Architectural Design Project: UNESCO Social and Cultural Centre (Design Report)

School of Architecture, Building and Design Centre for Modern Architecture Studies in Southeast Asia (MASSA) Bachelor of Science (Hons) in Architecture

Architectural Design Project (ARC 3127) Project 1c: Design Report

Name : Kong Ren Heng Student ID: 0316416 Tutor : Mr. Jas

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CONTENT 1.0 Outline

1.1 Abstract

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2.0 Contextual Study

2.1 Site Introduction

2.2 Site History

2.3 Site Issues

2.4 Urban Studies

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3.0 Design and Social Impact

3.1 Micro Site Analysis

3.2 Precedent Studies

3.3 Design Intention

3.4 Project Proposal

3.5 Site Response

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4.0 Environmental Strategies

4.1 Orientation

4.2 Sun

4.3 Ventilation

4.4 Rainwater Harvesting

4.5 Building-integrated Photovoltaic

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1.0 Outline 1.1 Abstract The UNESCO Social and Cultural Centre at Portuguese Settlement, Malacca is proposed to provide a platform for the Portuguese people practise and share their culture with other people, as well as providing quality public spaces for them to interact with each other, strengthening the bond of the community.

Before the project is initiated, a site study is conducted for a better understanding of the site contexts, such as its strengths and weaknesses, opportunities and threats, climate condition, culture, human circulation and so on. Afterwards, design intentions are introduced in two parts: one is the master planning, aiming on fixing issues on site hence creating a better site condition, and the UNESCO centre building itself, aiming to provide a variety of programs that benefits the Portuguese community in order to maintain and enhanced their identity.

In addition, the project also calls for sustainable design, both passive and active. These include the orientation of the UNESCO centre in relation to sun position and wind direction, solar analysis, natural ventilation, rain water harvesting and solar cellls utilization.

This report will start at introducing the site and design intentions, thereafter focuses on the sustainable design.

References: 1. ALA Architects wins Helsinki library competition. (2013). Retrieved July 22, 2016, from http://www.dezeen.com/2013/06/14/ala-architects-wins-helsinki-library-competition/ 2. Stein, B., Reynolds, J., & McGuinness, W. J. (1992). Mechanical and electrical equipment for buildings. New York: J. Wiley & Sons.

3. Eiffert, P., & Kiss, G. J. (2000). Building-integrated photovoltaic designs for commercial and institutional structures: A sourcebook for architects. Golden, CO: National Renewable Energy Laboratory.

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2.0 CONTEXTUAL STUDY 2.1 Site Introduction The Portuguese Settlement in Malacca is home to the Kristang people, who are indigenous group of Portuguese descent. Kristang is a creole language which is the mixture of 16 century Portuguese, Malay and some dialect languages. The settlement is mainly made up of residential and commercial area, with area near to the sea mostly residential. There are also a few educational institutions at the site, such as the Limkokwing Malacca.

Chapel Site

Limkokwing Malacca

Portuguese Square Tamasek Hotel

2.2 Site History After Malacca was founded by Prince Parameswara in 1390, its strategic location soon enabled itself to become one of the major trading port at that time. This attracted attention from many exploring country, including the Portuguese, which successfully colonized Malacca in 1511, only to be defeated by the Dutch in 1641. As the Portuguese fled Malacca, some were left behind. The Portuguese people nowadays are the descendants of families of intermarriage between Portuguese men and native women. After the British has taken over Malacca, in 1930 Father Alvaro Manuel Coroado and Father Jules Pierre Francois purchase land to create a safe haven for the Portuguese people, where they can practice their culture and religion freely. The settlement started as a small fishing village, but soon attracted Kristang people from all over Malaysia and has grown into one of the tourist attraction of Malacca today.

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2.0 CONTEXTUAL STUDY 2.3 Site issues Access The site is hard to access as there are no public transport available. The entrance into the site is not obvious and is easy to miss.

Site

Traffic The road leading into the site is fairly congested during festival when there are major celebration and activities happening on site.

Lack of landmarks There are no significant landmarks that helps to navigate to the site.

2.3 Urban Studies Landmarks

Pedestrian Path

Districts

Vehicular Path

Nodes

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3.0 DESIGN AND SOCIAL IMPACT 3.1 Micro Site Analysis The proposed site for the UNESCO Cultural and Social Centre is a car park situated at Portuguese Settlement, Malacca. Home to the Kristang people who are indigenous group of Portuguese descent, 1 the settlement started as a small fishing village, but later attracted Kristang people from all over Malaysia. The settlement has then grown into one of the tourist attraction in Malacca today. The car park is situated near the sea, surrounded by seafood restaurants, Limkokwing Malacca, residential houses, a school, Portuguese Swot Analysis Strengths Pleasant sea view Abundant wind flow

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Weaknesses Lack of greenery and shading on site Limited access for traffic Bad water quality Smelly back lane

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Opportunities Food and tourist attraction Unique social and cultural identity Job opportunities and improve income

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Threats Environmental issues Fading community identity

3.2 Precedent Study Name: Helsinki National Library Architect: ALA Architects Location: Helsinki, Finnish

The Helsinki National Library by ALA Architects was designed based on the idea of dividing the functions of the library into three distinctive levels: an active ground floor, a calm upper floor and an enclosed in-between volume containing spaces with more specific uses.

The arching design draws and welcome people into the public ground floor. Quiet reading area is located on the upper floor, with an large full-length window overlooking the views in front. Media rooms

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3.0 DESIGN AND SOCIAL IMPACT 3.3 Design Intention Despite considered as a food and tourist attraction with restaurants nearby selling Portuguese food, there is no landmark that portrays Portuguese identity. While not during festival season, there is no activities that identify the site as a settlement for the Portuguese people. Younger generation also leave the settlement as they prefer the city area with more entertainment. The cultural identity of the people is slowly fading away due to the lack of Portuguese essence, worsen by the sea-front development, as the sea, an important aspect in the Portuguese people culture, is being taken away.

Master planning is introduced to solve on-site issues and programs that help to enhanced the identity of Portuguese people and the bond between community are proposed.

3.4 Project Proposal The UNESCO centre provides a platform for the Portuguese people to share their knowledge and culture to other people. By continuing practising and sharing the culture, their identity is enhanced and maintained. It also provides spaces for the people to interact with each other, strengthening the bond between the community.

Culinary workshop Dance studio Visitor interpretive centre Language classroom History and culture gallery

Multi-purpose hall

Amphitheatre Flexible-exhibition space

Three aspects of their culture are chosen as programs for activity spaces: food, performance and language, which translate into culinary workshop, dance studio and language classroom.

Multi-purpose hall is provided to suit a variety of needs, be it performance, speech or community meeting.

Ground floor amphitheatre and flexible-exhibition space provide opportunities for a variety of activities to happen on site, creating a more vibrant public spaces, as well as improve the bonding of the community.

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3.0 DESIGN AND SOCIAL IMPACT 3.5 Site Response Master Plan 1

An exit route is created to divert the exit traffic.

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Pedestrians from the existing outdoor car park are encourage to go through the Portuguese Square and arriving at the pedestrian entrance of the UNESCO centre.

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Smelly back lane is converted to green space that connects pedestrian from residential area to the Portuguese Square.

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Service trucks can reach the seafood restaurants at the other side.

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Pockets of green space at the site to provide shading and quality public spaces.

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The pavement material follows existing material in front of the seafood restaurants to break boundaries and create a unified public space experience.

Design Strategies

Elevated design The building is raised above ground so as not to obstruct views from existing buildings towards the activities happening in public spaces as well as the viewing axis of Portuguese Square towards the sea.

Existing buildings range from 2-storeys to 3-storeys.

Space Volume Double volume spaces in between single volume spaces create emphasis and welcoming openings facing the nodes and sea.

Passive Design Openings allows uninterrupted wind flow and natural lighting to reach into the building

Sea Wave Concept Inspired by the importance of sea in Portuguese People and the fact that their culture changed as they settled and adapted as Malaysian-Portuguese, sea wave, as a change in water level, influenced the design of the building.

Visual Connection Large openings at activity spaces are arranged at facing nodes and entrance, to have a visual connection between visitors and the activities inside.

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4.0 ENVIRONMENTAL STRATEGIES 4.1 Orientation The UNESCO centre is orientated with its longer facades facing northeast and southwest respectively. As the longer facades are not directly facing east and west, this helps to reduce heat gain in the building as the facade exposed to the sunlight is reduced.

Some of the heat from northeast is also intercepted by service area such as toilets and lifts.

Sun Path Diagrams

21 MAR, 9am

22 JUN, 9am

21 DEC, 9am

21 MAR, 12pm

22 JUN, 12pm

21 DEC, 12pm

21 MAR, 4pm

22 JUN, 4pm

21 DEC, 4pm

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4.0 ENVIRONMENTAL STRATEGIES 4.2 Solar Analysis Activity spaces are orientated to receive natural lighting. This creates hierarchy as the spaces are brighter compared to dimmer circulation space. Timber cladding as secondary facade also acts as shading devices to reduce heat gain in the building. Clerestories at the roof allows some sunlight to penetrates into the dimmer circulation spaces.

Windows position on plan

Secondary facade acts as shading device

Clerestories on roof allow sunlight to reach inter spaces

Part of sectional perspective showing the clerestories

Exterior perspective

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4.0 ENVIRONMENTAL STRATEGIES 4.3 Wind Analysis As abundant wind flow is one of the strengths of the site due to its location is very near to the sea, all of the windows are operable to allow maximum natural ventilation. The lower ground car park is also ventilated by ventilation openings found on the risers of the steps at the entrances and amphitheatre, as well as the opening for the staircase.

Ventilation openings at the risers of steps above provide natural ventilation for lower ground car park Ventilation opening Cross ventilation at lower ground floor

Cross ventilation at ground floor

Operable windows at every floor allow natural ventilation

Cross ventilation at second floor 11

4.0 ENVIRONMENTAL STRATEGIES 4.4 Rain Water Harvesting

4.5 Building-integrated Photovoltaic

As Malaysia is a hot and humid country with regular and sufficient rainfall throughout the year, rain water harvesting becomes very effective in providing an alternative source of water supply. The harvested rain water are collected at gutters on the roof and channeled to water tank at the lower ground floor service room. The harvested rain water is used for cleaning and landscape irrigation.

Building-integrated Photovoltaic (BIPV) refers to a construction method that replaces parts of traditional building envelope, such as roof or facade, with modular solar cell units. These units are integrated into the envelope instead of as an addition. As Malaysia is a country with sufficient sunlight, solar energy can be utilized to save active energy consumption. The efficiency of solar cells help to offset the additional cost required for the BIPV installation.

The UNESCO centre has large area of facade and roof that are exposed to the sun. This weakness is turned into advantage by proposing to integrate solar cells into the facade and roof.

Diagram of the rain water harvesting system in the UNESCO centre Potential rain water collected from roof Roof yield = roof area x average annual rainfall = 1,330 sqr metre x 2,400 mm = 3,192,000 litre per year

Example of BIPV panels on facade

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