Sustainable Building Development

How might designs better save energy? Jason: Make use of a tropical climate to create comfortable spaces requiring minimal electricity by tapping on natural ventilation, sunlight and building orientation. Lesson learnt from the pandemic: a space with good natural ventilation is much preferred compared to air-conditioned spaces. Pin Jia: Of the alternative energy sources, the most common one used in sustainable building development is solar energy, and the cost of solar panels has fallen in recent years. We are working on Samwoh Smart Hub, the first positive energy building in Singapore. To achieve this status, the design approach was to minimise energy consumption and offset it with at least 110% on-site solar power. Beow Suan: Design to incorporate natural ventilation and create air movement. We have used tools to simulate and achieve cross ventilation in projects like CapitaGreen, EDEN Singapore, and Holiday Inn Express Clarke Quay (which also incorporated a high volume low speed fan instead of air-con). Advances in AI can also create smart buildings with features such as predictive energy consumption based on past usage records, and notifications of abnormalities of wastage. This translates to a smaller carbon footprint.