Bungalows near Jauja, in Peru

[Garald]

I visited an estate belonging to the agricultural university in Peru last month. It is close to Jauja, in a pleasant, fertile valley at about 3300 meters above sea level.

 

Note the night-day oscillations. The Koeppen-Geiger climate type is Cwb (no doubt the drier end of it). There's quite a bit of sun year-round - you can really feel it, since there's less atmosphere above you than usual.

 

It was clear to me that the university's bungalows were designed by someone who knew something about passive solar principles, at least as they were understood some 30 years ago or so. At the same time, whenever something has broken, it seems to have been repaired by people whose main goal may have been to fix things as cheaply as possible, and certainly did not understand the idea behind the buildings at all. There's no heating, so it does get a bit uncomfortable in the morning - I'd say 13C indoors or so. OF course, locals don't mind, in part because the bungalows are rarely used as of now, and in part because almost every other house in the valley (including nearly all modern construction) is surely colder.

What is most telling is not shown here:
(a) there is a light well in the middle of the bungalow that was surely thought of as a solar collector, but now is covered by glass that is neither translucent nor airtight. Surely something high-translucency is needed.
(b) many local houses have beautiful terracotta (clay tile) roofs, but the bungalows have metal roofs, painted red so as to look a bit like clay. I was told that the reason was not hail (there is very little hail, ever, or so my informant said) but simply cost-cutting.

 

 

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The university is actually thinking of renovating. I told them I might ask my friends over here for advice.

Edited 4 hours ago by Garald

[SteamyTea]

I will go and help them for a modest salary.

 

It looks similar to some places we lived in in South of France and the Dutch West Indies.