g Tower Report

Project: GTower

Location: 199 Jalan Tun Razak, 50400 Kuala Lumpur, Wilayah Persekutuan Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia

Architect: BEP Akitek Sdn Bhd The Architectural Network

Client : Goldis Tower Sdn Bhd

PropertyType : Office & Hotel

[G TOWER]

a sustainable tower

Building Science 1(ARC2413) | Case Study : Identifying Innovative Passive Design Strategies

Date Completed: June 2006

1

Introduction The G Tower, is a new working concept incorporating an office space, a members-only private club and a hotel called aptly, The G City Club Hotel, is the first fully certified green building. Given the Green Mark Gold Rating by standards of the Singapore’s Building and Construction Authority(BCA). Being strategically located at the crossroads of Jalan Tun Razak and Jalan Ampang in Kuala Lumpur, this 30-storey building with a total land area of 2000m² encompasses a 180-room 5 star hotel, 112 CEO duplex office suites and a club was designed by BEP Akitek under Goldis Tower and was completed in June 2009.

SitePlan

Building Science 1(ARC2413) | Case Study : Identifying Innovative Passive Design Strategies

2

Building Science 1(ARC2413) | Case Study : Identifying Innovative Passive Design Strategies

3

Building Science 1(ARC2413) | Case Study : Identifying Innovative Passive Design Strategies

4

Concept & Ideas GTower is Malaysia’s first green and smart building which implemented the idea of environment sustainability, RETHINK, REDUCE, REUSE and RECYCLE.

Concepts

Application

Rethink

Not restricted in the building only. Site orientation is considered to reduce usage of energy. Sustainable green building technologies and systems are added.

Rethink

Reduce energy consumption: -Usage of double glazed low-emission glass. (Allow maximum light, minimum heat transmission) Chilled water centralised air-conditioning chillers are used. Low energy LED lighting which will reduce energy consumption by 80-90% Cleaning agents that are eco-friendly are used in the hotel. Eco-friendly infinity pool on the rooftop is conditioned by salt instead of chlorine. The pool is also heated by the heat waste from the air-con units.

Reuse

Harvest of rainwater in the water catchment areas to provide enough water for the green roof and the vertical green walls. Crawling plants on the façade wall and in the interior walls helps purified air in a natural way. Heat waste from air-con is also reuse for heating the water in bathrooms.

Recycle

The staffs in the hotel learned to separate recyclable waste. The furnishing of the interior of hotel are made of recycled materials. Even the paint that is used is made of organic compound.

Building Science 1(ARC2413) | Case Study : Identifying Innovative Passive Design Strategies

5

Sustainability Energy Efficiency

To increase the overall energy efficiency, the air conditioning which consumes the largest amount of energy has been replaced to operate at low system efficiency. Included are motion and photo sensors which reduces energy consumption from lighting. The use of greenery in landscaping, green roof can assist in alleviating urban heat islands through shading and evaporative cooling.

Water Efficiency

As an initiative to reduce water consumption, water efficient fittings were installed so that facility staff can monitor daily water usage and detect any leakage occurring in the building. Rain water harvesting system has also been implemented for irrigating the landscape and vertical greening areas.

Building Science 1(ARC2413) | Case Study : Identifying Innovative Passive Design Strategies

6

Project Management

An estimate of more than 30% of construction materials such as carpets, landscape draining cells, external wood decking, and kitchen cabinets are of recycled contents as an environmentally friendly approach.

Indoor Environmental Quality & Protection

Provisions for Carbon Monoxide (CO) and Carbon Dioxide (CO²) monitoring systems which BMS to circulate air inside the building to provide better indoor air quality. The use of low VOC paint helps prevents from getting exposed to chemical particles. Building Science 1(ARC2413) | Case Study : Identifying Innovative Passive Design Strategies

7

Temperature & Climate Data Malaysia is located in the equatorial region and has a tropical rainforest climate which is causes it to remain hot and humid throughout the year. It experiences two types of climates which are rainy season (mid- November to March) and dry season (May to September). However, the temperature in Malaysia varies a little from season to season since it is close to the equator. The average annual temperature of Malaysia ranges between 24°C to 33°C. During the rainy season, the average rainfall throughout the year is 217.5mm and November is the highest rainfall month. The humidity in Malaysia is very high. The relative humidity varies from a low 80% in January to a high of 85% in October. For the average daily sunshine hours in Malaysia, the daily sunshine hours is about eight hours in the dry season and range from six to seven hours throughout the rainy season.

Building Science 1(ARC2413) | Case Study : Identifying Innovative Passive Design Strategies

8

70 60 50 40

Average High Temperature (°C)

30

Average Low Temperature (°C)

20 10 0 Jan Feb Mar Apr May Jun Jul Aug Sep Oct Nov Dec

Average Temperature (°C) - Kuala Lumpur

86

85 84 83 82 Average Humidity (%)

81 80 79

78 77 Jan Feb Mar Apr May Jun

Jul Aug Sep Oct Nov Dec

Average Humidity (%) - Kuala Lumpur Building Science 1(ARC2413) | Case Study : Identifying Innovative Passive Design Strategies

9

350 300 250 200 Average Rainfall (mm) 150

Average Rain Days

100 50

0 Jan Feb Mar Apr May Jun Jul Aug Sep Oct Nov Dec

Average Rainfall (mm) - Kuala Lumpur

9 8 7 6 5 Average Daily Sunshine Hours

4 3 2 1 0 Jan Feb Mar Apr May Jun

Jul Aug Sep Oct Nov Dec

Average Daily Sunshine Hours - Kuala Lumpur Building Science 1(ARC2413) | Case Study : Identifying Innovative Passive Design Strategies

10

Wind Direction Analysis

NortheastMonsoon (November–March)

Building Science 1(ARC2413) | Case Study : Identifying Innovative Passive Design Strategies

11

Southwest Monsoon (May–September)

Building Science 1(ARC2413) | Case Study : Identifying Innovative Passive Design Strategies

12

Sun Path Analysis

9am

12pm Building Science 1(ARC2413) | Case Study : Identifying Innovative Passive Design Strategies

13

4pm

6pm Building Science 1(ARC2413) | Case Study : Identifying Innovative Passive Design Strategies

14

Passive Design

The orientation is important to maintain the building indoor temperature within the thermal comfort range. According to ASHRAE Standard, the thermal comfort range Is stated around 24 to 26 Degree Celsius. In order to achieve thermal comfort, there are a few criteria should be

noted. The orientation of building plays important role in manipulating indoor temperature. The front façade of G Tower is defined by the site and main road access. According to the map above, the main entrance of G tower is supposed to face to south-east direction. However, the building orientation has been adjusted to east of northeast by adding a path to allow the car access.

Building Science 1(ARC2413) | Case Study : Identifying Innovative Passive Design Strategies

15

According to the ecotect diagram, there are most sun radiation from 10 a.m to 1 p.m. As to avoid the raise of temperature in the building, a few design moderation have been made.

The front façade of G tower has lesser surface area compare to other elevations. As when

the surface area increases, more sunlight is allow to penetrate into the building, causing indoor temperature roses. As the location of G Tower is in the city, limited area can be used to do planting as sun shading and temperature cooler. Hence, the changes are made on the building itself.

Building Science 1(ARC2413) | Case Study : Identifying Innovative Passive Design Strategies

16

The front façade of G Tower is substrated as shown in diagram above to minimize the total amount of morning sunlight penetrate into the building. Besides, it also provides shadings to the users and achieve thermal comfort.

The front façade has replaced with vertical garden. Vertical garden has similar function as green roof. It undergoes photosynthesis, which required sunlight, and releases oxygen to cooler the surrounding temperature. Hence, the heat energy does not transfer into the interior spaces of G Tower.

Building Science 1(ARC2413) | Case Study : Identifying Innovative Passive Design Strategies

17

Sunlight radiation is most receivedon NorthEast Façadefrom10 am to 1pm

Differentialin pressure of clouds causesclearskiesby lateevening after2pm onwards Building Science 1(ARC2413) | Case Study : Identifying Innovative Passive Design Strategies

18

Since the main of the facades of the GTower consist of glass, there is a large area of the exterior will be shined with direct sunlight. The cons to this is that glazed façade allows solar radiation to go through the glass facades into the building and then trap the heat energy indoor causing the interior to be heated up.

GTower uses low-e glasses for the glass facades because the solar rays passes through the glasses as short wave (radiation) and goes through the glass to be absorbed by the interior of the building. Most of the longer wave heat energy is reflected back into the surrounding by the low-e glass filtering out most of the heat wave and reduce the increased of heat indoors.

Building Science 1(ARC2413) | Case Study : Identifying Innovative Passive Design Strategies

19

The glass facades of GTower are also double glazed. Double glazed glass consists of two panes of glass with a gap in the middle which enable sunlight to me reflected back to the surroundings. The two pieces of glass and an insulated frame are sealed together as one unit. The gap in the middle is usually vacuum and sealed tight. Nowadays a certain amount of Argon gas, which is a naturally occurring inert gas, is inserted between the panes of glass. Argon gas has a density higher than the surrounding air and this reduce heat energy to be transmitted into the interior spaces. The gas acts as a barrier reducing heat loss as well as heat absorption in the building.

The combination of both of low-e glass and double glazed glass can ensure a better heat insulation for the building improving the thermal comfort of GTower. The glass can reduce heat loss up to 50% of the heat radiation that passes through the double glazed glass. The double layers of glass helps to reduce noises from the external too. This type of glass increases security and protection for building because there are double layers which means double protection.

. Building Science 1(ARC2413) | Case Study : Identifying Innovative Passive Design Strategies

20

Sustainable Design System

Building Science 1(ARC2413) | Case Study : Identifying Innovative Passive Design Strategies

21

Reference  http://www.goldis.com/media/doc/Architecture%20Malaysia%20G%20Tower%20a%20S ustainable%20Tower.pdf

 http://gtowerhotel.com/index.php

Building Science 1(ARC2413) | Case Study : Identifying Innovative Passive Design Strategies

22