A beautiful wraparound porch helps control the home's temperature.

Truly great architecture is successful in both form and function, merging the practical and the beautiful into a single cohesive design. Environmental considerations are particularly important in home design, as the climate and surroundings will dictate everything from the choice of building materials to the shape of the roof. So what kinds of choices does a master architect make for a home in a tropical location?

Architect Howard Holtzman of Howard Holtzman and Associates has been designing exclusive homes for fortune 500 clients for nearly 30 years. He specializes in luxury homes, yachts, and exotic island properties. Here he explains some of the specific choices he made for a home in The Bahamas:

• Look to the details.
  Every detail in the house has something to do with practicality and aesthetics, and these details add up to a house that is perfectly suited to the Bahamas.
  
• Wraparound porch cools the house.
  The house has a covered porch that goes all the way around the structure, providing plenty of outdoor living space. The porch also gives the building lots of shade, making it naturally cooler.
  
• Shutters are pretty and practical.
  Hurricane shutters are decorative, but also provide security and protect the doors and windows in severe weather.
  
• Traditional design, modern construction.
  The doors and windows are built in a way that is traditional to the area, but they are also completely modern and able to withstand hurricane forces.
  
• Design defeats water and insects.
  The house is built with concrete posts in the ground and wood columns on top of these. This plan keeps the wood well out of the range of water, and makes the wood structure less vulnerable to insects.
  
• Smart design can be beautiful.
  You may not realize it at first glance, says Holtzman, but there is a beauty to being practical.

For more about intelligent architecture and home design, check out the following websites:

HGTV: Home and Garden Television
www.hgtv.com

Architecture Week
www.architectureweek.com

Sustainable Architecture: Eco Design And Landscaping, Urbanism
www.aloha.net

Green Home Building
www.greenhomebuilding.com