Alina Yeo, Director at WOHA, talks to us about what makes a building "green" and the extensive processes that goes into ensuing that green buildings are sustainable and continue to be.
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Watch more: https://www.asiaone.com/video
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00:00You pretend they are not there.
00:01Okay.
00:02Speed A, speed B.
00:03All three cameras are not there.
00:11Hi Alina!
00:11Thank you so much for taking the time to talk to me today.
00:16I'm curious about this term green buildings
00:18and I understand that
00:19ROHA actually does prioritise
00:22this kind of greenness
00:23whenever you design a building.
00:25What is a green building?
00:27A green building basically is
00:28what we call environmentally responsible building
00:31as well as buildings that are resource efficient
00:33throughout their life cycle.
00:34So resource could mean energy,
00:37it could mean water,
00:38it could mean waste.
00:39Yeah, to be as low impact as possible
00:42in all of these areas.
00:43Do you feel that's especially important in Singapore?
00:46Oh yes, definitely so.
00:47I mean, we are a small nation.
00:50We have no natural resources.
00:51So definitely we need to be as efficient
00:54and as optimal in all of our
00:56planning and design as possible.
00:57So Alina, tell me what makes a green building?
01:00Green buildings,
01:01there are various aspects to it, right?
01:03But the first one I would say
01:05at the fundamental level
01:06is starting with the passive design strategies.
01:09Okay.
01:09So passive design strategies would be like
01:11how do you orientate the building
01:13so that it is facing north-south,
01:16it doesn't absorb too much of the east and western sun.
01:18Okay.
01:19Because the more sun you absorb,
01:21the more cooling you need to compensate.
01:25So orientation plays a big part.
01:26Ventilation is another big factor.
01:29So how do we design for more naturally ventilated spaces
01:33as opposed to air conditioning everything.
01:35Air conditioning is the number one energy guzzler of a building.
01:39And then how do you also have some automated systems,
01:42so your active systems,
01:43so that you can cut down on electrical power for lighting.
01:47It can turn off in the day and they come on at night.
01:49The types of lifts, the types of escalators.
01:52Wow.
01:53There are energy-saving versions of all of these components in a building.
01:58As well as how do you reduce the overall heat gain of the building.
02:02And that's where also planting comes in.
02:05Planting to reduce the amount of heat gain
02:07because of the shading that they provide.
02:09I see.
02:10But of course there's also associated maintenance.
02:13So for us, it's important that
02:15whenever we introduce planting to a building's facade,
02:19that we make it accessible for maintenance.
02:23Because if it's not well-maintained,
02:24then the plants are just going to die.
02:27And then that's just not going to be efficient overall.
02:31Being the director of Woha,
02:32and you are spearheading
02:34essentially many of these green building initiatives in Singapore,
02:37is there any one project that you're particularly proud of?
02:40So Woha designed Park Royal on Peckering,
02:43which is a hotel and office development opposite Hong Lim Park.
02:47It had a lot of rethinking when it came to
02:50designing for sustainability in this project.
02:52In Singapore, especially I guess in the hotel industry,
02:55air conditioning is quite synonymous with luxury.
02:58And in this case, we managed to get 50%
03:01of the hotel corridors to be naturally ventilated,
03:04and 100% of the office lift lobbies and toilets
03:07to be naturally ventilated too.
03:09So that really reduced the air conditioning
03:11and energy footprint of the building.
03:14This was really, I would say, radical for its time
03:17because most hotel operators would have wanted air conditioning
03:21for all parts of their building, including circulation.
03:23But we transformed these circulation pathways
03:27into wonderful, delightful tropical garden spaces,
03:29such that guests really don't think about
03:33the fact that it's not air-conditioned.
03:34I mean, there's water features, there's plants,
03:37and you just get to enjoy the sights and sounds
03:39of a tropical country that you're visiting.
03:41And that was a very nice touch.
03:44And then we also have the sky gardens,
03:46the projecting green areas that you see in front of the hotel.
03:49It shades the building itself.
03:51Yeah, so that helps to reduce the cooling load of the guest rooms.
03:54Right.
03:55We treat every building and every project like a prototype,
04:00or a test bed, or a pilot of a certain idea.
04:03And keep improving it as we go,
04:06and keep expanding it with the scale of our new projects.
04:10I think that what you're doing is so important.
04:12So thank you so much to yourself and Boha
04:14for doing what you do, and thank you for coming here today.
04:18Thank you so much, Adina, for doing what you do.
04:20Oh.
04:22Oh, okay.
04:24I don't know, it feels weird to say you're welcome.
04:27Oh, I don't know.
04:29Yeah, sure.