Roof

Roof and water

Roof

Timelessroofing · roof covering · techo (Spanish)

housing school market public space industrial building

It is the part that closes the building at the top and protects it from the sky. It brings together the structure that supports it and the layer that receives sun and rain.

Solves

What it solves

In the tropics the roof is the first defense against heavy rain and the almost vertical sun. A good slope sheds water quickly and a well-designed roof keeps heat from coming down into the rooms.

Today

A slope suited to the material, a ventilated cavity under the metal sheet and generous eaves are recommended. It is best to design the roof together with rainwater harvesting from the first sketch.

Common mistake

Designing an almost flat metal sheet roof without insulation or ventilation, which turns the space below into an oven.

Tomorrow

The roof is the first surface that receives the rain and can carry it to a tank or to a garden that lets it soak in. Designing it to harvest water and withstand stronger winds will be the norm in the tropics.

Fact Well woven and smoked, the suita palm roof of the conical Bribri house can last up to thirty years according to its users.

Where it comes from

  • 1Bribri and Cabécar peoples Talamanca, Costa Rica, living tradition
    The conical house (U-surë) brings its suita palm roof down to the ground on eight supports that meet at a central axis.
  • 2Minangkabau West Sumatra, Indonesia, living tradition
    The great house (rumah gadang) curves its roof into points like buffalo horns and covers it with sugar palm fiber (ijuk).
  • 3Malay house Malay Peninsula, vernacular tradition
    Its steep roof sheds water quickly and lets hot air out of the house raised on stilts.

Masters

  • Glenn Murcutt Magney House, Bingie, Australia, 1984
    He designs a thin valley-shaped roof that collects rain and carries it to a cistern. Its overhang shades the summer sun and lets the winter sun in.

Appears in the routes

Sources

See also

Also in Roof and water

Diagrams and texts by LDB Arquitectura. They are shared under the CC BY 4.0 license, which allows them to be used and adapted with credit to the source.