The end of air conditioning? Asia architects use green solutions to cool buildings

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(CNN)Spend five minutes in humid Ho Chi Minh City and you'll probably be running for cover into the nearest air-conditioned refuge.

In the Vietnamese city-- and many developing subtropical countries across Asia, such as Indonesia and the Philippines -- air conditioning (AC) is increasingly being considered a necessity.

But one architecture firm is advocating a different way to keep cool.

T3 Architecture Asia, which has offices in Vietnam and France, specializes in back-to-basics "bioclimatic architecture", which it says could make energy-guzzling AC units redundant.

But with the invention of AC in 1902, by Willis Haviland Carrier, in the United States, bioclimatic solutions fell out of favor. Today, heating and cooling systems account for 40% of global building energy consumption, according to the International Energy Agency (IAE), which predicts that by 80% of air-conditioning demand will come from Asia by 2050.

"In (rural areas) of South and Southeast Asia, air-conditioning is not the norm -- but it is becoming more common in city centers, contributing to high energy consumption," Marlyne Sahakian, aresearch associate at the Faculty of Geosciences and the Environment at the University of Lausanne in Switzerland, who penned "Keeping Cool in Southeast Asia", tells CNN.

"In the Philippines, there was a strong 'West is best' trend, with architecture styles mimicking models from the north western hemisphere, which were not appropriate for the local climate," she adds, citing the "glass tower" model.

Breath of fresh air

Overall, Gallavardin says, Asia has been slow to embrace environmentally friendly building methods.

"What I see in Asia, even in rich countries like Hong Kong or Singapore, is that they love 'green washing.' They put trees on the facade, add solar panels and call it a green building.

"But when you look a bit closer, it's not really that green -- sometimes it's the opposite. We will see more truly energy-efficient buildings in Asia in the future, but it's very slow still."

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