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School of Architecture, Building & Design Centre of Modern Architecture Studies in Southeast Asia (MASSA)

Project 1

Case Study Paper

A STUDY ON BUILDING MATERIALS USED AND ITS RELATIONSHIP TO THE SITE TO ACHIEVE A SUSTAINABLE ARCHITECTURE IN BELUM RAINFOREST RESORT Wri,en by Helsa Josephine (0305815) Tutored by Ms. Alia For the Module

Asian Architecture (ARC 2213 / 2234) 11th November 2014

Content Abstract

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2.0| Sustainable Architecture

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3.0| Sustainable Building Material

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4.0| Belum Rainforest Resort, An Overview

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1.0| IntroducNon

5.0| Sustainable Building Materials in Belum Rainforest Resort 5.1| Rammed Earth Wall

5.2| Salvaged Brick

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5.3| Bamboo

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6.0| Importance of using Sustainable Building Material

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7.0| Conclusion

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Content

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Abstract Sustainable architecture is no longer a trend but it has becoming a need in today’s architecture movement. Sustainable architecture is an approach to minimize the negaNve impact to the environment by using the design, development space and materiality in the design process. As a development that is located in one of the oldest rainforest in the world, Belum Rainforest Resort has succeeded to achieve as a good example of sustainable architecture and it is the only resort in Malaysia to be ISO cerNfied as the most sustainable resort in Malaysia. The objecNve of this research paper is to understand how Belum Rainforest Resort achieves its sustainability, focusing on how it select and uNlize certain materials to make it a sustainable development.

To achieve the study on the said topic, visitaNon to the site to experience and gain informaNon of the site has been done. Furthermore, literature, journals and other research paper have become the guidance and resource for thorough findings.

Sustainable materials that are used by the resort that will be highlighted in this research paper will be bamboos, rammed earth and salvaged brick. The usage of these humble materials has succeeded to turn this resort to be a modern resort with poeNc designs in every corner of the development without forge^ng its sustainability. There are reasons why this materials highlighted is consider as a sustainable materials, specifically for this specific development. There are materials that can be group as both sustainable and unsustainable material in different developments and sites. Access to materials, local folks’ skills and how certain materials responding to nature will be few of reasons will be discussed in this research paper.

In conclusion, as the only sustainable resort in Malaysia that is ISO cerNfied, there are plenty approach has been done by this resort. One of them is on how the architect choose the perfect and suitable building materials and uNlize it to minimize negaNve impact and to create a harmonize design with the surrounding nature.

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1.0 | IntroducGon According to Maslow’s hierarchy of needs, shelter is categorized into psychological needs, which is the base of the pyramid of needs. As a fundamental need, shelter for human has a very long history. As Nme goes by, shelter is no longer just designed focusing on the funcNon, but there are more about it in the present. Infrastructures, buildings, since now it is more than just a shelter to human; the growth of construcNons is now a very vast growing industry with no end. This is resulNng in the constant damage that human make to the nature and other populaNon of other living things that share the same world as human. Known as wise men (Homo Sapiens), it is important for human to understand the damage that they have made and to learn on how to bring back and keep the balance of the nature. To be a student that study in the field of Architecture and Building design, approaches that architecture could take to minimize the negaNve impact to the nature is one of the important things that has to be learned and understand.

As one of the good example on sustainable architecture, Belum Rainforest Resort will be the case study to understand the be,er relaNonship on architecture and its sustainable approach, focusing on the usage of sustainable materials. This research paper will be led by this few quesNons:

QuesNon 1: what is sustainable building materials and what are these materials suppose to achieve and different from normal building materials?

QuesNon 2: What is Belum’s design concept and why sustainable building materials are able to help to achieve the design concept?

QuesNon 3: what are sustainable materials that can be found in Belum Rainforest Resort and why is it suitable to be called as sustainable materials specifically in Belum Rainforest Resort?

QuesNon 4: Why is it important and how to apply sustainable building materials in today’s design?

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2.0 | Sustainable Architecture According to Oxford DicNonary, Sustainable means conserving an ecological balance by avoiding depleNon of natural resources. Sustainable architecture means architecture that uses several approaches such as materiality, methods of construcNon, development space, and etc. to achieve a minimum negaNve impact that built environment could give to the natural environment. This conscious approach of how to build human habitat in harmony with nature has been the concept and mindset that drives present designers and architects. Triggered from the obvious impacts that construcNon industry has made during and ager the industrial revoluNon, architects and designers are forced to be aware of the fragile future of the nature environment and reminded on the Vitruvian’s basic architecture principle which is durability and uNlity. Vitruvian’s principle is equivalent with today’s sustainable basic principle, which is showing that sustainability topic and awareness is not a very young topic to be studied. It has been thought for a very long Nme but forgo,en for a short while of Nme. In sustainable architecture, design plays an important role. Not only to design to uNlize nature for user’s comfort, but aestheNc wise too. Without art, the whole idea of sustainability fails. People will never want to keep a building without a pleasing aestheNc (Wines, 2000). As a study that is much discussed in the present, there are countless studies, theories, research and papers that is talking about sustainable architecture. Focusing on Asian region, the study that can be the patron for sustainable design in Asia is “Greening Asia: Emerging Principles for Sustainable Architecture” by Dr Nirmal Kishani. In this study he stated six principles of sustainable architecture. There are:

Wellness: ConnecNon with outdoors, community, and Nature.

Embededdness: Local reliance and self sufficiency Ecology: RespecNng and repairing networks Advocacy: Building as cultural force IntegraNon: Aligning process towards performance Efficacy: Seeking long term effecNveness

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3.0 | Sustainable Building Material As stated above, according to the six principles in Greening Asia, there are several approaches that can be taken by designers in order to achieve a sustainable design. One of them, which will be the focus of this paper, is by uNlizing sustainable building materials. There are certain criteria for building materials to be categorized as sustainable building materials. Derived from the six principles in Greening Asia, criteria for building materials to be called as sustainable building materials are:

Building Materials that is produced and sourced locally Building materials that is workable by local skills Low maintenance cost Recyclability of building materials Embodied energy of building materials Health and user comfort consideraNons

All points that are stated above are important criteria for materials to be called sustainable building materials. Apart from seeing it from the Greening Asia’s principle point of view, to maximize the sustainability of these materials, we always have to relate back all of this criteria to the specific and given site, for this case is Belum Rainforest Resort. By using building materials that is produced and sourced locally, it will make a very efficient on cost wise. TransportaNon cost can be minimized by drasNcally rather than imporNng materials from other places. Apart from cost wise, using local sourced materials can minimize the damage to the environment. To cancel the transportaNon of materials to the site means to cancel the damage and the polluNon that could be done by the process. Besides finding materials that is sourced locally, it is important to choose materials that are workable by local skills, with the reason of financial cost, it is not efficient to import experNse from other places to work on certain materials on one project. Thinking about the future, it is not a wise thing too to use materials that local skills cannot handle to maintain or to fix ager buildings are completed. Another essenNal point of sustainable building materials is its recyclability. Ager all, sustainability is all about minimizing.

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the negaNve impact from construcNon to the environment. It is wise to choose materials that have high percentage of possibiliNes to be recycled in the future in event of demoliNons. Not only that, besides using material that can be recycled, to choose materials that is from the past structure demoliNon in the local area is highly advisable or to uNlize the waste materials that is used in the previous development for the upcoming development. This is to reduce the need of using or damaging more natural environment or resources

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4.0 | Belum Rainforest Resort, An Overview

Pulau Banding

Photo credit to: h,p://jombelum.com

Belum Rainforest Resort is located in a man-­‐made island called Pulau Banding that sits harmoniously in the middle of Temenggor Lake, Perak. Apart from that, it is also located in the midst of The Royal Belum Rainforest, a home for over 3 000 species of flowering plants, including the biggest flower species known as Rafflesia and numbers of animal species for over 130 million years. As the home of numbers of species, this 300 000 hectares of land is obviously a paradise to the nature world, and yet it is sNll kept undisturbed by mankind, make The Royal Belum Rainforest able to offer nature at its purest. Aware of the importance of its locaNon, EMKAY group, the owner of Belum Rainforest Resort always put sustainability above everything else in their development. As the resort that is known as the most sustainable resort and cerNfied by ISO, Belum Rainforest Resort seems to succeed its goal. Besides to be the most sustainable resort, Tuan Haji Ahmad Khalif bin Tan Sri Datuk Haji Mustapha Kamal, chief excecuNve officer of EMKAY group said that their purpose is to educate public and bringing the awareness of how fragile our nature is and how crucial it is to protect it. He even stated that his company is willing to run some talks to bring up this sustainable awareness to publics.

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5.0 | Sustainable Building Materials Used by Belum Rainforest Resort As the most sustainable resort in Malaysia cerNfied by ISO, there are several approaches that is taken by Belum Rainforest Resort. Passive design to achieve user’s comfort, energy efficiency, and as said what will be highlighted in this paper, the usage of sustainable building materials.

There will be three different materials that will be highlighted in this research paper, they are: rammed earth wall, salvaged bricks, and bamboo. Each building materials will be studied is chosen for different reasons. Rammed earth wall are very much reliable on local sourced material. Salvaged bridge is an example on using recycled building materials from the excess building materials from the previous construcNon work. Bamboo is a material that is used a lot in the design that is complimenNng the local culture of naNve people that uses bamboo as their primary building materials. Apart from this brief reasons, in depth explanaNon will be elaborated more.

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5.1 | Rammed Earth Wall Rammed earth wall can be found in the 2nd phase of Belum Rainforest Resort’s development.

Rammed earth wall is known as one of the oldest wall construcNon technique in the world.

Rammed earth wall is also known as the alternaNves of load bearing wall with a much lower carbon emission and energy efficient. Placed in front of deluxe suites in 2nd phase of Belum Rainforest Resort, This beauNful orange color rammed earth wall looks like it is just placed for decoraNve purposes only. But by understanding the characterisNc of rammed earth wall, we will understand the bigger purpose of pu^ng this wall before the entrance to deluxe suites. With the thickness of around 300 mm, more or less, this decoraNve element offered several important funcNons for the user’s comfort in the suites. With this thickness, it is enough to give a good thermal mass and noise reducNon to the inside of the suite. Rammed earth wall will slow down the transfer of heat from the outside to the inside, in order to maintain a comfortable thermal comfort. Beside that, placed in the middle of the outdoor and the suite units, the rammed earth wall work as the separaNon between the private and the public space. With its thickness and characterisNc, this rammed earth wall is good enough to absorb the noise from the outside and prevent it to disturbed users that are inside the private space. When it says that this wall could absorb the noise, doesn’t means it absorb 100% of the noise, but it is effecNve enough to reduce the noise from the outside. RelaNng it back to the site, rammed earth wall can be categorized as sustainable building materials not only that it offers a very good impact for user’s comfort and how durable it is, but also it also rely on materials that is sourced locally. By considering this, we can eliminate unnecessary cost and damage for its transportaNon.

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Photo credit to: h,p://ooshellooshell.blogspot.com

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5.2 | Salvaged Brick

Photo Credit to: www.pamdirectory.my

Looked like a normal brick wall in a glance, this brick cladding wall that is placed near to the conference and mulN purpose hall has its own a,racNon. Salvaged brick wall that is sourced from the construcNon of phase one’s development, the remaining bricks from the construcNon is collected and was arranged and built to be a beauNful and interesNng brick-­‐cladding wall. It is such a very wise decision to reusing the remaining materials from the previous construcNons. By choosing not to demolish the remaining bricks, it benefits the nature and the environment, because when it is decided to be reuse instead of demolishing it, it saves the environment from the polluNon caused by burning the bricks or minimizing the landfill in order to dispose them.

Beside that, by using recycle bricks for the second phase of construcNon, it benefits the resort for they don’t have to spend extra cost on extra new building materials for the current wall that is made up from the salvaged bricks. Besides it saved extra cost for brand new building material, it saves unnecessary transportaNon cost for the resort to spend. When we talk about saving it from transportaNon and relate it back to sustainable and how it affect the environment, by cancelling transportaNon of new materials by using recycle materials, air, land or even water polluNon that is caused by the transportaNon of the materials can be prevented too. Using salvaged bricks as one part of the cladding wall in the development looks like a very minor and unimportant decision, but this example of menNoned decision is actually proved that when it comes to environment, and saving it, giving posiNve impact to it, even the small and minor decision such as recycling the bricks from previous construcNon ma,ers and it means a lot, both from environment wise as well as from cost wise.

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5.3 | Bamboo The third building material and decoraNve material that can be found a lot in the site is bamboo.

Bamboo is mainly found in the first phase of the development. Known as a very strong, durable and flexible material, bamboo is a very popular choice of building material in Asia region.

Although bamboo is also known as poor men’s Nmber, but its characterisNc of high durability with a very light weight make it become a famous building material, no longer in Asia region, but in all over the world. There are numbers of architects that always uses bamboo as their main building material to work with and create beauNful and poeNc designs out of it. RelaNng it back to the site, Belum Rainforest Resort, by not forge^ng to use bamboo in the design is one of the wise decisions of choosing building material. Bamboo has a special relaNonship to the site.

Before all the development made by EMKAY group, there are people that actually lived in this island for quite someNme. They are called as Orang Asli (The NaNve). In Orang Asli tradiNonal development, bamboo has always been their primary building material for their houses and other gathering public space. With this background, when we talk about the local’s construcNon skill, it is not a surprise that the local’s are very good to control and construct with bamboo. Even tho from the interviews that has been done gave an informaNon that the bamboo that is used in the modern development of EMKAY group is not a local bamboo, but imported bamboo, for the reason of higher quality and higher durability, using bamboo for this development is sNll a very good idea. By not forge^ng the local culture and adopNng it, and inject it into a modern development is giving a statement that even though this Belum Rainforest Resort is a modern development, but it doesn’t forget and throw away the culture and history of Belum Rainforest Resort.

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Photo Credit: Wdominic from www.flickr.com

The Usage of Bamboo as decoraNve building materical creaNng a poeNc design to the resort

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6.0 | Importance On Using Sustainable Material The vast growth of construcNon world and lack of sensiNvity of the negaNve impact that caused by built environment to the nature environment for the past few decades has caused this world a huge impact. When publics understand on what is happening, things are a li,le bit too late.

Damage has been done. What we as designers as well as people that live and love this world should prevent this to go worst while fixing it with small steps. This is when the idea sustainable architecture arises and studied by almost every old and young designer. One of the most important aspects of sustainable architecture, and what has been highlighted in the research above is on how to uNlize a right sustainable material. To be able to idenNfy which material that is suitable with which development will minimize or even save us from the negaNve impact that construcNon could give. Not only that, by choosing the right sustainable material will could reduce cost when the right sustainable material is chosen.

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7.0 | Conclusion We are human, as the highest and the smartest in the ecosystem, share the world together with million other species, we should be aware that this world is not only for human development. As designers and architects that play a very big role in shaping and drive human development, it is important for architects to always bear in mind on how fragile this nature world are and how criNcal it is to keep the whole thing in balance. From the research paper that has been done, Belum Rainforest Resort give a very brilliant example on how to work on and harmonizing between built and natural environment through several approaches, especially on building materials that is used in the development.

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James Wines, 2000. Green Architecture (Architecture & Design). EdiNon. Taschen.

Ross Spiegel, 2010. Green Building Materials: A Guide to Product SelecNon and SpecificaNon. 3 EdiNon. Wiley.

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Belum Rainforest Resort -­‐ an album on Flickr. 2014. Belum Rainforest Resort -­‐ an album on Flickr.

[ONLINE] Available at: h,ps://www.flickr.com/photos/ah-­‐wong/sets/72157606413234856/.

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In brief: a history of sustainable architecture . 2014. In brief: a history of sustainable architecture . [ONLINE] Available at: h,p://www.architecture.com/RIBA/Aboutus/ SustainabilityHub/Designstrategies/IntroducNon/1-­‐0-­‐5 Inbriefahistoryofsustainablearchitecture.aspx. [Accessed 11 November 2014].

Tracking Sustainability in Architecture | Dwell. 2014. Tracking Sustainability in Architecture | Dwell. [ONLINE] Available at: h,p://www.dwell.com/post/arNcle/tracking-­‐sustainability-­‐ architecture. [Accessed 11 November 2014].

BENEFITS. 2014. BENEFITS. [ONLINE] Available at: h,p:// www.rammedearthconstrucNons.com.au/index.php?mp_id=5. [Accessed 11 November 2014].

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