The tropical belt where large areas of South East Asia, India, Africa and parts of both North and South America are located forms the biggest landmass in the world and has one of the highest numbers of rapidly developing cities. Coincidentally, architecture in these regions shares common problems, the most easily identifiable being the tropical conditions of climate and natural environment. The context for architecture here is fraught with conflicts between tradition and modernization, massive influx of rural poor into urban areas, poorly managed rapid urban development as well as the cultural and social strain of globalization. Many local and overseas architects, planners and city fathers are interested in the social and environmental dimensions of these areas that contribute towards short terms solutions and long term sustainable developments. This book, developed from the first conference of the International Network for Tropical Architecture, supplies a wealth of information from experts worldwide covering the cultural, environmental and technical aspects of thinking, researching and designing for the tropics.

Chapter 1 Social and Environmental Dimensions in Tropical Sustainable Architecture, Joo-Hwa Bay, Boon-Lay Ong; Part I Architectural and Environmental Theories; Chapter 2 Rethinking Design Methodology for Sustainable Social Quality, Alexander Tzonis; Chapter 3 The Selective Environment, Dean Hawkes; Chapter 4 Green Design in the Hot Humid Tropical Zone, Ken Yeang; Part II High-Rise High-Density Living; Chapter 5 Socio-Environmental Dimensions in Tropical Semi-Open Spaces of High-Rise Housing in Singapore, Joo-Hwa Bay, Na Wang, Qian Liang, Ping Kong; Chapter 6 Beams and Architectural Design in Singapore Public Housing, Boon-Lay Ong, Chi-Nguyen Cam; Part III Building and Planning Requirements; Chapter 7 Policy and Evaluation System for Green Building in Subtropical Taiwan, Hsien-Te Lin; Chapter 8 In Search of a Habitable Urban Space-Built Ratio, Q.M. Mahtab-uz-Zaman, Fuad H. Mallick, A.Q.M. Abdullah, Jalal Ahmad; Part IV Urban Environmental Impacts; Chapter 9 Designing High Density Cities - Para-Metric Studies of Urban Morphologies and Their Implied Environmental Performance, Edward Ng, Chan Tak-Yan, Vicky Cheng, Nyuk-Hien Wong, Meiqi Han; Chapter 10 The Urban Heat Island Effect in Singapore, Wong Nyuk-Hien, Chen Yu; Chapter 11 Tropical Urban Street Canyons, Elias Salleh; Part V Experimental Sustainable Projects; Chapter 12 Tropical and Traditional, Shoichi Ota; Chapter 13 Ecopet 21, José Roberto García Chávez; Part VI Critique on Tropical Architecture; Chapter 14 Is Sustainability Sustainable? Interrogating the Tropical Paradigm in Asian Architecture, Anoma Pieris;