Asian Architecture Research Paper

Asian Architecture [ARC 2213/2234] PROJECT 1: CASE STUDY

Sustainability Design Strategies in Sustaining Comfort Living At Sekeping Serendah.

NAME:

TAN WEI HOW

STUDENT ID:

0310707

LECTURER:

Puan Nor Hayati Ramli

SUBMISSION DATE:

9 JUNE 2015

Sustainability Design Strategies In Sustaining Comfort Living At Sekeping Serendah.

Sustainability Design Strategies in Sustaining Comfort Living At Sekeping Serendah.

Table of Contents Abstract .................................................................................................................................................. 2 1.0 Introduction ....................................................................................................................................... 3 1.1 An Overview of Sekeping Serendah ..................................................................................... 5 2.0 Living Comfort Definition ................................................................................................................... 7 3.0 Sustainability Design Strategy Definition.......................................................................................... 11 4.0 Sustainability Design Strategies as Solutions to Counter the Issues and Sustaining Comfort Living.......................................................................................................................................................12 4.1 Openness Concept and Wall-less Structure........................................................................ 13 4.2 Nature-inspired Building Materials: Timber and Mud........................................................... 16 4.3 Landscaping......................................................................................................................... 20 5.0 Conclusion ....................................................................................................................................... 23 6.0 References ...................................................................................................................................... 24

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Sustainability Design Strategies In Sustaining Comfort Living At Sekeping Serendah.

Abstract This research paper studied about the sustainability design strategies and methods that applied by the Sekeping Serendah to sustain the comfort living and environment of the forest. The chosen site, Sekeping Serendah has addressed the issues of the overall heat gain to the occupants and high humidity of the site, which giving the occupants uncomfortable experience. On the other hand, the safety and protection of occupants staying in the site also acts as one of the issues that faced by the site, where it incorporates the rainforest environment. Thus this paper will discuss about the sustainability design strategies that applied by Sekeping Serendah to sustain the comfort living and also the environment. In assisting the validation of research, observation like photographing will be as an evidence to prove the situation of the site. Document analysis will be applied to validate the definition of comfort living and sustainable design. Features and strategies such as openness concept, wood and mud as the building material, landscaping are adopted by the Sekeping Serendah to provide the comfort living for the occupants. For example, walls have been minimized to create opening for better ventilation to improve the thermal comfort level. Natural surrounding inspired the used of wood and mud as the materials for the building. Besides, the idea of landscaping morphs into a functional architectural strategies than merely being decorative. Plants are the materials to block out the sun and trees are walls and fences. The specific sustainability design strategies, some based on traditional designs, are essential in the tropics in order to minimize the need for air conditioning for comfort living.

These design strategies were acknowledged as important by the local community, although there was concern about the potential increase in the capital cost of such housing.

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Sustainability Design Strategies In Sustaining Comfort Living At Sekeping Serendah.

1.0 Introduction Application of sustainability design strategies on the architectural aspect according to the regional climate and context is crucial in providing comfort and harmony to the users. As the geography of Malaysia deals with the tropical climate, users are always experiencing the uncomfortable spaces of the building due to the high temperature and humidity condition. Reference and application of the design strategies introduced to Malaysian architecture nowadays in order to be significantly responded to the climate as well as the context and creating a harmony relationship between the building, users and the site.

The chosen site, Sekeping Serendah Retreat is located inside a Malaysian tropical rainforest, where the tropical climate has no dry season. It has successfully shown the influences of the architectural design strategies with the priorities to the users’ comfort as well as aesthetic.

In this paper, it discusses about the application of the design strategies of the tropical climate building to counter the heat gain and humidity level in the Sekeping Serendah as well as sustaining the context.

It will answer the question respectively as posed below: 1: What are the design strategies used to sustain the comfort living at Sekeping Serendah?

2: What are the design strategies in sustaining jungle and nature environment?

3: What are the influences of the site and context to the comfort living?

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Sustainability Design Strategies In Sustaining Comfort Living At Sekeping Serendah.

Design Strategies of Sekeping Serendah

Concept: Openness

Heat Gain

Structure: Wall-less

High Humidity

Material:

Protection

Landscaping

Wood, Mud

sustaining comfort living

sustaining jungle and nature environment

Figure 1: Research paper concept mapping sekeping serendah.

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Sustainability Design Strategies In Sustaining Comfort Living At Sekeping Serendah.

1.1 An Overview of Sekeping Serendah Sekeping Serendah Retreat is a boutique eco-themed resort located in the jungles of Serendah, Rawang, which is about 25km north of Kuala Lumpur. The driving time from Serendah town to the retreat is about 5 minutes, meandering past 2 Orang Asli villages.

It is a private retreat that attempt to be built lightly on the land with openness concept to celebrate the beauty of the natural environment surrounding it. The breezy concept of Sekeping Serendah design incorporates the rainforest environment, so as to provide a basic shelter to its users as they are given chances to commune with the land.

It is a collection of 10 sheds set of various designs after steel, glass, timber and mud within 5 acres of tropical rainforest. The sheds float and tread gently over the forest land beside a bubbling brook. The retreat is a getaway for the nature lovers to experience the relaxation of the nature as it also located nearby the Serendah Waterfall, which is a best place for numerous outdoor activities to offer users a chance to interact with the nature. With all the aesthetic qualities and the vast facilities it provided, Sekeping Serendah is definitely one of the must-go-places in Malaysia.

Building Facts Location

: Rawang, Selangor

Type

: Retreat accommodation in the jungle

Climate

: Tropical rainforest climate, hot and humid

Architect

: SEKSAN DESIGN

Facilities

: Forest living environment, Bedrooms, Outdoor shower, Swimming pool, Cooking stove, BBQ equipment and cutleries, Outdoor coffee table, Fridge and kitchen sink.

Activities

: Cascading waterfalls and plunge pools, Orang Asli villages, Jungle treks, Fishing lakes, Serendah golf course, Kuala Kubu Bahru and Selangro Dam.

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Sustainability Design Strategies In Sustaining Comfort Living At Sekeping Serendah.

Figure 2: Location of 10 sheds in Sekeping Serendah

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Sustainability Design Strategies In Sustaining Comfort Living At Sekeping Serendah.

2.0 Living Comfort Definition Comfort has been defined as the condition of mind which expresses satisfaction with the surrounding environment. People spend most of their time inside buildings so the indoor environment have to be designed according to occupants’ comfort and health. On the other hand, outdoor comfort should also be taken into consideration during the architectural design process.

Architectural Design Process 1. Study

2. Sketch Design

3. Design Scale: 1:100

4. Detail design Scale: 1:50-1:1

Concepts and Ideas

Choosing one of alternatives and giving exact plans on different levels

Climate and comfort

Functional 2d and 3d diagrams

Facades

Detail design of: Architectural Mechanical Electrical And structural systems

Function

Orientation

Sections

Circulation

Volume

Perspectives

Cost estimation

Culture

Plans

Model

Perspectives

Structure

Facades

exact models

Mechanical systems

Site layout

Electrical systems

Simple models

Primary decisions about mechanical, structural and electrical systems

(giving Alternatives) Concepts and Ideas Site

The drawings should be ready to built without any more description

Table 1: Steps in architectural design process

In comfort and climate study, architect have understanding the climatic factors that affects the living comfort of the occupants: Air temperature is the most common defining parameter that people think of in conjunction of thermal comfort. It directly control the heat loss of a human body through its influence on the body surface temperature.

Air movement defines the rate of convective cooling when air blows across a human body. It is necessary to remove the excess moisture through a process termed ventilation. Good ventilation has to

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Sustainability Design Strategies In Sustaining Comfort Living At Sekeping Serendah. be considered to maximize the freshness to the interior air while minimizing the loss of heated air to the exterior Relative humidity defines the rate of evaporative cooling from the human skin surface and lungs. High humidity may cause the physical discomfort by sweating a lot of a human body under a hot and humid surrounding.

Figure 3: Olgyay Bioclimatic Chart Olgyay model results Entry Data

Comfort zone (B)

Design advices (C)

1

Air temp.

comfort zone (static)

Using Solar radiation

2

RH

Air movement

3

Evaporative cooling

4

Heating system

5

A.C.

6

Shading

Sum

2

1

6

Table 2: Olgyay model result

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Sustainability Design Strategies In Sustaining Comfort Living At Sekeping Serendah.

Heat Gain and High Humidity as a Challenge in Sekeping Serendah Retreat Since the Sekeping Serendah was located in a tropical rainforest in Peninsular Malaysia, the chosen site experiences constant hot and humid climate throughout the year. The temperature will generally reach around 33째C whereas the average minimum temperature at night drops down to around 25째C. The average relative humidity is around 77% while the lowest wind speed is 28km/h.

Figure 4: Average high and low temperature for each month of the year in Selangor state

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Sustainability Design Strategies In Sustaining Comfort Living At Sekeping Serendah.

Figure 5: Average number of raining days in any month of the year in Selangor state

Figure 6: Average daily wind speed for any month in Selangor state

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Sustainability Design Strategies In Sustaining Comfort Living At Sekeping Serendah.

3.0 Sustainability Design Strategy Definition Sustainability design strategy is the conscious and proactive architectural design methods that do not harm people and the context while also leaving a positive impact. It evolved from the aspects of concerning the energy efficiency and the recycling efforts of a building. Typical building consumes energy and resources, which is negatively impact the environment by generating a large amount of waste. The challenge of designing a building intelligently is to minimize the usage of non-renewable energy, producing a minimum of wastes and pollution to the surrounding, by the same time also providing the comfortable living experience to the users who live and work in them.

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Sustainability Design Strategies In Sustaining Comfort Living At Sekeping Serendah.

4.0 Sustainability Design Strategies as Solutions to Counter the Issues and Sustaining Comfort Living The design of Sekeping Serendah act as a strategies to counter the issues of heat gain and high humidity of the site as well as sustaining comfort living to the occupants. Besides, the strategies also function to sustaining the jungle and nature environment. Features and strategies such as openness concept, wood and mud as the building material, landscaping are adopted by the Sekeping Serendah.

Walls have been minimized to create opening for better ventilation to improve the thermal comfort level.

Natural surrounding inspired the used of wood and mud as the materials for the building. Besides, the idea of landscaping morphs into a functional architectural strategies than merely being decorative.

Structure: Wall-less

Material:

Landscaping

Wood, Mud

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Sustainability Design Strategies In Sustaining Comfort Living At Sekeping Serendah.

4.1 Openness Concept and Wall-less Structure Openness is the view, the light, the feeling of being in an open and exposed space. The height of that particular space, the use of skylight together with steps to create a difference between one space and another. The architect of Sekeping Serendah applied the openness concept to promote a transparency to the nature surrounding with withholding a strong privacy desired. “It’s the idea of ‘opening up’ the house in a tropical climate and being able to sit in a semi-outdoor environment because our weather is so consistent,” says the architect.

As the previous chapter (Air Movement) mentioned before, natural ventilation is the action of encouraging fresh outdoor air flow into the indoor as well as dispelling indoor warm air through the building openings without any contributions from the mechanical systems such as air-conditioning system. It takes the full advantage of the relation between the abundance of wind flow and building orientation by having multiple openings throughout the building.

Wall-less Structure Sekeping Serendah show a free, open and unobstructed floor plan design without any partition inside the interior spaces. The space are made up by the main structural components while the unnecessary walls have been cut down from the design to allow uninterrupted wind flow to carry heat out of the building. Sekeping Serendah Warehouse 1 and 2 have successfully shown the wall-less design strategy while the space is totally erected with supporting walls without any intermediate partition, door and window. This strategy encourages flow of air throughout the whole building in order to reduce the ambient temperature, as these two warehouses are planned to accommodate minimum 10 pax of occupants together with the heat-producing appliances around the kitchen.

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Sustainability Design Strategies In Sustaining Comfort Living At Sekeping Serendah.

Figure 7: Sekeping Serendah Warehouse 1 that shows no internal and external supporting walls

Figure 8: Spatial layout and section of warehouse 1 with wind flow direction

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Sustainability Design Strategies In Sustaining Comfort Living At Sekeping Serendah.

Folding Doors Large door panels are used as the main openings for some of the sheds of Sekeping Serendah, such as the glass boxes and glass sheds. Part these adjustable door panels are in the form of casement, so relatively high efficiency 100% flow of air from outdoor to indoor is encouraged while the door panels are totally opened. Besides, another part of the adjustable door panels are in the form of sliding, which have actually the same efficiency of air flow from outdoor to indoor compared to the casement form door panels while the panels are totally folded. The large adjustable door panels do not only provide an adequate air speed to ventilate the interior spaces but also providing safety and protection to the occupants while they are closed.

Figure 9: Glass shed with foldable and adjustable glass panels

Figure 10: Spatial layout of glass shed with wind flow direction

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Sustainability Design Strategies In Sustaining Comfort Living At Sekeping Serendah.

4.2 Nature-inspired Building Materials: Timber and Mud Some of the sheds of Sekeping Serendah are found utilizing the simple construction with usage of materials, which are nature-inspired and sourced locally. For the timber and mud sheds, the architect decided to choose the building materials that can be got and inspired from the natural surrounding instead of using opaque walls and steel structure.

Timber as Main Building Materials for Timber Shed The timber sheds are erected using mostly timber as the main material for the design in relation to concrete and brick materials as well. Timber is an organic material, which its thermal, acoustic, aesthetic, mechanical and so on are very suitable to create a comfortable space for the occupants. In term of thermal properties for the timber shed, the coefficient of thermal conductivity of the timber is lower compared to aluminum or marble whereas the specific heat of it is high. These properties of timber cause the high amount of energy is required to change the temperature of timber. Besides, lightweight timber has also a faster responsiveness to temperature changes compared to those heavy materials. As the figure shows below, timber material is fully utilized in the timber shed in term of supporting and roof structures, decoration, doors, flooring and furniture.

Besides, in term of acoustic properties, timber, a light material, is not a good sound isolator but it is definitely ideal for sound absorption. It prevent echo and noise by absorbing the surrounding sound, causing the surrounding of the timber shed sounds peacefully for the occupants.

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Sustainability Design Strategies In Sustaining Comfort Living At Sekeping Serendah.

Figure 11: Timber as decorative and door material in timber shed

Figure 12: Timber as the main supporting and roof structures in timber shed

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Sustainability Design Strategies In Sustaining Comfort Living At Sekeping Serendah.

Mud as Main Building Materials for Mud Shed The mud sheds are originally build from mostly mud with combination of concrete and bricks. All these heavyweight materials act as a thermal mass for absorbing and store the heat energy. Thermal mass helps in moderating the internal temperature by balancing the diurnal (day-night) extremes, which increasing the living comfort level but reducing the energy costs.

How thermal mass works?

Thermal mass absorbs the heat from the sunlight during daytime then release it at night through the cooling breeze so as to keep the house comfortable. Thermal mass is not an insulation, it keeps and releases heat whereas insulation acts to stop heat flowing through a building. It functions to delay the heat flow through the building by as much as 10-12 hours, creating a warmer indoor environment at night and cooler indoor environment during daytime.

The opening of the mud shed encourages cool night breezes to pass through the building and carry out the stored heat energy from the thermal mass. On the other hand, shading and insulation are added to protect the thermal mass from the sunlight.

Figure 13: Mud as the main building material in mud shed

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Sustainability Design Strategies In Sustaining Comfort Living At Sekeping Serendah.

Figure 14: Changes of air temperature inside different types of buildings and outdoor

Figure 15: Heat that released and been carried away during daytime and night time

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Sustainability Design Strategies In Sustaining Comfort Living At Sekeping Serendah.

4.3 Landscaping Sekeping Serendah is nestled in a tropical rainforest with plenty of lush greenery and large overhanging trees surrounding all the sheds. The architect has designed a successful landscaping planning all around the building to enhance the function of the trees while trees act as walls and fences as well as plants as a natural shading to block out the sun.

Plants as a natural shading All the plants and vegetation that surrounds all over the exterior of Sekeping Serendah buildings act as the main sun-shading device for the building. Duran, S. C. (2011) stated that vegetation, which located along the building facades offer passive thermal control system to regulate the building temperature.

Besides, it allows the purification of air, interior cooling effect during daytime as well as regulation of temperature changes at night. In Sekeping Serendah Retreat, the architect combined a lot of plants and vegetation as a landscaping strategies into the climatic design than merely being decorative. Instead being just a shading device, the vegetation also latched onto the shading devices of the building to create more effective effect to block out the sun. Large trees and shrubs, which located all along the Sekeping Serendah Warehouse 1 and 2 give the best cooling shade while the indoor air temperature can be as much as 4 째C cooler. Besides, the location of the trees that surrounds the building also function to direct the summer breeze towards the building in order to increase the ventilation rate.

Furthermore, trees and plants that surround the site also function as walls and fences. For the outdoor spaces, bamboos are planted all along the pathway to the entrance. Those bamboos act to define the spaces as a fences as well as providing shading for the occupants who walk through the spaces. The vegetation that act as walls for the Sekeping Serendah Warehouse 1 and 2 also successfully provide a safety warning to the occupants.

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Sustainability Design Strategies In Sustaining Comfort Living At Sekeping Serendah.

Figure 16: Trees and vegetation as shading devices for warehouse 1 and glass shed

Figure 17: Trees and bamboos as walls and fences for warehouse 1 and pathway

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Sustainability Design Strategies In Sustaining Comfort Living At Sekeping Serendah.

Figure 18: How trees shades a building

Figure 19: How trees direct the wind flow into a building

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Sustainability Design Strategies In Sustaining Comfort Living At Sekeping Serendah.

5.0 Conclusion The adaptation of sustainability design strategies of Sekeping Serendah to sustain the comfort living has met the intentions to serve better for the users. Besides, other than providing a comfort living, the strategies also function to sustain and preserve the value of the rainforest context from any destruction.

Based on the research and observation, the design strategies, which are applied on the Sekeping Serendah Retreat has significantly tackled the tropical rainforest climate of the site, Malaysia.

Openness concept, building materials and landscaping are three of the effective strategies that overcome the climatic factors such as air temperature, air movement, and relatively humidity. Thus, the sheds and warehouses of Sekeping Serendah can take the advantage of the natural occurrence likes wind for natural ventilation for achieving thermal comfort. Without all the sustainability design strategies, occupants can still enjoy the comfort living but energy would be needed over the entire building lifecycle with the presence of efficient heating, cooling and ventilation systems. In conclusion, Sekeping Serendah Retreat has provided a base line, which has definitely shown the strong relationship with the surrounding context and climate. These design strategies were acknowledged as important by the local community nowadays in concerning the potential increase in the capital cost of such building.

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6.0 References 1. Brown, G., & DeKay, M. (2001). Sun, wind & light: Architectural design strategies (2nd ed.).

New York: Wiley.

2. Bay, J. (2006). Tropical sustainable architecture: Social and environmental dimensions. Oxford: Architectural.

3. Gut, P., & Ackerknecht, D. (1993). Climate responsive building. St. Gallen, Switzerland: SKAT. 4. Sekeping Serendah Retreat. (n.d.). Retrieved May 20, 2015, from http://www.gentinghighlands.info/sekeping-serendah-retreat.htm 5. Sekeping Serendah. (n.d.). Retrieved May 20, 2015, from http://www.sekeping.com/serendah/home.html 6. Kuala Selangor Climate History. (n.d.). Retrieved May 21, 2015, from http://www.myweather2.com/City-Town/Malaysia/Kuala-Selangor/climate-profile.aspx 7. Implications. (n.d.). Retrieved May 26, 2015, from http://www.informedesign.org/_news/Sustain01_06.pdf 8. Saberi, O., Saneei, P., & Javanbakht, A. (n.d.). Thermal Comfort in Architecture. Retrieved May 27, 2015, from http://nceub.commoncense.info/uploads/Saberi.pdf 9. Heidorn, K. (2011). Living Gently Quarterly: A Simple Guide to Personal Thermal Comfort.

Retrieved May 31, 2015, from https://www.islandnet.com/~see/living/articles/personalcomfort.htm 10. Architecture principles 101 - openness vs enclosure. (2012, April 7). Retrieved June 3, 2015, from https://donnellday.wordpress.com/2012/04/08/architecture-principles-101-openness-vsenclosure/ 11. Kenny, T. (n.d.). Asian Architecture Case Study. Retrieved June 5, 2015, from http://issuu.com/kennytehkahkhen/docs/project_1_case_study__belum_ 12. Yoke Lin, W. (n.d.). Wong Yoke Lin - Asian Architecture Case Study Paper. Retrieved June 5, 2015, from http://issuu.com/wongyokelin/docs/wong_yoke_lin_-_case_study_paper 13. Sabrina, Y. (n.d.). Citation Machine automatically generates citationsin MLA, APA, Chicago, and Turabian. Retrieved June 5, 2015, from http://www.citationmachine.net/ 14. Esther, T. (n.d.). Asian Architecture. Retrieved June 5, 2015, from http://issuu.com/esthertong/docs/research_paper_final

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