The natural thing to do in design and building

Shelters should respect and protect the surroundings, says Ken Yeang
Cheong Suk-Wai Straits Times 28 Sep 13;

AS A practising architect for more than 40 years, Malaysian Ken Yeang is only too aware of how much humanity has degraded the environment for millennia.

Penang-born Dr Yeang, 65, says: "We can clear land, change climates, dam rivers, blow up towns, scrape the earth and flatten hills. So we're the most powerful of all species."

He was in town a fortnight ago to speak at the Build Eco Xpo Asia.

The question is: How best should people exercise such power?

His answer has been to pioneer ground-breaking ways to design buildings such that they are as natural as trees lining roads.

Of that, British architect Norman Foster, who is himself a leading proponent of eco-architecture, wrote in a 2011 commemorative book of Dr Yeang's work: "In contrast to the hermetically- sealed, air-conditioned tower, his high-rise buildings... are naturally lit and ventilated, linked to terraces and interspersed with lush vegetation - even though they may be 30 storeys above ground."

So it is that Dr Yeang's big idea is that human beings should build shelters that respect, conform to and protect their surroundings - and not the other way round as has long been the case.

This approach to building design is called eco-architecture, and one that became trendy only after 1990, although Dr Yeang had worked on it since the 1970s.

Another architectural titan, American Charles Jencks, who trained Dr Yeang in the 1970s, says of him: "As a realist, he is one of the very few willing to operate in the gap between necessity, compunction and hope."

Dr Yeang's quest to embrace, not repel, Mother Nature in construction began in 1971, when he was a researcher at Cambridge University.

His then supervisor, the sustainable building technologies pioneer Alexander Pike, got him working on an autonomous house, that is, one that could warm and cool itself without plugging into the city's power or water grids.

But the more Dr Yeang probed that, the more he realised that the better approach was to understand fully the character and constraints of a building site first, and then design a shelter that would showcase the environment's best features while using up as few resources as possible.

So he decided to study ecological design and masterplanning fully with another Cambridge University supervisor, Dr John Frazer, and in 1974 obtained his PhD in the field.

He has since honed his approach by melding greenery, water sources, human needs and engineering techniques to create "seamless and benign" solutions to living that "mimic" nature.

"I started doing this because we are making our world more and more artificial with inorganic and synthetic things," he says.

The Encyclopaedia Britannica reckons that since 2000, the planet's buildings have used up 16 per cent of the world's fresh water, between 30 and 40 per cent of all electricity supplied and, by weight, 50 per cent of all raw materials. Buildings also emit about 30 per cent of all greenhouse gases. These are nightmare statistics when you consider that by 2050, 75 per cent of the world's population will live in concrete jungles.

To counter this, Dr Yeang has tried to mimic nature by:

Conceiving of a skyscraper as a giant tree, with ramps upon ramps as its branches. So he wraps ramps around the body of a building, lining them with vegetation to bring plants closer to people. Examples of this include his Solaris building within the 30ha Fusionopolis campus here and his Spire Edge development in Gurgaon, India;
Designing zigzag walls, each of which looks like the Allen key that furniture store Ikea provides to tighten furniture screws. He then positions these zigzag walls such that they let in the wind but keep out the rain; and
Designing a dwelling such that it can be a dynamic filter for the climate. For example, he positions a swimming pool such that breezes will blow across it and cool the interior of a house.

He stresses: "A building must look like a living system, not a dead concrete shell."

So not for him the "spotty" efforts of planting trees and shrubs in the corners of buildings, or the "eco-gadgetry" of installing environmentally-friendly devices.

The end in mind, he notes, is to "connect all things like how nature links greenery and birds and butterflies".

A prime example of his work is the National Library Board (NLB) headquarters here in Victoria Street.

Recalling the effort, Dr Yeang says: "It was a fun project. The NLB's then chief executive Christopher Chia supported me 100 per cent.

"When I first started work on it, Dr Chia drove me around Singapore for a whole day. He showed me stuff that he would and would not like to have in the building, from big enough carparks to toilets. Imagine that attention to detail."

A 2011 survey of staff and visitors to the building showed that 99.7 per cent of library users, and 87.2 per cent of staff, were satisfied with the NLB headquarters.

The married father of four studied architecture at Britain's Architectural Association in 1970, moving on to research work at Cambridge University in 1971.

After obtaining his PhD there in 1974, he returned to Malaysia and set up his practice, TR Hamzah & Yeang, with Malaysian prince Robert Hamzah in 1975.

Since 2005, Dr Yeang has had a British practice in partnership with architect Llewelyn Davies.

He says Singapore is one country that is definitely showing other countries the way.

"Your Building and Construction Authority is doing a good job by requiring developers to comply with Green Mark ratings before their plans can be approved. Very few governments do that."

For example, the NLB headquarters runs on 172kw of electricity per sq m per annum, compared to the average office building that needs 250kw per sq m per annum.

The average household runs on about 40kw per sq m per annum.

But, he is quick to add, ratings are not enough to take eco-architecture forward.

"Ratings are prescriptive; they say if you achieve this or that target, you will get something. We need to move to a performance-based cycle, where we do more holistic things like close the water cycle."

That includes harvesting rainwater, as Singapore does, so such readily available fresh water does not escape to the sea.

He adds: "Architecture is only a small part of the solution. The real issue is in being able to encourage our clients to make their businesses and industries green, such as by not paving land so much that water can no longer go back into the soil."

suk@sph.com.sg

THE BIG IDEA IN HISTORY: Eco-architecture

THE trend towards constructing and maintaining a building with as little energy as possible stems from the global oil crisis of the 1970s, when much of the Western world and Japan experienced a petroleum shortage after supplies from Iran and the United States were disrupted.

But as The Economist notes, eco-architecture's roots go way back to the 19th century, when architects devised Crystal Palace in Britain and Galleria Vittorio Emanuele II in Italy. London's Crystal Palace was ventilated naturally by cleverly designed roofs while the Milan mansion had underground chambers that cooled the air indoors and so regulated temperatures.

Eco-architecture, also known as green architecture, gained traction only in 1990, after the United Nations met to discuss the impact of climate change and what everyone could do about it. That year, the US' Green Building Council established its rating system for eco-friendly buildings, known as Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design.

Britain followed that in 2000, when it established its popular Building Research Establishment Environmental Assessment Method.

Singaporeans began exploring eco-architecture in earnest in 2005, when the Building and Construction Authority launched its Green Mark Scheme, which benchmarks eco-friendly buildings desirably against all other properties in the market.

Among others, The National Library Board headquarters in Victoria Street and Republic Plaza in Raffles Place have attained the Green Mark Scheme's highest standard - Platinum - by consuming 70 per cent less energy than the industry average.

THE BIG IDEA IN ACTION: Building a house from matchsticks

ARCHITECTS face frequent design challenges, but rarely do they involve the Central Narcotics Bureau (CNB).

Singaporean architect Jaye Tan, 34, took about five months to convince the drug-busters that her attempt to build a 314 sq m art gallery at the Singapore Botanic Gardens would not break laws here.

That is because her chosen material was industrial hemp hurd, which come in 11kg sacks and look like matchsticks, and are the inner fibres of stalks from the cannabis plant. The cultivation and consumption of cannabis is illegal here.

CNB has since cleared the hemp hurd of concerns.

She says that one needs to mix 10 sacks of hemp hurd with 10 25-kg sacks of construction lime binder to create one cubic metre of wall, which is hardy and freestanding.

The mulch-like mixture is then poured in between two wooden panels and tamped down with a broom-like tool to build up one cubic metre of wall. The wall dries to a sandstone-like finish.

Prices for industrial hemp vary, but she estimates that each tonne of the imported stuff cost between $200 and $400.

Ms Tan, who is an associate with home-grown firm DP Architects, won a commendation from the Building and Construction Authority in May for her green architecture efforts, and was invited to speak on her low-carbon footprint building methods at this year's Building Eco Xpo here a fortnight ago.

She also has the support of homegrown property developer CDL, which is underwriting her gallery project, and the National Parks Board, which has given her a site behind its Botany Centre for it.

If all goes well, she says, you will be able to visit the gallery in November.

She is determined to make a shelter out of hemp because the material is suitable for the tropics, being relatively cheap, water-repellent and recyclable.

Ms Tan was so taken by those features that she went to Ireland to learn how to build with it.

She found it hard initially to convince fellow architects

that they should build with hemp instead of "always extracting raw materials from the earth".

When The Straits Times visited her half-completed structure at the Botanic Gardens on Tuesday, she was discussing with the project's India-born foreman the option of building low-cost houses of hemp in his country.

She says: "What makes a building meaningful is not just that it is a space for people, but that it has a message for everyone in how to live better in this world."

Background story

THE BIG IDEA: Making buildings a part of nature

Award-winning architect Ken Yeang has made it his "lifetime agenda" to integrate man-made structures with flora and fauna. He does this by thinking of a building as an artificial limb of the greater organic body that is the natural landscape. Some of his ideas:

Design buildings to conserve electricity, energy and other non-renewable resources. Recycle resources such as rainwater by using it to cool a building. Use renewable resources such as solar cells as much as possible;
Design ramps that spiral around, or through, the facades of buildings, and line these ramps with plants. Better still, design cafes and other spaces along the ramps for people to rest and relax in; and
Turn rooftops of skyscrapers into lush parks, building roomy atria that funnel breezes through, as well as connecting separate towers with vegetatin-lined bridges.

Not for Dr Yeang the 'spotty' efforts of planting trees and shrubs in the corners of buildings, or the 'eco-gadgetry' of installing environmentally- friendly devices. The end in mind is to 'connect all things like how nature links greenery and birds and butterflies'.

Ken Yeang on...

THE GUARDIAN NEWSPAPER NAMING HIM AS ONE AMONG 50 PEOPLE WHO COULD SAVE PLANET EARTH

"The Guardian is always finding ways to sell itself so it thought, 'Let's get a funny Malaysian to intrigue readers.'"

MAKING HIS MARK GLOBALLY AS A PIONEERING ECO-ARCHITECT

"I don't know whether or not I've made it globally. I'll find out after I die!"

SOME CLIENTS

"I have to suffer some people who don't really know enough about what to do. Then there are those who trust me and say, 'Okay, you teach me how to do it.' So I've spent 40 years teaching people how to become developers, and made them super-rich."

HIS FOUR CHILDREN

"I told them not to become architects because the architect's business model is not right - he designs for, and is paid by, the client early on, but spends years implementing his work amid growing problems."

HOW TO HELP OTHERS RESPECT THE ENVIRONMENT

"Educate them as you would your children; you know, depending on their ages, you could tell them, 'Do this or you're grounded for a month' or 'Do this or you're out of my will.'"

CONSUMERISM

"I tell people not to give me things I cannot use; so every Christmas, I get only socks and handkerchiefs!"

HOW HUMAN BEINGS DOMINATE ALL OTHER SPECIES

"As Spiderman says, when you have such immense power, you have to be very prudent with it and use it for a good cause, rather than for selfish reasons."