2023-07-22 11:30:00
Singapore (CNN) Singapore has long called itself a ‘garden city’. The term “Garden City” was coined in the 1960s by Singapore’s founding father and former prime minister, Lee Kuan Yew.
In the decades that followed, Singapore embarked on a large-scale tree-planting program, promoting so-called “biophilic” architecture, with vegetation growing above urban façades and greenery overflowing from skyscrapers.
Singapore’s latest hymn to nature is a new six-story building on the campus of Nanyang Technological University (NTU). The building, which houses the university’s business school, features a gentle curve throughout, a sun-drenched atrium, an open-air study area with lush greenery in the background, and an elevator that descends into a lush tropical vegetation. Everything from the handrails to the benches, the door frames, the room dividers and even the bus stop adjacent to the building is made of wood.
Wood is also used for structural beams and columns. In fact, this building is almost entirely made of mass timber. Mass timber is a new generation of structural wood material made from multiple layers of wood held together with a strong adhesive. Mass timber is now pushing the boundaries of architecture.
Spread over an area of 43,500 square meters, the building is currently the largest wooden building in Asia by floor area.
The project, named “Gaia” following the ancient Greek goddess of the earth, opened in May this year at a total construction cost of S$125 million (regarding 13.2 billion yen at today’s rate).
The exposed wooden framework has no cladding or paint. This is to make the best use of natural materials and give visitors the feeling of walking among the trees.
Well-known Japanese architect Toyo Ito, who worked on the project, says that’s exactly what the design was all regarding.
Ito gave an interview to CNN shortly following the Gaia dedication ceremony. Ito always strives to depict the connection with nature, such as trees and water, and the feeling of being in nature in his designs. Mr. Ito says his vision came true when people said it felt like walking into a forest.
Ito, who was awarded the Pritzker Architecture Prize in 2013, known as the “Nobel Prize of the architecture world,” designed Gaia with Singaporean design firm RSP. In addition to multiple research facilities, staff rooms and spacious study terraces, Gaia has a 190-seat auditorium with many tiered classrooms.
Only the toilets, the ground floor and the exterior stairs were made of concrete (due to local regulations, etc.), but the rest of the structure was made of spruce from Austria, Sweden and Finland. The timber was processed into panels and sturdy beams in Europe before being shipped to Singapore.
Nanyang Technological University Business School will be housed in “Gaia” built in a space of 43,500 square meters / NTU Singapore
global trends
In recent years, there has been a significant increase in the construction of large-scale wooden buildings around the world. In some countries, the construction of wooden high-rise buildings (price scrapers) is also permitted, and the 25-story wooden skyscraper “Ascent” in Milwaukee, Wisconsin, USA, is the world’s tallest mass timber structure with a height of regarding 87 meters.
Asian cities have been slower to embrace the trend of wooden skyscraper construction than their European and North American counterparts.
At the time Gaia was approved for construction, Singapore’s building code required wooden structures to be 24 meters high, but this limit has since been lifted. But architect Ito believes that attitudes toward wooden skyscrapers are changing rapidly in Asia, and Singapore has been particularly quick to realize this.
According to the Building and Construction Authority of Singapore (BCA), the use of mass timber reduces dust and noise on construction sites and also speeds up projects by 35%.
And, surprisingly, proponents of wood construction claim that in the event of fire, wood construction is safer than steel-framed buildings and is less at risk of catastrophic collapse (although not all experts agree).
Proponents of mass timber point out that the material burns relatively slowly and predictably. Gaia’s designers also added a layer of wood called a “sacrificial layer” to the beams of the building. This layer will scorch in the event of a fire, but serves to protect the wood underneath.
But many of the purported benefits of mass timber are environmental.
About 40% of the world’s energy consumption is due to the construction, management and operation of buildings. In this respect, concrete and steel consume large amounts of energy in their production process, which accounts for much of the environmental footprint of buildings, while wood absorbs carbon dioxide throughout its life.
Even if one tree is processed into mass timber, the carbon dioxide contained in it will be sequestered (trapped) in the wood and will not return to the atmosphere. Studies show that one cubic meter of wood can store regarding one tonne of carbon dioxide.
Wood is also a natural insulator, and in warmer climates like Singapore, wooden buildings retain less heat than concrete buildings, while in colder climates they reduce heat loss.
Gaia’s designers say they haven’t calculated the amount of carbon dioxide emissions saved during Gaia’s construction process, but they say managing and operating Gaia emits 2,500 tons less carbon dioxide than concrete or steel buildings, equivalent to removing more than 550 cars from the road each year.
Singapore authorities have designated ‘Gaia’ as a ‘zero energy’ building/NTU Singapore
passive cooling
It’s not just materials that make these energy savings possible. For example, the exterior of the building has strategically placed fins that keep the interior cool by creating shadows on the façade.
The wind from the artificial air conditioning system is also conspicuous due to its absence.
In a way, it’s a feat to go fan-free in a country less than 140 kilometers north of the equator, but Gaia’s cooling system relies on “passive cooling” instead of fans. This is a system that runs cold water through the coils to cool the air around them.
The well-ventilated Gaia building is oriented north-south, aligning the building with the direction of Singapore’s prevailing winds to promote natural ventilation.
Gaia is designated as a ‘zero energy’ building by the Singapore authorities because it produces as much energy as it consumes (thanks to solar panels on the roof).
So far, only 16 buildings in Singapore have achieved zero energy. Exactly half of them are properties owned by NTU, including the on-campus sports hall designed by Mr. Ito.
Spacious terraces and sunny atriums can be seen everywhere / NTU Singapore
In his speech at Gaia’s inauguration, NTU Chancellor Ho Teck Hua boasted that NTU’s campus is the greenest in Singapore.
Business school classes start at Gaia in August, so it remains to be seen what business school students will think of the new building. However, there is growing evidence that the use of wood in construction has positive effects on the welfare of residents, such as reducing stress levels.
Ito, whose grandfather was a lumber merchant, says his design philosophy is still underpinned by the comfort people feel when he designs buildings.
Ito always thinks regarding comfort when designing buildings. If a building is comfortable, people will stay in it or visit it every day. Mr. Ito says that he wants to create buildings that give people a desire to live.
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