Broad Guidelines

The choice of a site for any type of building is first and foremost governed by the global and site climates, Even though it is possible to engineer a variety of climatic controls, settlement-wise and building-wise, it is obvious that natural climatic conditions should be taken advantage of, in order to reduce the overall cost. Based on the climatic descriptions given in the earlier sections, it is possible to lay down certain broad guide-lines as under : 

1. In hot-dry climates, the walls of the largest dimension in a building should preferably face north and south, as these elevations receive the lowest heat loads from solar radiation. The worst orientation is the west-ward one. By aligning buildings close to each other, especially if east-west walls are placed close together, mutual shading will decrease the heat gains of external walls. For this reason, in hot-dry climates the tendency is to have close groupings of buildings, narrow streets and small enclosed courtyards. 
2. In warm-humid climates, natural ventilation is the predominant criterion for deciding about orientation. The buildings tend to have long elongated shapes with single row of rooms to allow for cross ventilation. It may often become necessary to elevate the building on stilts, thereby avoiding stagnant or slowly moving air at the ground surface. The density of development  less than that in hot dry climates so as to permit free air movement. 
3. In monsoon climates, the weather changes from season to season and designers face a difficult task. Experience shows that the buildings are best designed to meet the requirements of the hot seasons, A moderately dense, courtyard type, low rise development is very suitable.