Located at Koh Dach and about 2 kilometers from the ferry, you will see a house on your right which looks rather messy with all the hanging plastic bottle parts cut and shredded in front of the entrance. Noticeably, there is a so-called Terk Kork Chhus (Sweet Snow sth). The first thing that you see at the moment you walk to the entrance is surely the coconut school as it was named that way. Did I mention the plastic bottle roof at the parking lot in front of the coconut school? Well, they are well-made. My first impression of it wasn’t good because it looks rather badly decorated but when I look at it a bit longer then I think of nothing but admiring the person behind the design. It is plain, nothing special about it but the practicality is immensely great! It does what it was built for–shading, of course.
Alright, let’s walk to the back. I bet you will look at the toilet with water tanks there. For that reason, why I said because I arrived there with dust all over my body possibly so yeah! So did I waste my hands and my face? Okay back to Rubbish house.
Yep, it is a shack but it is used as the computer lab and a place to chill because they also have a guitar there and a hammock. If you don’t believe me, just that a look at the picture below!
The only thing that chills me the most is the room temperature. It was 33 degrees C out there but in that computer lab, I barely felt the heat. That has got me to think and analyse the design. Within my limited knowledge, I reckon that that room is cool by its walls. Let me explain that; our normal wall doesn’t have holes this much and it traps heat but this beer-bottles wall doesn’t trap heat; all it does is give shade, make ways for cool wind to penetrate the room, and thanks to its colour and thick transparency, it doesn’t cause glare which means the room is passively well-lit. Also, the reason why it isn’t hot outside is because it has a hole at the highest for hot air to push out of the room. This process is called ‘ Wind Circulation’. And they use fans too. I know that everyone knows that a fan is used for cooling but one thing that most people don’t know is the fan moves air that could reduce the air temperature by up to 2- or 4 degrees C.
This computer lab is not only made with recycled materials but it is also a good example of a building performance strategy.
