First Place Winner
Flow Housing in Morocco-Reinterpreting Vernacular Resilience through Passive Cooling
Design by
Sayyoung Chang
Juror’s Comment:
Exceptionally resolved passive cooling system integrating wind tower + ondol logic with strong material sustainability and social-economic integration.
Work on:
Expand hazard resilience beyond heat (e.g., flooding, extreme storms) and clarify structural scalability.
Sayyoung Chang
Sayyoung Chang studied architecture in South Korea before gaining professional experience across art, exhibition design, and architectural practice. Working across diverse scales and mediums has shaped an understanding of space not merely as form, but as something that operates within broader social and cultural contexts.
Currently, Sayyoung is pursuing a graduate degree at the University of Michigan Taubman College of Architecture and Urban Planning. Sayyoung is also a co-founder of the design team S-Square, which stands for Sustainable and System. Through this work, sustainability is explored by organizing climatic and environmental conditions into spatial and structural systems, while maintaining a strong sensitivity to cultural contexts.
Celebrating Creativity & Vision
Winner’s Spotlight: An Exclusive Interview
Discover the story behind the victory — from concept to creation.
1. Concept & Vision
What is the central idea behind your proposal, and how did you interpret the theme of designing for a resilient future in the face of climate uncertainty?
The starting point of Flow Housing in Morocco was the question of how to design for a resilient future in the face of climate uncertainty.
Fez, Morocco, is a UNESCO World Heritage site characterized by a dense fabric of traditional architecture. In this context, access to modern urban infrastructure is limited. Compared to city centers, electricity and cooling infrastructure are less accessible, and within a relatively low-income structure, the cost of cooling in an extreme desert climate account for a significant portion of household expenditure. As climate change intensifies high-temperature conditions, this burden is likely to increase further.
I understand resilience not as a technological reaction that resists nature, but as something formed through a design process that understands environmental flows and aligns itself with their rhythms. Rather than suppressing conditions that already exist in the environment—such as pressure differences in wind, changes in air density, and the temperature gap between day and night—I approached them as resources that can mitigate extreme climate conditions.
This project combines the Middle Eastern wind tower and the Korean traditional ondol system to propose a low-energy housing model that does not rely on mechanical heating and cooling. Rather than reproducing tradition, it reinterprets the environmental principles that traditional architecture has developed over long periods of time in response to climate.
2. Climate Adaptation Strategy
Which specific climate challenges (floods, wildfires, heat waves, droughts, storms, etc.) does your project address, and what key strategies enable it to adapt and withstand these conditions?
In this proposal, I focused on responding to extreme heat waves, arid desert conditions, and limited infrastructure.
The wind tower at the top of the building captures external wind and directs it into a vertical shaft. As air passes through the opening and its velocity increases, pressure decreases; this pressure difference draws air into the interior. This approach utilizes the Bernoulli principle to induce airflow.
The incoming air passes through an underground water space, where evaporative cooling occurs. As water evaporates, it absorbs heat from the surrounding air, lowering its temperature. The cooled air circulates into the interior, while the warmed air rises due to differences in density and is expelled upward. This creates a passive ventilation system based on natural convection (stack effect).
I also reinterpreted the airflow structure of the traditional Korean ondol system. While ondol originally circulates hot air beneath the floor for heating, in this project the system is reversed: cool external air is guided beneath the floor and distributed deep into the interior to cool the space more evenly.
In addition, a double-wall structure was applied so that the cavity between the walls functions not merely as insulation but as a ventilated buffer space. During the day, wind passes through this cavity, dispersing heat accumulated in the wall mass. At night, when external temperatures drop sharply, the air layer reduces heat loss from the interior. This creates a composite thermal moderation strategy that responds to the large diurnal temperature range of the desert.
All of these systems rely not on mechanical devices but on physical principles such as pressure differentials, evaporation, convection, and thermal lag, forming a nature-based cooling strategy.
3. Resilience as Regeneration
Beyond protection and survival, how does your design promote ecological restoration, biodiversity, or long-term community well-being?
For me, resilience in this proposal extends beyond survival to include social and economic regeneration.
The ground floor is directly exposed to desert sand intrusion, making it unsuitable for residential use. Instead of eliminating this constraint, I chose to transform it. The ground floor is planned as a family-based commercial space, converting climatic and spatial limitations into a foundation for economic activity. This strategy addresses structural issues such as cooling costs and income disparity while supporting family-level economic independence.
I also compared the ‘Daecheongmaru’* of traditional Korean Hanok houses and the ‘Majlis’ of Middle Eastern houses, recognizing both as central communal spaces that structure family relationships. By reinterpreting these traditions, the project explores how traditional family systems can continue within contemporary conditions.
As climate crisis and urbanization gradually weaken traditional family communities, this project goes beyond providing physical protection. Through family-based economic space and shared communal areas, it strengthens social cohesion and spatially supports traditional family structures that are at risk of fragmentation.
*Daecheongmaru: An open wooden hall located between rooms in a traditional Korean house, functioning as a shared family space and a climatic mediator that promotes natural ventilation.
4. Site & Context Response
Did you select a real-world vulnerable site or develop a speculative future scenario? How did this context inform your architectural decisions?
I chose the real city of Fez, Morocco, as the site for this proposal.
The UNESCO designation restricts the insertion of strongly contrasting contemporary forms. Rather than creating visual disruption, I pursued material continuity.
Locally sourced mud bricks were used to maintain continuity with traditional architecture. This approach is not merely aesthetic imitation; it reduces transportation-related carbon emissions and employs regionally available materials as a low-carbon strategy.
The production and construction process of the bricks was conceived as participatory, allowing the local community to be involved. In this way, the project is not only a completed object but also a collective process of building.
5. Materiality & Low-Carbon Innovation
How have you integrated local materials, traditional knowledge, or low-carbon technologies into your proposal? What role do they play in strengthening resilience?
Mud bricks have high thermal mass, providing thermal lag in desert climates. Heat absorbed during the day is gradually released, moderating indoor temperature fluctuations.
The double-wall system and air cavity function both as ventilation channels and as thermal buffers. By minimizing reliance on mechanical cooling, the project reduces energy consumption and maintenance demands.
Here, low-carbon innovation does not depend on advanced technical equipment, but on the reconfiguration of local materials and traditional environmental principles.
6. Social & Community Impact
How does your project support communities socially and economically while responding to environmental risks?
Traditional Moroccan housing culture often accommodates three to four generations living together. This multigenerational structure is not simply cohabitation, but a way of life in which caregiving, economic activity, and social relationships are closely intertwined.
The project proposes a spatial organization that supports rather than dismantles this family structure. Communal spaces on each level encourage interaction across generations and function as mediating zones where different genders and age groups can coexist naturally. These spaces are not merely circulation corridors but core elements that sustain communal bonds.
In particular, the second-floor communal space is designed for receiving guests. It continues the traditional role of hospitality, connecting the family’s internal living sphere with the external social world—separating yet linking community and society.
The commercial space on the ground floor supports family-based economic activity and alleviates financial pressure within multigenerational households. Climate adaptation here is not only an environmental response but also a reinforcement of the social and economic foundations of family life.
7. Scalability & Future Adaptability
Can your design be adapted, replicated, or scaled to other regions facing similar climate threats? How does it remain flexible over time?
Rather than proposing a fixed form to be replicated, I developed a set of design principles that translate climatic conditions into spatial strategies.
Its core lies in analyzing wind flow, air density changes, diurnal temperature variation, wall composition for thermal lag, and the use of local materials. These principles are not limited to Morocco; they can be adjusted and applied in other hot-arid climates under different local conditions.
The structure is also designed to allow flexible programmatic transformation according to changes in family size and lifestyle. The ground-floor commercial space can be converted into workspace or residential use, and communal areas can shift roles as generational configurations evolve.
Rather than replicating a specific form, the project proposes an adaptable framework that responds to the climatic and social structures of each region.
8. Message for the Future
If your project were realized, what lasting impact or message do you hope it would convey about architecture’s role in shaping a climate-resilient world?
Through this proposal, I hope to suggest that in an era of climate crisis, architecture does not necessarily need to rely solely on adding more technology.
Responding to extreme environments does not begin with controlling or overcoming nature, but with understanding existing conditions—wind, air, heat, and long-standing architectural principles—and reorganizing them within the structure of daily life.
Resilience, in this sense, goes beyond physical protection. It involves creating spaces where families and communities can endure, and re-reading accumulated traditional knowledge in contemporary terms.
I believe architecture can function not as a device that separates nature and society, but as a medium that negotiates balance between them. A sustainable future may begin not only with new technologies, but with a renewed understanding of the environmental and cultural resources we already possess.
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