Eco-Friendly Architecture for the Tropics: A Comparative Study of Sustainable, Low-Cost Housing Using CSEB, Bamboo, and Fly Ash Bricks

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🔬研究者:Provides a comparative simulation methodology for embodied energy and thermal performance that can be extended to other climates and materials.

🏢実務担当者:Offers concrete material alternatives and design strategies that reduce costs and carbon footprint for housing projects in tropical regions.

🏛政策担当者:Supports the case for updating building codes to encourage low-carbon, locally sourced materials and passive design.

The residential building sector is responsible for a substantial share of global energy consumption and CO₂ emissions, driven largely by resource-intensive materials such as reinforced cement concrete (RCC) and fired clay bricks. At the same time, many households in tropical regions struggle with escalating construction costs and poor thermal comfort, leading to increased reliance on mechanical cooling. This paper presents a comparative design and simulation study of a designing single family housing unit that replaces conventional RCC and fired clay brick construction with a low-energy, high-mass material palette compressed stabilized earth blocks (CSEB) for walls, bamboo for primary structure, and fly ash bricks for internal partitions. Using cradle to gate embodied energy estimation and dynamic thermal performance simulation for a typical peak summer day (outdoor maximum 40 °C); the proposed design is compared against a conventional RCC fired brick baseline of similar size and spatial programme. Results indicate that the sustainable scheme can achieve approximately 70% reduction in embodied carbon and about 22% reduction in construction cost, primarily by substituting high-impact materials and eliminating plaster and paint through exposed CSEB finishes. Thermal simulations show that the proposed unit maintains indoor temperatures up to 9 °C cooler than the outdoor peak, largely through orientation, buffer zones, stack-effect ventilation, and high thermal-mass walls. The findings are discussed against recent literature on CSEB performance, bamboo as a structural material, fly ash based bricks, and passive cooling strategies in hot and humid climates. The study concludes that combining vernacular principles with tested alternative materials can deliver affordable, low-carbon, thermally comfortable housing, while also supporting local livelihoods. Limitations and directions for future empirical field monitoring and detailed life-cycle assessment are outlined.

• openaire https://doi.org/10.36948/ijfmr.2025.v07i06.64527first seen 2026-06-29 04:52:11 · last seen 2026-07-05 04:41:57