The safari roof was a device designed for series landrovers operating in the hot tropics, a simple sheet of aluminium held off the top of the vehicle by metal feet. The idea was simple and absolutely brilliant: as a sunbreak, the safari roof sand- wiches a layer of air for insulation, which, when heated sufficiently, simply cross ventilates.
How well it works is something to be experienced, the equivalent of having the cool shade of a tree on the hottest day of the year. Balmy.
We used to build this way in Malaysia.
Not just in the traditional kampung house (which really is a study of ventilated perfection in itself) but also in the colonial houses built by the british (makers of the landrover) with cement vents and raised floors. Then airconditioning arrived and no one cared about how well houses needed to be ventilated anymore.
Well, its just about time for some change. Time to rethink the use of technology which the west designed for temperate climates; time to ask how that rock wool insulation really works and if it really works best in the monsoon tropics; time to stop designing and building with imported materials just because they look cool in some book or magazine; time to question functions and performance based on local criteria and time to understand why things are made or done the way they always have been. Time for questions. And time for answers.
Time for a little critical regionalism, wouldnt you say?