Thermal Modernity and Architecture

This paper develops the concept of thermal modernity in order to offer a more detailed understanding of air conditioning and the historical role it has played in transforming urban and built space. An analysis oriented by the insights of Science and Technology Studies stresses how the international ascendancy of air conditioning has been contingent upon certain socio-political forces and cultural changes that occur at the local level. The productive example of Singapore—often referred to as the ‘air-conditioned’ nation—is given to reveal the entanglements between indoor comfort provision, economic development and post-colonial nation-building. At a broader level, the paper points towards the importance of understanding air conditioning’s impact on the spread of international modernism in analytically expansive ways, such that we can more fully appreciate how it has acted to remodel the built environment at different scales and reconfigure indoor and outdoor relationships.

^ Source: SIAJ: Journal of Singapore Institute of Architects 51, 1972

Published in The Journal of Architecture 20, no.1 (2015): 92-121.

Urban green spaces are an important component of the urban ecosystem of cities as they provide a range of ecosystem services that contribute to sustainability and livability of urban areas. The extent to which such services are provided is influenced by limitations on biological processes that underpin such ecosystem services. A poorly understood limitation in the urban environment is the effects of shade created by buildings on the adequacy of photosynthetically active radiation (PAR) for plant growth. We examined the effects of building shade in high-density, high-rise residential estates in Singapore on the level and distribution of PAR, and how PAR might in turn be correlated with growth of plants in community green spaces nested within these estates. Our estimates showed that high-rise and high- density buildings reduced daily PAR by almost 50% when compared to fully exposed conditions. The reduced PAR levels were

Building

correlated with lower vegetative and reproductive growth of several species of shrubs, and increased slenderness of two tree species. The shade environment created by buildings was differentiated from shade under vegetation canopies by longer periods of high instantaneous PAR during a diurnal cycle. There was also evidence of higher red to far-red ratio in the spectral composition of PAR. We suggest that an understanding of the spatial and temporal characteristics of PAR is necessary for appropriate selection of plants, particularly to match daily PAR received on site to daily light integral requirements of plants for improved delivery of ecosystem services

Published in Urban Forestry & Urban Greening, 13, no. 4 (2014): 771-784.

Photosynthetically Active Radiation and Comparison of Methods for its Estimation in Equatorial Singapore

Urban green spaces are an important component of the urban ecosystem of cities as they provide a range of ecosystem services that contribute to sustainability and livability of urban areas. The extent to which such services are provided is influenced by limitations on biological processes that underpin such ecosystem services. A poorly understood limitation in the urban environment is the effects of shade created by buildings on the adequacy of photosynthetically active radiation (PAR) for plant growth. We examined the effects of building shade in high-density, high-rise residential estates in Singapore on the level and distribution of PAR, and how PAR might in turn be correlated with growth of plants in community green spaces nested within these estates. Our estimates showed that high-rise and high- density buildings reduced daily PAR by almost 50% when compared to fully exposed conditions. The reduced PAR levels were correlated with lower vegetative and reproductive growth of several species of shrubs, and increased slenderness of two tree species. The shade environment created by buildings was differentiated from shade under vegetation canopies by longer periods of high instantaneous PAR during a diurnal cycle. There was also evidence of higher red to far-red ratio in the spectral composition of PAR. We suggest that an understanding of the spatial and temporal characteristics of PAR is necessary for appropriate selection of plants, particularly to match daily PAR received on site to daily light integral requirements of plants for improved delivery of ecosystem services on tropical architecture.

Published in Theoretical and Applied Climatology (2015):1-11.