College of Engineeringand Technology

EDITT Tower Singapore

ENG : Abdullfatah Mohammed

Architects / T R Hamzah & ken Yeang

Architects / ken Yeang

Scraping the Green Sky

AdvancedBuilding Systems

Integration

Ken Yeang’sConcept

fora ‘bioclimatic’

exhibition tower stakesout the

Environmentalagenda

for architects

for the new

millennium

Summarising Yeang’scontribution at

the recent Flashpoint Conference in Sydney, Adrian Boddy ofUTS

observed that “Yeanghas made Architectural

Science look sexy!”

Architects T R Hamzah & Yeang Sdn BhdPrincipal in charge Dr Ken YeangProject architect Andy ChongClients Urban Redevelopment Authority (URA)Singapore (sponsor)Ecological Design in the Tropics (EDITT) (sponsor)University of Singapore (sponsor)Consultants Environmental: Battle McCarthy (London)Embodied energy: Bill Lawson (UNSW Sydney)Architect-of-record: James Leong, Swan & McLaren

Reintroduction of organic mass to

urban site tocounterbalance inorganic nature of the site

_ This latest concept project from the offices of

T R Hamzah and Yeangintroduces a further

chapter in the innovative design

career of Dr Ken Yeang.Overa period of nearly

25 years he has establishedhimself as a seminal

contributor tothinking and practice in, to use his own favoured

words, ‘bioclimatic’architecture.

His best known ‘bioclimatic’ buildings

are the UMNO Tower in Penang and

Menara Mesiniagain Selangor,

both in Malaysia,and his books

include Designing

architects elaborates the design process,describing a broad analysis of the site

context, views, microclimate andnon-existent flora and fauna – described as a

‘zeroculture’ at the bottom of Yeang’shierarchy of ecosystems. A worthy

evaluation of the vegetation patterns within a 1.5 km radius of the site is used to

inform a program of planting on the project that is integrated with the site and

structure in a vertical landscaping scheme of planted terraces and facades, using

species selected to be compatiblewith indigenous species of the locality.

Also worthy is the strategy to confrontthe issue of spatial continuity, universally

lacking in high-rise buildings due to physical compartmentation of floors. The

design creates ‘vertical places’,using a ramp system that allows pedestrian

movement vertically throughthe tower along a vertical ‘street’ lined with

exhibition and performance spaces, cafés, shops and offices with occasional

sitting and gathering areas. There are bridge links to adjoining buildings that

reinforce the lower levels as public territory and planted terraces and sky-gardens

left: Floor plans for the

high-rise exhibition tower

show the vertical ‘street’

and bioclimatic landscaping.

above: The tower design

integrates strategies for

sun control, rainwater

collection, wind manipulation,

ventilation, circulation

and landscaping

The proposal does not document any thermal modellingor relate this to utilization energy demand. It was

suggested that the building could be 40 percentenergy self-sufficient through energy sourced from solar

photovoltaic panels, but this has been revised downwards to 20.4 percent based

on photovoltaics yielding a perhaps over optimistic 1.05 kWh/sq.m/day (0.75 kWh/sq.m/day

would be morerealistic?). The figures supplied have the overall energy demand of the building,with a working population of 356 people,

at 228 kWh/sq.m/year gross, includingthe open vegetated ramps, or 385 kWh/sq.m/year net,

which seems high

Ken YeangBioclimatic Skyscraper Studies

If we could start from scratch,

what would the priorities be?

“We need to design sustainable

societies; sustainable energies,

sustainable lifestyles,

functioning

communities. Things like that.

That’s something that used to

exist, but it is

a radical difference from now.”

-Noam Chomsky

[personal interview 3/11/08]

EDITT Tower (Ecological Design InThe Tropics) Singapore In construction

Design Strategy

Site DataRequirements

Ecosystem Hierarchy

Increase biodiversity andorganic mass

Rehabilitate ecosystem

Mapping of remainingecosystem components

(e.g. hydrology, remainingtrees, etc.)

Zeroculture

Increase biodiversityDevelop in areas of non-

productive potentialRehabilitate ecosystem

Partial EcosystemAnalysis and Mapping

Monoculture

Increase biodiversityDevelop on low-impact

areas

Partial EcosystemAnalysis and Mapping

Mixed-Artificial

PreserveConserve

Increase biodiversityDevelop only on low-

impact areas

Complete EcosystemAnalysis and Mapping

Ecologically-Simplified

PreserveConserve

Develop only on least-impact areas

Complete EcosystemAnalysis and Mapping

Ecologically-Immature

PreserveConserve

Develop only on no-impact areas

Complete EcosystemAnalysis and Mapping

Ecologically-Mature

USIONOPOLIS: Singapore’s New Green Skyscraper Bioclimatic Design,Menara Mesiniaga+ Ken Yeang (S2)

Premier City Almaty, Kazakhstan

Belfast Hospital

‘Residences’ Tower

Cryodon Tower

Great Ormond Street Hospital

Canning Town Tower

ThurrockLakesideEco-

Masterplan

http://www.trhamzahyeang.com/project/main.html

SydneyJackson Teece + Ken Yeang International

101 Sussex Street, Sydney, New South Wales 2000, Australia

Tel: 61 2 9290 2722 Fax: 61 2 9290 1150

JapanH.S. Design Inc. + Ken Yeang International

3-10-51-102 Kamiohsaki, ShinagawaTokyo 141-0021, Japan

Tel: 813 3441 0249 Fax: 813 3445 7082

Beijing, ChinaNorindar-Hamzah-Yeang Architectural Engineering Design Company

Ltd.Zhongjia Building B-703,

Beijing 100054, China

Tel: 86-10-83524602 / 83524558 Fax: 86-10-83524557-9Email: nhsy@163bj.com

LondonLlewelyn Davies Yeang

Brook House, Torrington Place, London, WC1E 7HN, UK

Website: www.ldavies.comTel: 020 7637 0181 / Fax: 020 7637 8740

Email: k.yeang@ldavies.com

green infrastructure.‘

ENG : Abdullfatah Mohammed

THANK Uhttp://www.trhamzahyeang.com