Passive cooling for humid subtropics

We are exploring passive cooling technologies for the humid subtropics, where evaporative cooling doesn't work too well and there is little in the way of a diurnal swing (or, for that matter, much of a seasonal swing, relatively speaking). Ideas?

Study Middle Eastern Wind Towers.
They are used right across to Bangladesh, I use one at my place in Australia

I really like vented roofs. Even better is a double roof where there is a foot or more of air space between upper rain shedding, sun deflecting roof and the living area roof. See the image below.

I've had some success with large roof eaves, a wrap around porch to shade the walls, high ceilings and a locating my house with several tall trees on the western side to block out some of the afternoon sun.

Cross ventilation has been pretty ineffective. I put in casement windows with the intention of them acting as wind scoops but as you know it's often very still down here in the summer.

I'm going to try an earth sheltered structure next possibly with earth tubes. For dehumidification I'm thinking about using calcium chloride.

Here is a site explaining cross ventilation
natural ventilation and options

And another
Passive cooling in Australia

And more
Middle Eastern wind towers from Iran

We’re planning on building the traditional Texas ranch house where you build one small home, live in it, then build another small building nearby but close enough to create a wind tunnel between the two.

You’ve probably heard of it, it’s called a dog trot.

Traditionally they’d be pier and beam to allow air flow underneath the floor as well but we’re doing a concrete slab.

Lately we’ve been discussing clerestories... any idea if we would regret doing this in south-central Texas? Lol

One of the most underutilized simple technologies is just good old-fashioned eaves.

So many architects are building homes with no eaves and it makes me cringe... my house doesn't have sufficiently broad eaves either. One of the trillion things I put on my "If I ever build my own house I will..." list.

Block the high summer sun and let in the low winter sun.

Another simple technology is wind-permeable sun shades. Here in Japan they're an old tech called 簾垂れ (sudare - https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sudare). Combined with cross ventilation you get a very decent cooling effect. In my cool climate raised opinion it's not enough, but it definitely lowers energy costs.

Another variation on that is the green curtain - plant some vining plant like bitter gourd in planters in front of your southern windows and let them grow to cover the window. Supposedly it works similarly to sudare, but I don't have any personal anecdotes on it.

When I was traveling in the tropics I noticed that almost every floor was concrete, marble, granite, or some other cool hard surface. I thought it was rather uncomfortable until I realized it was all about managing the temperature. The streetside stores in Malaysia all keep their entire storefront wall entirely open. There's not just no door, there's no wall.

In Australia, eaves are being left off to save money.
I was informed as such by a builder.
So people build a 3500 sq ft house and save $2500 on eaves.
The eaves were once compulsory because of the benefits in cooling homes. I guess with air cons, they simply pay the $2500 they save in power bills to cool the building!!
Sounds dumb to me.

I've been looking through pictures of wind catchers like John described, but couldn't see how they were being built until I found this cool diagram.

It seems like something useful even where I'm at for our hot, humid summers. Though I'd need to figure out how to shutter the top during our freezing winters to avoid losing all our heat... 🤔