TITLE

EFFICIENT INSULAR LIFE BUILDING BY ENHANCING PASSIVE AND ACTIVE CONCEPTS

ABSTRACT

The Architectural design of a building has tremendous effect on the heating, cooling, and lighting of the building as can be seen by the following design considerations: proportion of building (surface area to volume ratio) size and location of windows, massiveness, color and type of building materials used. As we design the façade of our building, we also start to design the heating, cooling and lighting system of the building. The study concerns on the proposed revise of the insular life building. Our main focus was to revise a more efficient Insular life building by enhancing its passive and active concepts.

KEYWORDS

PASSIVE CONCEPT BERNOULLI EFFECT AIRFLIGHTTHERMAL COMFORT SUSTAINABLE LOUVERS DAYLIGHTING FINS VENTURI TUBES STATIC PRESSURE SOLAR PLATE BITUMINOUS MEMBRANE AIR WELL ACTIVE CONCEPT AIR DUCT

TEMPERATURE

INTRODUCTION

Having a coordinates of 16°24'45"N 120°35'28"E, the Site is located at Legarda Road corner Abanao Street, Baguio City. It is surrounded by Establishments like McDonalds, Eurotel, BDO, Fire station and the Baguio City Hall. The site is best suited for Institutional and commercial buildings because of its location and surroundings. The building is very accessible to the public because it is near the City hall and is a walking distance from the Harrison and Session Road. The front road of the Side is a heavy traffic because it is where vehicles from Naguillan Road, Legarda and City Camp pass.

A PERSPECTIVE VIEW OF THE BUILDING TAKEN FROM THE EUROTEL

FRONT VIEW OF THE BUILDING

Former Insular Life Building

The Site is occupied by Insular Life Assurance Company (a Life Insurance Company) for 42 years. Insular Life Building was opened to Public on the 21st of April year 1972. Pagibig Fund was known to be a former tenant of the building. Due to its lack to attract people, Pagibig moved out and found a way to establish a new branch in Session Road.

Just last year, month of February, they redesigned the building. Based on the People we have meet and interview, the reason why it has to be redesigned was because of its Age, and quality. The building has no longer the spark it has before, in attracting and alluring people. And one of the reasons is that the management of Insular Life Assurance Company that is based in Alabang decided to renovate or redesign all their buildings throughout the Philippines.

BODY

The Insular life building was one of the buildings that integrated Passive Concepts and uses Day lighting devices. Scrutinizing the façade of the Contemporary Structure, the first thing to notice was its use of Louvers and Fins. Upon entering the building, we have felt the lack of lighting and Thermal comfort inside the edifice. The following are our observations on the said building:

SOUTHERN VIEW SHOWING THE DETAILS OF LOUVERS

LOUVERS IN FRONT OF THE BUILDING

SOUTHERN VIEW OF THE BUILDING SHOWING THE LOUVERS

(taken at 01:00 pm)

SOUTHERN VIEW OF THE BUILDING SHOWING THE LOUVERS

( taken at 11:26 am)

NORTH-EAST VIEW OF THE BUILDING SOUTHERN VIEW OF THE BUILDING

SHOWING THE VERTICAL FINS ON THE EASTERN PART OF THE BUILDING

MAIN ENTRANCE OF THE BUILDING

LANDSCAPE AT THE BASEMENT

VIEW FROM THE ROOFTOPWATER HEATER ON THE PENTHOUSE

STAIRS LEADING TO THE BASEMENT AIR WELL(provides natural light and ventilation on

the fire exit)

LANDSCAPE LOCATED AT THE FRONT SIDE OF THE BUILDING

FIRE EXIT STAIRS(located on the left side of the building)

A VACANT ROOM AND FORMER PAGIBIG FUND OFFICE

MAIN OFFICESHOWING THE OFFICE WINDOW BLINDS

DEHUMIDIFIER(which reduces the level of humidity in the air,

usually for health or comfort reasons, or to eliminate dank smells)

CEILING CASSETTE TYPE AIR CONDITIONER(located on their offices)

FIRE EXIT(located on the left side of the building)

AIR DUCT(that carry cooled or heated air into rooms)

ELECTRICAL ROOM(showing series of electricity meters)

A DISTRIBUTION BOARD (OR PANELBOARD)(that divides the electrical power feed into

subsidiary circuits)

ELECTRICAL ROOM(showing series of electricity meters)

ELECTRICAL ROOM(showing series of electricity meters and

circuit breakers)

SPLIT AIR CON OUTDOOR UNIT( used in their main office)

ELECTRICAL CIRCUIT FOR THE WATER PUMP(located underground)

ELECTRICAL CIRCUIT FOR THE WATER PUMP(located underground)

PENT HOUSEBITUMINOUS MEMBRANE WITH WATER

PROOFING INSTALLED ON ROOFTOP FLOORING

SOLAR PLATE COLLECTOR(that is only used in the heating system on the

Pent House)

WATER PUMP(located at the southern portion of the

building)

PNEUMATIC TANKSTORAGE TANK

(used for the short- or long-term storage of heat or cold water)

GENERATOR(generates electricity in the event that the

main power supply is unavailable)

THE GENERATOR HOUSE(located at the back portion of the building)

OPENING OF UNDERGROUND WATER TANK

UNDERGROUND WATER TANK(which is the main source of their water)

The building was designed considering all the natural forces, negative and positive side of the site where the building is located, that will affect the overall design of the building. The circulation of air in building is provided by passive cooling systems. They use air well and cross ventilation to provide passage of the air to circulate inside the building, especially on the hallway and corridor. The materials used also help in maintaining the cool ambient of the interior. They use fiber cement board on walls with an R-value of 1.32 compared to plywood which only have 0.62 R-value. The higher the value of R-value of a material is equal to a high thermal resistance. The effect of the sunlight is lessened because they incorporated metal (aluminum)vertical fins and horizontal louvers which are made up of aluminum all around the building to protect the building from direct solar radiation. They used aluminum becauseto reflect the sunlight away from the building. But on the other hand they use the sun as a heating device for the water only on the penthouse using the solar collectors. For the window they use clear glass to catch a clear view, but clear glazing can end up as direct heat gain if there are no shading device incorporated on it. The landscaped in front of the building acts as a noise buffers that came from the busy street and also helpthe environment of the building to become fresh and cool ambient and of course for aesthetic purpose. For the roof top, they used a special kind of flat roofing membrane, for flat roof water proofing, they used Reinforced bitumen membrane. Like what we have learned, active system is a support of passive system, so in this case, they use electricity to supply the other need of the building especially in terms of lighting, water supply, and ventilating. Each tenant use different kind of air conditioning and ventilating systems such as Ceiling Cassette Inverted Split type air condition in the main office, Split Air Conditioners in and Dehumidifiers.

TECHNIQUES

BERNOULLI EFFECT

A statement of relationship between flow speed and pressure in a fluid system; in essence, when the speed of horizontal flow through a fluid increases, the pressure decreases.

AIR PLANE WING

Aerodynamics is the study of the dynamics of air and in particular how air interacts with, and flows over surfaces of materials and geometries.

.

SUSTAINABLE LOUVERS AND FINS

A set of angled slats or flat strips fixed or hung at regular intervals in a door, shutter, or screen to allow air or light to pass through.

A louver is a window blind or shutter with horizontal slats that are angled to admit light and air, but to keep out rain, direct sunshine, and noise. The angle of the slats may be adjustable, usually in blinds and windows, or fixed.

Attached horizontally or vertically to the outside of a building, aluminium aerofoil fins combine extremely effective shading to prevent heat gain within the building whilst enhancing its architectural appearance. The fins can be fixed, motorised or fully automated.

SOLAR PANEL

As you can see from the above diagram of a solar panel, photons are contained within the sun’s rays and beam down to earth.

Once these photons reach the solar panel, they are absorbed by the silicon material, and this allows electrons to be knocked off their orbit.

As the electrons are knocked off their orbit, they become free electrons and are able to pick up a current, resulting in the flow of electricity to external sources.

BITUMINOUS MEMBRANE

Roofing material is sold in rolls and applied usually on low-slope or flat roofs. Its seams are sealed using a torch to heat the under-side of the bituminous material that coats both sides of polyester or fiberglass reinforced mat.

AIR WELL

A court enclosed within walls and opens at the top for supplying air to windows — called also air shaft.

AIR DUCT

A metal sheet that enclosure carrying warm or cool air from a forced air heating or cooling plant.Aduct or pipe for conveying air (as to the rooms of a house or for ventilation or to a furnace)

EXAMPLES

Special wind cowls in the BedZED development use the faster winds above rooftops for passive ventilation. They have both intake and outlet, so that fast rooftop winds get

scooped into the buildings, and the larger outlets create lower pressures to naturally suck air out. The stack effect also helps pull air out through the same exhaust vent.

The Venturi Effect as it works on an airplane wing, causing lift overhead view of a building at Wacker and Monroe Streets.

Devonshire Building (UK)the blinds help manages overheating, and they are backed up by a geothermal cooling system.

 Daylighting study of the Wainright Building rendered in RADIANCE by VISARC.It uses a two-pass, hybrid, backwards-raytracing algorithm that can handle complex geometry and sophisticated material definitions.

Solar Sunscreen, Consolidated Forensic LaboratoryThe high-performance facility in Washington, D.C., by HOK uses a dynamic façade to draw in sunlight without the heat.

Done with Soprema modified bitumen over polyisocyanurate insulation and Sopraboard. Note the waterproofing of the ducts as well.

VW+BS' Periscope BuildingThe tall slender building includes four stories of office space and the top floating floor features a restaurant with an entire wall’s view of the city. A six foot airwell separates the top annex from the rest of the building. Borrowing the idea from old Singaporean shop houses, the structure allows light and ventilation to filter into the rest of the building.

The new building on the corner of Mühlenpfordtstrasse and Schleinitzstrasse houses the IT Centre for the TU Braunschweig. A central element of the ventilation concept is the atrium with its air duct.

CONCLUSION

According to the study and observation that was conducted, we arrived with the conclusion that the modernized reconstruction of the Insular Life Building is inefficient in providing adequate daylighting and air circulation. Therefore, We came up with the design solution of integrating cross ventilation which utilizes a small window opening oriented to the direction of the prevailing winds and a large window opening on the opposite side of the said building, in this way the Bernoulli's Principle on Airflight will be applied. It is the most common application because in an airplane wing, the top of the wing is somewhat curved, while the bottom of the wing is totally flat. In this case air travels across both the top and the bottom concurrently. Because both the top part and the bottom part of the plane are designed differently, this allows for the air on the bottom to move slower, which creates more pressure on the bottom, and allows for the air on the top to move faster, which creates less pressure. Same through with the idea for the opening of the building which will utilize small opening for the entry of air and large window for the exit.

REFERENCES

Heating, Cooling, Lighting Design Methods for Architects by Norbert Flecher

http://www.wisegeek.org/what-is-the-bernoulli-effect.htm

http://www.clean-energy-ideas.com/solar/solar-panels/solar-panel-diagram

http://www.wikipedia.com

http://sustainabilityworkshop.autodesk.com/buildings/stack-ventilation-and-bernoullis-principle#sthash.ED1SoEAS.dpuf

http://chicagowindowexpert.com/windowtags/wind/#sthash.rzGVtOT7

http://www.architectmagazine.com/daylighting/solar-sunscreen-consolidated-forensic-laboratory.aspx

VW+BS' Periscope Building Offers a Bird's-Eye View of Singapore | Inhabitat - Sustainable Design Innovation, Eco Architecture, Green Building