---

A large percentage of the energy consumption occurs in the building sector, especially for heating and cooling. According to the overall goal to decrease the cooling demand in tropical climate, a radical new approach for sustainable architecture has been realized in the Philippines on Palawan near Puerto Princesa City within the Zero Carbon Resorts (ZCR) project under the lead of GrAT. This prototype building combines vernacular building elements and indigenous materials with a contemporary architecture and up to date technologies for zero energy buildings. Within this work a comprehensive monitoring of the local outdoor climate and the indoor environment was carried out, subdivided in a long time monitoring with special focus on the air temperature and the relative humidity and a short time monitoring using an adapted PMV/PPD method, for proving the functionality of the concept and that thermal comfort in a resort cottage made of local renewable resources in tropical climate can be achieved due to design features and natural ventilation without the use of air conditioning units.

---

DI DI(FH)Sören Eikemeier, born in 1981, studied Technology of Renewable Resources at the University for Applied Science in Hannover and Building Science and Technology at the Vienna University of Technology. Since 2009 he is working as a researcher and project coordinator for GrAT - Center for Appropriate Technology - in Vienna, Austria.

---