Asian Architecture_Project 1_Case Study Paper_David Koo Mei Da_0311181

Asian Architecture [ARC 2234]

PROJECT 1: CASE STUDY PAPER

A Study of Design Approaches in Achieving Sustainable

Architecture - Royal Belum Rain Forest Resort

NAME : David Koo Mei Da

STUDENT ID : 0311181

LECTURER : Ms. Ida Marlina

SUBMISSION DATE : 12th June 2014

A Study of Design Approaches in Achieving Sustainable Architecture - Royal Belum Rain Forest Resort

ARC 2234 Asian Architecture 1

A STUDY OF DESIGN APPROACHES IN ACHIEVING SUSTAINABLE

ARCHITECTURE - ROYAL BELUM RAIN FOREST RESORT

Table of Contents Page

Abstract 2

1.0 Introduction 3

2.0 An Overview of the Elements in Achieving Sustainable Design 5

3.0 Importance of Sustainable Design in Architecture 7

4.0 Ways to Practice Sustainable Architecture 8

4.1 Design approaches 8

4.1.1 Basic Building Design 8

4.1.2 Passive System 16

4.1.3 Mechanical System 18

4.2 Spatial Arrangement 19

5.0 Conclusion 23

6.0 References 24



ABSTRACT

The main idea of studying and applying green design approaches is none other than

to achieve sustainable architecture which can last long and not to mention, bringing a

minimum impact to the surroundings. With the sustainability in architecture being more and

more significant, rather than focusing only at its facade and functions, it is anticipated that

sustainable architecture can be practiced not only at the stage of design, but also applied in

the future by self sustaining. In assisting the validation of the research paper, Royal Belum

Rain Forest Resort with its design based on sustainable ideas was chosen for site visit.

Consist of various buildings at the site, it is necessary to choose an ideal building which can

specifically show the sustainability features, in which the chalets at the phase 2 are chosen.

As it is clear that there are three different design approaches that are currently being

practiced by the architects and designers, the approaches are, however, arranged in a

triangular manner, whereby the bottom is the Basic Building Design, followed by Passive

Building Design and on top of them, Mechanical Building Design. Besides, the viability in

architecture can be practiced from the spatial arrangement based on its surrounding context.

It was found that the chalets were built in a clustered manner, which the land does not

discharge much, but built according to the topography of the site. Facing the Temenggor

Lake with vernacular design, these were seen as designs which can apply both the green

strategies via the design processes. Whereas from its facade design and spatial

arrangement, the chalets can clearly show the combination of typical and modern

sustainable designs, at the same time introducing new construction methods to some typical

buildings. Hence, it has come to a conclusion that the chalets actually demonstrate

sustainable features in terms of its spatial arrangement, as well as its building form. It is said

that many sustainable design strategies can be extracted and learnt from the chalets.



1.0 INTRODUCTION

"The growth of what we may, in the present context, describe as ‘unsustainable’

architecture began, at the end of the 18th century, with the industrial revolution, as more and

more new technologies were incorporated into the fabric of buildings. Buildings for all

purposes, residential, industrial and institutional came increasingly to adopt mechanical

systems of heating, ventilation and illumination in the quest to adopt the latest technologies

in the service of their inhabitants" (Hawkes, 2014).

In replying to this matter, the publication of "Our Common Future" in 1987, extracted

from the report of Brundtland Commission, has finally lead to the relation of sustainability

with architecture (Hawkes, 2014)., which has now become more and more popular in most

of the developing countries.

According to World Commission on Environment and Development (1987), shelter is

to be categorized as sustainable development, as it is one of the elements under essential

human needs. There are two main concepts in designing sustainable buildings, which they

are the limitation by the state of technology, as well as the priority or main purpose of the

buildings. (UN Documents - Gathering a body of global agreements, 2014)

In order to conduct this study paper, a site visit to the award-wining Royal Belum

Rain Forest Resort at Pulau Banding, Perak was conducted. This resort consists of 2

different phases and this research paper is targeted on the phase 2 chalets. From here,

there are many new designs that can be learned from the sustainable buildings. Therefore,

the architects and engineers shall not disregard the achievements of being fashionable in

their designs or works in the 19th and 20th centuries, but to understand the word

'sustainability' with greater certainty.

This study paper will investigate mainly on the design approaches in achieving

sustainable architecture by responding to the following questions:



1. What is sustainable architecture design?

2. What are the elements in achieving sustainable design?

3. Why do we need to achieve sustainable in our design?

4. How can we practice sustainable design?

5. How do the design approaches and spatial arrangement affect the sustainability of

the building?



2.0 AN OVERVIEW OF SUSTAINABLE DESIGN

According to Oxford Universities Press (2014), 'Sustainable' means 'conserving an

ecological balance by avoiding depletion of natural resources' and 'Design' means 'a plan or

drawing produced to show the look and function or workings of a building, garment, or other

object before it is made'. In other words, sustainable design may refer to conserve balance

in terms of ecological before it is constructed.

Sustainable design needs to acquire the equilibrium between ecology, economy and

society. There are few elements that define sustainable design and one of them is efficacy.

Efficacy, unlike efficiency, is an action to seek for long-term effectiveness within the whole

system. Secondly is ecology, which the design has to respect the networks of living

communities, and followed by the third element, wellness, which refers to the connection

with outdoors, community and nature. The next elements that show sustainable design are

embeddedness and advocacy. Embeddedness may be referred to become self-sufficient by

relying on local resources, whereas advocacy can be simply defined as the building serves

as a cultural force. Also, integration is the last key of sustainable design, which it is normally

regarded as a methodological framework to prevent fragmentation in the prevailing cultures

(Kishnani, 2012).

In shaping a greener and more energy-efficient building, sustainability has actually

created an alternative pathway which leads us in achieving the objectives, and this is clearly

shown from the spatial arrangement (Figure 1), facade and the materials used by the phase

2 traditional chalets at Royal Belum Rain Forest Resort, Pulau Banding (Figure 2).



Figure 1 Royal Belum site plan

(Source: Ariffin, 2014)

Figure 2 Phase 2 traditional chalets at Royal Belum



3.0 IMPORTANCE OF SUSTAINABLE DESIGNS IN ARCHITECTURE

Ever since the beginning of industrial revolution in the 18th century, the constructions

were no longer bonded with mother nature as mostly, their materials were fabricated from

the factories that arose at that period of time. Time passes and in the present context which

the whole world is looking at, the increments of the cost and resource managements, safety

issues and not to forget, the source of energy used for the buildings, have eventually

contributed to the reasons of practicing sustainable designs in architecture (Sustainable

Environmental Technologies, 2009).

According Hosey (2013), the major reason that leads to sustainable designs in

architecture, however, is due to the environmental impacts that have brought by the

buildings. In order to counter this issue, United States Green Building Council (USGBC) has

therefore allocated Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design (LEED) rating system in

order to encourage and certify the buildings which built under the guidelines of LEED. The

reason behind this system which appeared decades ago are none other than to minimize the

negative environmental impacts of the buildings.

Besides, sustainable designs in architecture are meant to enhance the efficiency of

the buildings. There are several test that can determine the efficiency of the building and one

of them is the Life Cycle Assessment (LCA). LCA is widely used nowadays as it moderates

the use of materials and life cycle of the building from construction to demolition. Moreover,

sustainable architecture helps to promote new type of energy resources. As the non-

renewable resources are soon to be depleted, renewable energies such as solar heating,

wind power and geothermal energy should be implemented as part of the sustainable

features. These features do not only emphasize on the importance of being sustainable, but

what mattered the most is that they are also regarded as a way to respect the site and

mother nature.



4.0 WAYS TO PRACTICE SUSTAINABLE ARCHITECTURE

The sustainability of the building depends mainly on the 3 tier design approaches and

the spatial arrangement of the building layout. These design approaches and spatial

arrangement are adapted wisely by the architects and designers in order to achieve thermal

comfort to the users as it is regarded as part of the achievement for sustainable architecture.

By emphasising on thermal comfort level of the building, architects and designers shall

notice that they are to achieve this goal long before they started to design.

4.1 Design Approaches

According to David Goldman Sustainable Architecture (no date), the design

approaches can be further broken down into 3 different stages, which are tier 1 basic

building design, tier 2 passive systems and tier 3 mechanical systems.

Figure 3 3 Tier design approaches

(Source: David Goldman Sustainable Architecture, no date)

4.1.1 Basic Building Design

Basic building design uses the building form and structure to minimize heat gain in

summer and heat loss in winter, as well as the lighting throughout the year (David Goldman

Sustainable Architecture, no date). In the context of Royal Belum, however, the designers or

architects are targeted to reduce the building heat gain throughout the year as Malaysia has

hot and humid climate. Similarly, the lightings are needed to be controlled by depending on



the direction of facades. Large amount of heat gain and lighting may affect the thermal

comfort level. However, these lighting and heat gain issues can be solved easily with the

installation of fenestration, skylights, vegetations and materials according to the site context,

with the aim to reduce the energy resources consumption for its functioning (Benzu, 2010).

In Royal Belum phase 2 traditional chalet, one of the basic building design can be

easily seen is from its building envelope. The traditional chalets practice most of the

vernacular design features from traditional Malay houses, and one of the examples from

vernacular design is overhang roof (Figure 4). Deep overhang roof blocks the sunlight from

entering into the building. By applying this in the chalets, the amount of daylights entering

into the chalets are controlled. The daylights may be penetrated from surrounding into the

interior spaces. They, however, do not deter and affect the thermal comfort of the buildings.

Besides, having deep overhang roof provides more sheltered area. These area can be

further developed for different function, such as veranda and balcony.

Figure 4 Deep overhang roof of the traditional chalets

(Source: Lau, 2014)



The next design feature that used to enhance the thermal comfort level of traditional

chalets is the presence of vegetation surroundings. According to American Forests (2014),

48 pounds of carbon dioxide is absorbed by a tree per year and in exchange, it provides

oxygen supplies to two people when it reaches adult. From the facts provided, fresh air are

expected to found nearby traditional chalets as they were surrounded by greeneries (Figure

5). Other than providing fresh air, the trees can improve the thermal comfort by providing

shades to the surroundings. Moreover, the trees may also used to weaken the strong winds

blew from the Temenggor Lake, which is situated in front of the traditional chalets.

Figure 5 Vegetations surrounding the traditional chalets

(Source: Hoo, 2014)

The traditional chalets in Royal Belum also show adequate thermal comfort level

from its facade design. The building envelope of the traditional chalets are painted in white

(Figure 6) in order to reflect the heat from the sunlight transmitting into the interior spaces.

This design feature can be strengthened by the facts whereby the bright colour has lower

absorbance coefficient than that of the dark colour, and hence less heat will be absorbed by

the materials underneath the paint coat. In other words, heat will not be trapped inside the

buildings and this explains how heat avoidance is applied in the phase 2 traditional chalets.



Figure 6 Facade of the traditional chalet painted in white (Source: Hoo, 2014)

Whereas for the interior spaces, curtains are installed for sun control purposes

(Figure 7 & 8). This method does not only block the sunlight from penetrating into the chalets,

but it allows the wind to seep through the slits and ventilates the air inside the chalets.

Figure 7 Rattan curtain that installed at the veranda

(Source: Hoo, 2014)



Figure 8 Curtain hung inside the sleeping room to block the penetration of sunlight

(Source: Hoo, 2014)

Besides looking at thermal comfort of the traditional chalets, resources saving is

likewise another element which needs to be emphasized in order to achieve sustainable

design, and this can be reached via the selection of construction materials. The traditional

chalets are built mainly from timbers (Figure 9) as they can be found easily around Pulau

Banding. At the meantime, the embodied energy of the building will be much lower

compared to the other materials which are hardly found at the site. In terms of energy

savings, timber is used as heat avoidance as it can insulate the heat up to approximate 40%

(Kilbroney Timberframe Ltd, no date).



Figure 9 Timber wall cladding serves as the facade for traditional chalets

(Source: Hoo, 2014)

From the researches that have been conducted, skylights were installed in most of

the chalets, especially away from the facade, as shown in Figure 10. This design actually

decrease the energy usage during daytime by allowing the sunlight to penetrate directly into

the building. The sunlight will then illuminate the spaces inside the building, even they were

covered with walls which block the lights from getting in. By practicing this, the energy

consumption of the chalets will be lowered and this will discourage the usage of artificial

lights in the construction.



Figure 10 Skylight in the traditional chalets

(Source: Hoo, 2014)

In addition, all of the traditional chalets at phase 2 are installed with fenestration,

which aimed to allow the sunlight to enlighten the interior spaces. Besides, the fenestration

encourages cross ventilation to occur inside the chalets due to numerous windows located at

most of the spaces inside the chalets. Also, the platform of all the traditional chalets are

elevated up from the ground level. This is reason for this is to allow the prevailing winds to

sweep through the floor deck and cool down the interior temperature throughout the year.

These design strategies are clearly seen as shown in Figure 11 to 13.



Firgure 11 Fenestration with the platform elevated up

(Source: Hoo, 2014)

Figure 12 Windows allocated at the toilet

(Source: Hoo, 2014)



Figure 13 Openings allow cross ventilation to be occurred

(Source: Hoo, 2014)

4.1.2 Passive System

In Malaysia hot and humid context, basic building design is a strategy tends more to

heat avoidance. When the basic building design does not reach the thermal comfort of the

user, passive systems are to be applied to the building in order to reduce the heat gain of the

building. Passive systems do not require additional energy to operate. Even though it is

classified as second stage in achieving sustainable in architecture, they do play an important

role in significant architectural design. This is because they are added to enhance the

poetics and feelings of the buildings and interior spaces (David Goldman Sustainable

Architecture, no date).

In Royal Belum, the architects and designers has used comfort ventilation as part of

their designs. When air passes over the skin, it creates a physiological cooling effect -

evaporation. The term evaporation is used to describe this technique of using air motion

across the skin to promote thermal comfort. Similarly, this design feature is adapted in the



traditional chalets with the openings located at the level of occupants as shown in Figure 14.

This type of passive cooling system is widely used in Malaysia as the typical temperature is

moderately hot and ventilation is needed to control the indoor humidity.

Figure 14 Openings at the level of occupants

(Source: Hoo, 2014)

Beside comfort evaporation, another passive cooling system that can be studied from

the traditional chalets is evaporative cooling. This system works through the process of

evaporation, whereby the wind draws sensible heat from surrounding and converts the latent

heat in form of water vapour. In this context, the vast Temenggor Lake which situated in front

of the traditional chalets as shown in Figure 15 serves as water body. Hence, evaporative

cooling system is formed and the temperature surrounding the building will be reduced.



Figure 15 Temenggor Lake

(Source: Lau, 2014)

4.1.3 Mechanical System

As shown in Figure 3, tier 3 mechanical systems actually takes the least portion in

designing approaches. This is because mechanical systems are made up for design deficits.

As result, it relies on large amount of fossil fuel energy and hence can rarely be sustainable

designs. Some of the mechanical cooling systems have been installed in the traditional

chalets and they can be seen from Figure 16.

Figure 16 Fan and air conditioner were installed to increase the thermal comfort of the chalets

(Source: Hoo, 2014)



4.2 Spatial Arrangement

Spatial arrangement of the buildings may results later on the sustainability of the

buildings. Taking the traditional chalets as example, the spatial arrangement of the buildings

are actually arranged according to the surrounding context. There are three different layouts

of traditional chalets that can be found at the site and all of them are sharing mostly the

same typology.

Taking the first layout of the traditional chalets (Figure 17) as example, the bedroom,

being the most important spaces among all, was arranged in order to face the Temenggor

Lake. Besides, there are also openings around the bedroom so to welcome the wind blew

from south, southwest and west throughout the year. The veranda or balcony which was

allocated just outside the bedroom was also allows to experience the cool breeze come from

the direction of the lake. As toilet is considered a private and closed space, the architects

and designers are to place it behind the bedroom. In addition, walls were erected (Figure 18)

about 1500mm around the facade of the toilet in order to promote privacy to the users, and

at the same time allow the daylight to penetrate into the toilet via the openings provided.

These features are applied to all the layouts of the traditional chalets as shown in Figure 19

& 20.



Figure 17 Traditional chalet layout 1

(Source: Belum Rainforest Resort, 2014)

Figure 18 Geothermal wall made of concrete and earth pastes











5.0 CONCLUSION

Overall, the traditional chalets of the Royal Belum phase 2 buildings are considered

sustainable as a result of showing mostly basic building design and passive systems from

the 3 tier design approaches. The traditional chalets are not only sustainable in terms of

energy resources saving, but also providing a comfortable environment for the users to stay

over. Implementation of the features of vernacular designs, such as pitch roof, deep

overhang, large fenestration, elevated floor decking and timber wall give a sense of 'home' to

the natives even though they are here for vacation. What mattered the most is that Royal

Belum Rain Forest Resort has alerted the local architects and designers that sustainability

and thermal comfort are co-existence and none of them shall be neglected. The adaptation

of these features in architecture are ought to be practiced as these have proven that thermal

comfort can only be achieved when sustainability is practiced. It is urged that the future city

planners should be criticized throughout the design process, as this may affect the LCA of

the building, as well as the impacts to the surroundings.



6.0 REFERENCES

Hawkes, D. (2014). In Brief : A History of Sustainable Architecture.

Retrieved May 26, 2014 from

http://www.architecture.com/SustainabilityHub/Designstrategies/Introduction/1-0-5-

Inbriefahistoryofsustainablearchitecture.aspx

UN Documents - Gathering a body of global agreements (2014). Our Common Future,

A/42/427.


http://www.un-documents.net/ocf-02.htm

Oxford University Press (2014). Oxford Dictionaries.


http://www.oxforddictionaries.com/definition/english/sustainable?q=sustainable

Oxford University Press (2014). Oxford Dictionaries.


http://www.oxforddictionaries.com/definition/english/design?q=design

Kishnani, N. T. (2012). Greening Asia - Emerging Principles for Sustainable Architecture.

Singapore: BCI Asia.

Hosey, L. (2013). Why Architects Must Lead On Sustainable Design.

Retrieved June 10, 2014 from

http://www.greenbiz.com/blog/2013/03/19/why-architects-must-lead-sustainable-

design?page=full



Sustainable Environmental Techonologies (2009). Sustainable Architecture for A

Sustainable Future.


http://www.dutchsustainablecommunities.com/100-sustainable-architecture-for-a-

sustained-future.html

David Goldman Sustainable Architecture (no date). The 3 Tier Design Approach.


http://www.enviroarch.com/tiers.html

Benzu, J. K. (2010). Passive and Active Features in Green Building Architecture |

Sustainable Development.


http://www.architecture-student.com/sustainable-design/passive-and-active-features-

in-green-building-architecture/

American Forests (2014). Tree Facts.

Retrieved June10, 2014 from

http://www.americanforests.org/discover-forests/tree-facts/

Kilbroney Timberframe Ltd (no date). Benefits of Timberframe Construction


http://www.kilbroneytimberframe.com/index.php/home/benefits

Belum Rainforest Resort (2014). Traditional Chalet ('Kampung House')




http://www.belumresort.com/acco_kampung_house.html

Ariffin, H. (2014). Royal Belum Site Plan.


https://www.facebook.com/messages/850295222

Hoo, Z. X. (2014). Phase 2 Traditional Chalets.


https://www.facebook.com/messages/689478110

Lau, H. S. (2014). Le Belum Resort Trip - March 2014.


https://www.facebook.com/photographybenlau/media_set?set=a.1020345749466003

6.1073741893.1293148526&type=3

Date post:	27-Dec-2015
Category:	Documents
Upload:	davidkoomd
View:	127 times
Download:	2 times