive cooling system, solar PV will provide the electricity, and solar thermal collectors produce the hot water.