Asian Architecture [ARC 2213/2234] PROJECT 1: CASE STUDY

A comparison study of the passive design strategies to achieve thermal comfort

between the Ganendra Art House and Traditional Malay house

ARC 2213/2234 Asian Architecture 1

Asian Architecture [ARC 2213/2234]

PROJECT 1: CASE STUDY

A comparison study of the passive design strategies to

achieve thermal comfort between the Traditional Malay

house and Ganendra Art House

NAME: HOW PEI NGOH

STUDENT ID: 0316929

LECTURER: MS. ALIA AHAMAD

SUBMISSION DATE: 6 June 2015




A comparison study of the passive design strategies to achieve thermal comfort between the Ganendra Art house and Traditional Malay house

Table of Contents Page

Abstract ........................................................................................................................ 2

1.0 Introduction ..................................................................................................... 3

2.0 An overview of Thermal Comfort ..................................................................... 5

2.1 Factors affecting thermal comfort of residential house in malaysia .............. 5

3.0 The effectiveness of natural ventilation system used in traditional Malay house to

achieve thermal comfort ............................................................................................ 7

4.0 The effectiveness of natural ventilation system used in Ganendra Art house to

archieve thermal comfort ........................................................................................... 9

5.0 Comparison of natural ventilation system in traditional Malay hosue and

Ganendra Art house ................................................................................................ 14

6.0 Conclusion ........................................................................................................ 16

7.0 References ........................................................................................................ 17




Abstract

The main objective of this research paper is to investigate the differences and

effectiveness of passive cooling strategies between the Ganendra Art House and

traditional Malay house in order to achieve thermal comfort. This research paper is

mainly focuses on the issue in cooling the interior of Ganendra Art house and

Traditional Malay house by featuring various passive design strategies. In assisting the

validation of research, literature reviews from different sources was conducted to enrich

the process of the research paper. A comparison study between the natural ventilation

system in Ganendra Art House and traditional malay house was carried out in the

research paper, which in order to evaluate and compare the effectiveness and

diffrences between the traditional and contempory architecture ventilation system, such

as the built-form orientation, cross-ventilation and sun shading device. Besides that,

based on the passive design strategies used in the Ganendra Art House, the

effectiveness affected the ventilation of the building itself and occupant‟s comfort has

also discussed in the paper. On the other hand, due to the hot and humid level of

Malaysia, there has a lot of climate factors that designer should concern and consider.

As a result, by applying proper passive design strategies, all the issue would be solved

and achieve the thermal comfort in tropical country. In a nutshell, the passive design

strategies applied in Ganendra Art House are ventilated and effective. It is a good

reference for the modern green building development in our country, yet the traditional

malay house would be recommended for the basic passive design as it is the gen of

passive design. Nowadays, we can see that the environment issue is one of the

biggest concerns to architects, although the passive design has been introduced and

enhanced into most of the building design but the technology in our country has not

approached the level. It is to be believed in the future it can be further developed and it

eventually it will become a common practice.




1.0 Introduction

Tropical climate country experiences hot and humid weather, there are difficulties

in achieving a thermally comfortable environment indoors has been stated due to the

unstable weather. Unstable indoor and outdoor air temperature are insignificant

compare to the sun. Sun is the most important natural element that designer need to pay

most of the attention in building design for achieving thermal comfort especially in

Malaysia, a tropical climate country.

Various passive designs have been practicing and developing in order to solve the

issues for achieving thermal comfort since old time. Traditional Malay house built by

our ancestor is an idea example for us to learn and adopt. It established the basic passive

designs that responded to the hot and humid climate. However, Ganendra Art house

located in Petaling Jaya, Malaysia, awarded numerous green building award, is another

great contemporary architecture for us to study on. Although it is a small scale

residential house located in housing area, the green principles adopted into the building

design has responded to the environment and yet met the demands of modern lifestyle.

The case study is particularly interested in the effectiveness and differences of

natural ventilation system in contemporary residential architecture and vernacular

residential architecture in achieving thermal comfort. All the findings provide a

comparison study of natural ventilation system in Ganendra Art house and traditional

Malay house. Both of the case studies are located in Malaysia. The built form, material

used, passive design strategies and building style are various different. So in term of

effectiveness study, it would have an interesting comparison result between

contemporary and traditional residential architecture.

This paper is to investigate the differences and effectiveness passive cooling strategies

between the Ganendra Art House and Traditional Malay house, where both are located

in tropical climate country and these two case studies are residential house. By

responding to the following research questions:




Question1 : What are the factors that affect thermal comfort of a residential house in

Malaysia?

Question 2 : How natural ventilation system does reacts to the factors of thermal comfort in

Malaysia, explain by using the case study?

Question 3 : How are the ventilation system used in Ganendra Art house to achieve thermal

comfort?:

Question 4 : How are the natural ventilation system practiced in traditional Malay house to

achieve thermal comfort?

Question 5 : What are the differences between the natural ventilation system of Ganendra

Art House and Traditional Malay house




2.0 An overview of Thermal Comfort

Thermal comfort is a subjective issue that is no specific definition because when we

determine what will make people feel comfortable, we need to consider a scope of

personal and environmental factors. According to British Standard BS EN ISO 7730,

thermal comfort is that condition of mind which expresses satisfaction with the thermal

environment. Besides that, ASHRAE Standard 5 states that thermal comfort in a

building is considered success when thermal environmental conditions is acceptable by

80% of the occupants in the space.

2.1 Factors Affecting Thermal Comfort of residential house in

Malaysia

ASHRAE Standard 55 thermal environmental conditions for human occupancy stated,

“There are large variations, both physiologically and psychologically, from person to

person. It is difficult to satisfy everyone in a space. The environmental conditions

required for comfort are not the same for everyone.”. Therefore, an optimal

temperature that can full fill all occupant‟s desire is difficult to determine. Generally,

human thermal comfort is affecting by 6 major factors and they are categorized into

two: personal factors and environmental factors. Personal factors includes clothing

levels which may be non-uniform over a person‟s body and individual metabolic rate.

Whereas, environmental factors includes air temperature, relative humidity, air speed

and radiant temperature. The major factors that affect the thermal comfort in both of the

case studies are air temperature, air speed and radiation intensities.

Figure 1 table of thermal comfort level

According to Malaysian meteorological department (MetMalaysia), the relative humidity

in Malaysia is ranging from 70 to 90% which is high and where uniformly high

temperature throughout the year. Thus, decrease the humidity and maximize air flow‟s




strategies are desired. Figure 1 shown, the recommended room air temperature range

for comfortable should between 20 to 23 Celsius.

On the other hand, air speed and wind direction are playing important role in

achieving thermal comfort. Different air temperatures affect thermal comfort of a space

as it increases heat loss when the human temperature is higher than moving air

temperature. The large difference temperature of outside and inside of building affects

the thermal comfort which it makes people experience the gap frequently in transient

manner. As Malaysia located in equator line, the wind over the country is generally light

but long periods of still are. This caused privilege in archiving thermal comfort by

having large opening for the effective cross-flow of air in the house.

Figure 2 local thermal discomfort caused by radiant temperature asymmetry

“People are more sensitive to the asymmetric radiation caused by a warm ceiling that

caused by hot and cold vertical surfaces which can be shown in Figure 2”, stated by

ASHRAE Standard 55. Radiant temperature is the heat transferred by radiation

between object which has the ability to absorb and emit radiant heat. There is a net

flow of radiant heat energy from a hotter object to a cooler object. The net flow will be

terminated when both of the object reached the same temperature which is known as

in the state of thermal equilibrium. The radiant heat energy exchange between the

environment and human are summarised by plane radiant temperature and mean

radiant temperature. The information of the direction of the radiant heat flow is provided

by plane radiant temperature, yet the mean radiant temperature will provide the

information of the average value of temperature.




3.0 The Effectiveness of natural ventilation system used in

traditional Malay house to achieve thermal comfort

In Malaysia such a hot and humid climate country, the crucial importance

environmental requirements are to make less severe the effects of high humidity, solar

gain and heavy rain. Traditional Malay house design is well known of responding the

requirements above and established the strategies such as having large opening,

steep pitch roof and house raised on stilts to ventilate the house.

Figure 3 Tebar Layer and window in Traditional Malay house

As a result, traditional Malay houses are lightweight structure with large openings.

A different pressure will be developed between the Inlet and outlet openings of the

house, air will flow from the higher- pressure end to the low pressure end theoretically.

In order to allow cross ventilation, traditional Malay house usually having many full

length open able windows on opposite walls and door to allow the wind achieve highest

performance and allows ventilation at the body level. The elongated open plans and

minimal interior partitions in the house also helps good cross ventilation and restrict air

movement in the house to ventilate the interior and achieve thermal comfort. Besides

that, intricate woodcarvings (Figure 3) as known as tebar layar are installed at the

traditional Malay house„s roof and windows to allows air passage through it to interior

and yet to have aesthetic value of Malay‟s culture.




Figure 4 section of traditional Malay house

The steep pitch roof of traditional Malay house (Figure 4) rapid the rain run-off

fast and the large overhangs drain the heavy rains away from the house. The large

overhangs also function as protection from direct sunlight and provide solar shading to

have low exposed vertical area. As the warm air will raise, the ceiling less and high

porous roof structure made of attaps, allows the warm air escape from the interior and

cooler the interior at the same time.

In additions, the floors of traditional Malay houses are slotted and raised above

the ground to catches wind of high velocity. This arrangement provides a reservoir of

cool, shaded air below the floor and also protecting from insects and flooding.

However, the houses are usually single storey and shallow in plan to encourage

maximum amount of airflow. The layout also important that they are arranged randomly

which allowed the wind velocity will not be reduced and so they can positioned in a

staggered and widely spaced configuration that faces the prevailing wind direction.




4.0 The Effectiveness of natural ventilation system used in

Ganendra Art house to achieve thermal comfort

Natural ventilation system used in Ganendra art house is slightly different from

what traditional Malay house had, the passive design strategies have been applied in

Ganendra Art house are more advance, but the building design do adapt the passive

design strategies of traditional Malay house such as high ceiling, cross-ventilation, built

form orientation and shallow floor plan.

Figure 5 location of wind chimmey in Ganendra Art house

Ganendra Art house has a most iconic passive design of itself, it is an innovative

wind chimney (Figure 5) that never been used before in Malaysia. It is a shaft has 360

degree opening on the top of the roof to catch the winds from all direction without

mechanical system and internally partitioned to channel the wind down the shaft, with

directed flow into the spaces below to provide comfort cooling and natural ventilation to

the interior.




Figure 6 Wind chimney outlet in ground floor exhibition area

The extent of wind flow is manually controlled by operable glass louvers at the base of

the shaft, so the occupant can adjust it depends on the comfort level they desired. “The

wind chimney is effective because it minimize the use of fan during daylight and

mechanical ventilation system is not really needed during monsoon season.” the owner

of the Ganendra art house, Miss Shalini said.

Figure 7 section of Ganendra Art House showing the cross-ventilation

In Ganendra art house, both of the ground and first floor levels are featuring

with openings at both sides of the gallery. It is similar to traditional Malay house of

having opening in every wall to enhance the performance of cross-ventilation.




Figure 8 perspective view from east

However, the sizes of opening In Ganendra art house are not as large as

traditional Malay house do, except those openings facing east and where the courtyard

and balcony (Figure 8) located. Figure 9 shown sizing openings for cross-ventilation,

the size of the opening required to remove heat from a building, as a percentage of

floor area, assuming a temperature difference of 1.7 Celsius between inside and

out.(Brown and DeKay). At public spaces such as family hall and lounge, partial stack

ventilation is incorporated at these spaces by having different height of openings in the

external wall inlet to provide airflow at occupant level. And the shallow floor plan

facilitates natural ventilation in all area. To be concerned, the Ganendra art house is

located in housing area, the amount of passage wind is actually reduced by the barriers

of the site, and so playing with the sizes of opening seem to be effective in catching the

wind to achieve thermal comfort in contemporary residential house.

Figure 9 sizing opening for cross ventilation system




Figure 10 Ground floor plan

Figure 11 First floor plan

As the importance of location of the house is mentioned above, the built-form

orientation has certain relationship with it. The house is oriented based on the solar

path of location; north and south in order to avoid solar heat gain affect the internal

temperature of the house. The front of the house is facing towards east while the back

of the house are aligned towards the west hot side and the noisy main road.

Landscaped central courtyard, external patios and study room are arranged facing the

east.

N




Figure 12 perspective view of south

The bedroom and bathrooms face the south to maximize the cool air from the direction

with low radiant intensities. The minimum openings are installed in west wall in order to

prevent large solar heat gain from west setting sun. All windows (Figure 13) in

Ganendra Art are shaded using a combination of horizontal and vertical sun shades.

These shading device serve to reduce glare to the internal spaces and reduce the heat

enter the interior to affect thermal comfort..

Figure 13 outlet of windows In Ganendra Art House




5.0 Comparison of natural ventilation system in Ganendra Art

House and Traditional Malay house

After study on natural ventilation system in traditional Malay house and Ganendra

Art house, the size of openings, location of openings, built-form orientation and

surrounding structure on site are to be considered into building design, depending on

design and function to provide an efficient natural air exchange for ventilation in order

to achieve thermal comfort.

A comparison of the characteristic of the natural ventilation system in traditional

Malay house and Ganendra art house to achieve thermal comfort is shown in the

following table.

Traditional Malay House

(vernacular architecture)

Ganendra Art House

(contemporary architecture)

Large opening, usually are

full length open able

windows on opposite walls

Size and location of

opening

Different size of opening,

depends on the site location

and the area of the space.

Randomly arranged, there

is no barrier to reduce the

wind velocity

Layout

Rigid pattern in the

arrangement of housing area

create barriers and the

barriers block the passage of

wind to house in the latter

path of wind




As it is built on stilts, sitting

on higher level capture

high velocity winds

Wind velocity gradient

Receives low velocity

winds as the solid fences

and hedges built around

reduced the wind velocity

Ventilated by the provision

of ventilation joints and

panel in the roof

construction

Ventilation of roof space

High ceiling, ventilated by

trapped air but the windows

allowed the air exchange

As it is built on stilts, sitting

on higher level capture

high velocity winds

Wind velocity gradient

Receives low velocity

winds as the solid fences

and hedges built around

reduced the wind velocity




5.0 Conclusion

In a nut shell, the passive design strategies used in traditional Malay house and

Ganendra Art house contributed different result, although they are located in Malaysia,

where have similar climate conditions. However, the environmental factors such as air

temperature, air speed and radiation intensities, affect the thermal comfort of

residential house in Malaysia, are responded and solved in these two case studies but

the strategies applied are way different.

Furthermore, in order to achieve thermal comfort with natural ventilation system,

the size of openings, location of openings, built-form orientation and surrounding

structure on site are to be considered into building design. Not to mention, the

surrounding environment as known as site content is playing the most important role in

designing a residential house. For example, the traditional Malay house can be

randomly built on a land as long as it could have high velocity of wind. Unfortunately,

for contemporary residential house in city such as Ganendra Art house, it must follow

the grid pattern of surrounding building, so there are some restriction that caused the

passive design strategies in Ganendra Art house cannot achieve the same

effectiveness as traditional Malay house do.




6.0 References

Abdul Malek Abdul Rahman.,. Development Of Passive Solar Design And Technology

In Tropical Climates. [Minden], Pulau Pinang: Penerbit Universiti Sains Malaysia, 2002.

Print.

Bougdah, Hocine, and Stephen Sharples. Environment, Technology And

Sustainability. London: Taylor & Francis, 2009. Print.

Brown, G. Z, and Mark DeKay. Sun, Wind & Light. New York: Wiley, 2001. Print.

'Climatic Design Of The Traditional Malay House To Meet The Requirements Of

Modern Living'. N.p., 2015.

http://anzasca.net/wpcontent/uploads/2014/08/ANZAScA2004_Kamal.pdf. 7 June

2015.

Gbtech.emsd.gov.hk,. 'Green Building Tech - Natural Ventilation'. N.p., 2015. Web. 6

June 2015.

Hyde, Richard. Climate Responsive Design. London: E & FN Spon, 2000. Print.

Pythonians.wordpress.com,. 'Thesis Proposal: Issue'. N.p., 2009.

http://gbtech.emsd.gov.hk/english/utilize/natural.html. 20 May 2015.

Vernacular Architecture,. 'Malay Houses'. N.p., 2011.

https://vernaculararchitecture.wordpress.com/2011/12/30/hello-world/. 7 June 2015.

Yeang, Ken, and Arthur Spector. Green Design. London: Black Dog, 2011. Print.

Yeang, Ken. Ecodesign. London, UK: Wiley-Academy, 2006. Print.

Asian Architecture [ARC 2213/2234] PROJECT 1: CASE STUDY

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