ARCHITECT FOCUS: PAUL BAKER, WILKINSON EYRE
The glasshouses are carbon neutral. How did you achieve this? A cooled conservatory is a tough one to pull off in an environmentally sen- sible way, because glasshouses like to get hot and not cold. That's where having a good team was fundamental. Thinking about conditioning the places where the people and plants are, not the whole volume, was key. We were very focused on the enve- lope being as efficient as possible. The biomes are bobble shaped, with minimum surface area and maximum enclosed space. They are also respon- sive, with fabric sails that extend across the biomes to stop heat gain when the sun is out. Next, we needed to find an energy source. We looked at all the typical sources of cooling – water, the ground, wind and solar – but none worked. The sea is warm in Singapore, there's no shift in temperature between day and night, there are no seasons. There's no free energy sink.
Singapore has lots of rain trees that have been planted along most of the highways and roads. These are cut frequently to provide optimum shade, with the pruned branches going to landfill or being used as com- post. We realised they could be a great source of energy so we decided to burn them in an on-site steam biomass boiler, which provides energy to cool the domes. It means that we don't have to ship them from anywhere complicated; they're available on the island. It became a great story.
Why was it so important to be environmentally responsible? The thrust of our argument was that if we can do the cooling of conservato- ries – one of the trickiest things to do in a carbon responsible way – that's a great message for Singapore to put out there. The visitors to Gardens by the Bay are quite diverse and their awareness of climate issues is not as great as in the UK, so it seemed like a good place to start telling some
stories about climate change. We worked with Land Design on a projec- tion in the Cloud Forest Dome called + Five Degrees, which illustrates what would happen if the temperature of the earth rose by five degrees.
Can you describe the design of the two domes? We designed two distinct domes, differently shaped, but with a very strong synergy, directly responding to
Project In brief: Cooled Conservatories, Bay South, Singapore Gardens by the Bay
l THE BUILDING Project value: £350m
Gross area: The Flower Dome 12,800sq m The Cloud Forest 7,300sq m
Structure: Composite structure comprised of a steel gridshell supported by a superstructure of radially arranged steel 'ribs'
Envelope: Low-e coated glazing. Automated retractable fabric shades
Renewable energy systems: A biomass combined heat and power system fired from horticultural and other waste, with a useable thermal output of 5.8MW and electrical output of 1,000kW. In addition to these approximately 100kWp of photovoltaic panels are installed within the wider development.
l THE TEAM
Architecture: Wilkinson Eyre Landscape architecture: Grant Associates Environmental design consulting: Atelier Ten Structural engineering: Atelier One Exhibition design: Land Design Studio Branding and signage: Thomas Matthews
34
Read Leisure Management online
leisuremanagement.co.uk/digital
ISSUE 3 2014 © cybertrek 2013
PHOTO: ©MAX TAN
Page 1 |
Page 2 |
Page 3 |
Page 4 |
Page 5 |
Page 6 |
Page 7 |
Page 8 |
Page 9 |
Page 10 |
Page 11 |
Page 12 |
Page 13 |
Page 14 |
Page 15 |
Page 16 |
Page 17 |
Page 18 |
Page 19 |
Page 20 |
Page 21 |
Page 22 |
Page 23 |
Page 24 |
Page 25 |
Page 26 |
Page 27 |
Page 28 |
Page 29 |
Page 30 |
Page 31 |
Page 32 |
Page 33 |
Page 34 |
Page 35 |
Page 36 |
Page 37 |
Page 38 |
Page 39 |
Page 40 |
Page 41 |
Page 42 |
Page 43 |
Page 44 |
Page 45 |
Page 46 |
Page 47 |
Page 48 |
Page 49 |
Page 50 |
Page 51 |
Page 52 |
Page 53 |
Page 54 |
Page 55 |
Page 56 |
Page 57 |
Page 58 |
Page 59 |
Page 60 |
Page 61 |
Page 62 |
Page 63 |
Page 64 |
Page 65 |
Page 66 |
Page 67 |
Page 68 |
Page 69 |
Page 70 |
Page 71 |
Page 72 |
Page 73 |
Page 74 |
Page 75 |
Page 76 |
Page 77 |
Page 78 |
Page 79 |
Page 80 |
Page 81 |
Page 82 |
Page 83 |
Page 84