Analysis of Architectural Works of Geoffrey Bawa, Laurie Baker, and Hassan Fathy with Tropical Modern Relevance

Modern architecture offers a high-quality ambiance to support human living style based on its geographical location, climatic conditions, and unique human characteristics and emotions. The goal of tropical climate architecture is to create comfortable and healthy indoor environments while minimizing the use of energy-intensive systems. This is achieved through the use of passive cooling techniques such as natural ventilation, shading, and thermal mass. Additionally, tropical architecture often incorporates passive design strategies, traditional building techniques, and materials that are well-suited to the local climate. This paper compares the architectural design approaches of ‘three architects’ who practiced regional/ tropical modernism: Geoffrey Bawa, Hassan Fathy, and Laurie Baker. We attempt to comprehend and study the ways in which they have managed their strategy in an effort to attain the ideal combination that suits several aspects of Chennai’s microclimate by deriving the ideal combination of the chosen three architects. The paper can conclude with the findings on various parameters like natural lighting and shading, ventilation, design pointers for a seamless space, appropriate building materials and construction techniques, climate-responsive features, and building metabolism. The above findings are then used to produce a tabulated design analysis and typology, which can be used as a playbook for future designers. As an inference, the findings from the conducted survey can be concluded that the Tropical modern architecture is a step ahead in response to our environment, and with Global climate-changing consequences, it can be considered the way forward.