Site Context Issues Response Strategy

RESPONSE TO HILL AND STEEP CONTOUR

The site has many potentials due to its orientation which faces the sunset sea view. There’s a hill that has a 57% slope steepness. Hence, the hill is not walkable and needed contour modification to make it more walkable and accessible.

Greening the Hill

The existing site is very barren and dry without any shady plants. Because of that, greening the hill is a must to make the site more pleasant and comfortable.

Blend in with Nature

Minimizing the hill contour intervention by adding a roof structure to aid in efficient natural ventilation and maximizing precooled air from the sea. This food hub also uses an open-air concept to reduce energy requirements. “Hide in the Hill” Landscape Experience

Using contour variation to provide an unusual and interesting pedestrian landscape experience at the entrance. This method is also applied to the BOH Area to separate the public from the service zone.

Cut & Fill and Multi-level Space Program

The cut and fill enable the user to have multi-level activities. These activities are connected by ramps and bridges. The space program hierarchy is designed with the “the closer you are to the sea, the more refreshed you would feel” concept which places the more dense activities concentrated on the main building and the more refreshing and light activities concentrated on the lower landscape area near the sea.

On the main building, due to its contour, the building uses a semibasement instead of basement for the parking area. This allows light and fresh air to the basement and provides more flexible options for adaptive reuse in the future.

RESPONSE TO ABANDONED WETLAND

There’s a small abandoned pond in the site near the steep hill. The food hub maximize the pond potential by reconstructing it into a wetland. The wetland will also be used as water storage to collect rain water and filtered water from the water treatment plant. The food hub maximizes the sea view by designing a mass that uses a radial axis that mainly arcs towards the sea with glass as the majority of facade material.

The food hub maximizes the sea wave potential by designing a tidal wave energy harvesting system in the coastal area of the site. Tidal energy is created using the movement of tides, where the intensity of the water from the rise and fall of tides is a form of kinetic energy. The kinetic energy from the movement of water pushes the turbine to generate electricity. This system helps to generate more renewable energy for the food hub.

RESPONSE TO THE SEA

Tidal Wave Energy Harvesting System

Through calculations with edge applications, the final energy use could save 35.81% of the normal energy usage. the most significant saving impact is obtained from the cooling load. The cooling load could be saved through the usage of roof with a high Solar Reflectance Index (SRI), insulation with great U-value, and minimizing Window Wall Ratio on the east and west facade, There are also some easy options such as using ceiling fans and maximizing south window opening.

The building also saves a lot of energy usage for lighting by using skylights to allow natural sunlight to light the building during the day. For indoor and outdoor lighting, LED lights with a great lumen and efficient energy usage could be used to save energy. The building obtained renewable energy from the solar panels on the roofs and tidal wave energy harvesting on the waterfront seaside. Through calculations with edge applications, the final water use could save 53.76% of the normal water usage. the most significant saving impact is obtained from the flushing and irrigation. In this project, the constructed wetland is designed to collect rainwater and filtered water from the water treatment plant. later on, the water will be re-filtered to be used in the building for nonpotable usages such as flushing and irrigation. Through calculations with edge applications, the final embodied energy use could save 39.63% of the normal embodied energy usage. the most significant saving impact is obtained from the exterior walls and building flooring. The building uses in-situ reinforced concrete slab with >25% GGBS as the bottom floor, lighter materials as exterior walls, ETFE roofs, cored bricks, and wall insulation. The embodied carbon could be reduced by using fewer finishing materials.

For landscape areas such as constructed wetland decks, reclaimed wood is used because it is easily purchased locally to minimize carbon emissions from material transport.