This paper deals with a global approach in the thermal and airflow design of new dwellings and specially low-cost housing built in the French tropical overseas islands. The sizing of passive cooling techniques has been evaluated thanks to a simulation code. The solutions have been edited in a reference document that serves as work-base for the design of dwellings developments in the French tropical territories. An experimental and sociological survey has been carried out over two years (from 1998 to 1999) in order to validate the impact of these passive cooling specifications on the comfort of tenants and to have an immediate feedback and correct the solutions if necessary. The paper presents the implementation, the experimental survey and the results for the two first housing projects built according to the passive design specifications. This step is important because the aim of the public utilities is to expand the ECODOM specifications on a much broader scale and to prepare to future housing thermal regulations. The results indicated that the solar protection of the roof remains one of the main points in the thermal design of buildings in a tropical climate as well as the natural ventilation. The sociological study showed that the tenants were globally satisfied with their flat as far as the thermal aspects are concerned. However, dissatisfaction resulted from the bad acoustic design of the flats. (C) 2004 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.