National Library shows its energy-saving features in new book

Booking green rooms
Isabel Ong, Straits Times 26 Jul 08;

IF YOU have ever wondered why the National Library's entire central lending section is contained in its basement, it is to minimise the movement of people and lessen the heat generated within the building.

This and other energy-saving features of the library in Victoria Street are featured in a new book.

Titled The National Library Of Singapore: Redefining The Library, the 205-page book showcases the 16-storey building's environmentally responsible infrastructure and design.

Built at a cost of $203 million and opened to the public in 2005, the library is touted as the first green library building in Asia.

The book details its construction process by including photographs, sketches and floor plans.

It also contains interviews with key National Library Board (NLB) personnel, such as chief executive Dr N Varaprasad and director of design Datuk Dr Ken Yeang, whose architectural firm T. R. Hamzah & Yeang won the bid to design the library in 1998.

'They liked our scheme because it encouraged people to rethink what a library was,' Dr Yeang says of his bid. It took him and his team 11/2 years to finalise the design.

On why the library was designed with a green objective, Dr Varaprasad says: 'There is an increasing number of buildings which are environmentally sensitive and it does impact the common man. We wanted to look into the future and see how energy consumption and operating costs of this library can be minimised.'

The book, which cost less than $120,000 to publish, was written from the perspective of how people use it, says Mr Johnson Paul, NLB's deputy director of publishing and research services.

He says: 'In designing a building, you need to know how people can effectively use these spaces. As it's the only public building here that has 10,000 people walking in and out in a day, it proves that the building is usable and able to sustain that kind of usage.'

Among its green features are double-glazing facade panels that reduce solar heat gain, light shelves that allow in daylight to reduce the use of artificial lighting, and steel extensions which diffuse sunlight streaming in.

This has led to an average saving of 33 per cent on monthly energy bills compared to a building without the green features, says Mr Sandamurthi Rethinam, deputy director of NLB's properties and facilities management.

Ten per cent of library space is devoted to greenery, but its 14 gardens are not just for aesthetics. Two are open to the public and the rest are on various floors to absorb heat and carbon dioxide, reducing the heat generated in the building.

These initiatives have won the library many international awards, such as the first prize in the Asean Energy Efficient Building Awards last year and the gold medal award from the World Association of Chinese Architects in 2005.

So far, libraries in Malaysia and Germany have already placed orders for the book, while copies of it are being sent to the national libraries of several other countries.

# The book, published by GK Consultancy, is available for $57.70 (with GST) at Books Kinokuniya and online at The Library Shop (shop.nlb.gov.sg).