Owing to their great thickness and the fact that the clay conducts heat much less easily than burnt bricks, such roofs are very cool, and they form a good sleeping platform; but they give endless trouble during periods of rain, as they always leak at the beginning of one, and vermin are apt to harbour amongst the matting and battens that carry the mud. Owing to their immense weight, too, they are not free from danger, especially as they are usually found in combination with walls of unburnt brick, which offer no obstacle whatever to the tunnelling of white ants, which thus can readily reach the beams, the interior of which may be entirely eaten away by these mischievous insects without any sign of the mischief appearing externally.
All the above considerations appear at first sight tolerably obvious and would, one would think, be adopted wherever not rendered impracticable by consideration of cost, and yet it is perfectly wonderful to notice how frequently every consideration of common-sense sanitation and comfort is ignored in buildings, on which neither space nor expense have been stinted.
Quite recently the writer halted in a large hotel which illustrated this point in a most pitiable manner. The masonry was admirable, being worthy almost of an Egyptian monument, and speaking generally, it was obvious that expense had been almost disregarded by the enterprising proprietors. The management showed every desire to secure the comfort of their guests, and the cuisine was excellent. In spite of this the bulk of the rooms were scarcely habitable, as they seemed contrived to give a tropical sun the best possible chance to make itself felt. Save for a verandah of paltry width to the magnificent dining-room, these indispensable adjuncts of a tropical residence were absolutely wanting.
Moreover, this omission was clearly not due to any desire or necessity for economising space, for the area absolutely wasted in the form of corridors was astonishing, and could not have fallen short of half the space occupied by the sleeping rooms, though these were exceptionally spacious. Facing south-east, the full glare of the sun and the dazzling reflection from the sea glared directly into the windows of the most desirably placed rooms, without even the protection of an ordinary “jalousie,” while the magnificent view was shut out by windows of granulated greenish glass, the sashes being pivoted in such a way as to make it difficult to enjoy either the breeze or the prospect, even when they were opened. Apart from these latter details, the building would be admirably adapted for the accommodation of winter visitors in Italy, where the sun is made to do duty for artificial heat, and the whole is a striking example of the way in which the most lavish expenditure may be rendered futile by a want of due appreciation of the principles that should govern tropical domestic architecture. I give this instance mainly to show that, however self-evident the principles described above may appear, they are far from being generally appreciated.
These principles may be briefly epitomised as follows:—
(1) Through ventilation of all rooms.
(2) The elevation of all rooms, and especially of sleeping chambers, to as great a height as practicable above the ground.
(3) The selection of appropriate building materials which cannot harbour vermin.
(4) The shielding of outer walls from becoming heated by the direct rays of the sun by the provision of adequate verandahs.
(5) The application of the same principle to the construction of roofs by planning them so as to secure a well-ventilated air space between the actual roof and a fairly substantial ceiling, or by constructing them of massive materials, if single.