Green Buildings

I'm also an architecture and environmental buff and there's a lot of unsustainable building in urbanised areas today, I thought an excerpt of an interview by The Star with Datuk Ken Yeang was interesting. He was named as one of the '50 people who could save the planet' by The Guardian newspaper (January 2008).

You are known as the inventor of the bioclimatic skyscraper. Tell us a little about that. What makes a bioclimatic skyscraper?

Yeang: Low energy. It performs as a passive low energy building. Bioclimatic means (being) responsive to the climate of the locality. Each different parcel will have a different environment. Like (in the) Tropics, the sun’s path is different. The seasons are different. Islands like Hong Kong are different because the wind directions are more predictable. Here, the wind directions are not so predictable. There are aspects of climate that you can use to the benefit of your design. So for instance, if you shape your building properly, you can contribute towards low energy performance (of a building). Shaping orientation involves the walls, the facade design, the way you use the vegetation, the way you layout the plan. For example, we are on the equator. The sun goes from east to west. If you have a thin vertical building, a good part of the sides are heated up in the morning and evenings. So let’s say you shape your building in a more horizontal or broad approach (with plenty of roof area), the sun only heats up at the sides (smaller area).So that means this (broad) building does not get so hot. So it is easier to air-condition because it is cooler. But the worst is a diagonally-shaped building, because that means the top and sides all get heated up (throughout the day). So, orientation is important. Now, let’s say for a house. You shade one side to keep the sun out, but half the day the sun is at the top. So in a terrace house, the roof gets very hot. So you need to insulate it. All these are what I call bioclimatic design. For instance, if you start putting trees at the sides of the house, then trees provide shade to the house. Bioclimatic design means that you are taking advantage of orientation (of a building). You design with proper shaping of the building, making use of vegetation, making use of facade design and colours. For example, black colour absorbs heat. Instead of reflecting heat, you are absorbing the heat. So, this is what you call bioclimatic. There is a whole science of designing building. What I have done is apply it to skyscrapers.

What are the main challenges in designing green buildings?
Yeang: There are a lot of challenges [laughs]. First of all, you see, so much of it is in its infancy. Trying to do within cost is very difficult. Second, is to find the technology for it. It doesn’t always exist. Trying to make it work is difficult. Trying to get it built is difficult. Trying to convince clients to go green can be difficult.
We are doing a project in Singapore, the Solaris project, it’s under construction now. It’s Singapore’s Green Mark Platinum, the highest you can get. Platinum is 95 points, we are 97 points. It only costs 6.3% more than the industry’s standard (cost). In other words, you get a green building which costs only 6.3% more.

How much will green buildings help in our PM’s vision of reducing carbon emission by 40% in 2020?
Yeang: We have to confront it, not just the developers. It is a mandatory thing we should all do. By the time you experience it, it is too late. It will take a natural disaster like the volcano (eruption in Iceland) to bring people to their senses. And it will happen suddenly. Suddenly, you see the water rises. Then all the island countries will disappear. Right now, they are looking into re-planning of Maldives. Because the water level has reached so high that the island is disappearing. Have to relocate. It’s a serious matter, you see. They say that if this happens, a good part of London will be flooded. And it will happen suddenly. When that happens, it’s too late.
It’s not just developers. It’s you and me. We have to change our lifestyles. For instance, eating beef contributes to 20% of climate change. If we eat fish, it is less environmentally disruptive. So, it’s a lifestyle.
The way we use electricity, the way we use water. When brushing teeth, we should switch off the tap water. That’s clean water (we are wasting). And we use clean water for flushing. Isn’t that a waste? Some parts of the world, there are no water and here we are using clean water for flushing. 40 percent of water in the house is used for flushing. Pure drinkable water, just for flushing. What a waste. So our lifestyles must change.

What does a green masterplan entail?
Yeang: Well, the green masterplan has to respect nature. You see, what we do as human beings is that we chop up nature. We not only chop up, we remove nature. Once you chop up nature, you are fragmenting nature. It doesn’t work as an ecological system anymore. [Starts sketching] The species from here (one place) cannot come here (be placed at another location). The whole ecology is gone. So a green masterplan is one that respects the ecology and replaces it.
So what you want to do is to maintain connections, from corridor to corridor, so that there is continuity. The linkages in the ecology system are there (remains). These linkages are not just vegetation. There are water systems. There are flows. There are processes that you have to respect. There are many results of clearing land. (When you) clear vegetation, (the) earth becomes exposed. Once (the) earth is exposed, you have erosion. Where does the erosion go? It goes to the water waste. The water waste kills the aquatic life. So what you do here has impact on the physical environment.
So that’s what a green masterplan is. It is not just planning. It is looking at the whole process, from the location to surrounding.

Are skyscrapers the most ecological way of building?
Yeang: No. We should try to keep (to) medium-rise if we can. Low-rise is wasteful of land. High-rise is wasteful of material. High-rise is high energy. Because (it takes) more energy to produce, more energy to build, more energy to operate. But high-rise can be justified if you have it near a transportation hub. Reduce transportation movement. So when you design something, it’s not just the energy consumption of that building. It includes transportation implications as well.

In Malaysia, though, property developers tend to be focused on short-term profits rather than long-term sustainability (though the same can be said of bankers and other professions). That's why Keynes was probably right: in the long run we are all dead!