BACHELOR OF SCIENCE (HONS) (ARCHITECTURE)

YEAR 3 SEMESTER 5

THEORIES OF ARCHITECTURE & URBANISM (ARC 61303)

THEORIZING ARCHITECTUREASSIGNMENT 1 PART 2:

KIEW WEE KEE 0310202TUTOR: MS. IDA

Introduction to Contextual ism

“Every developer thinks that each building has to be ‘iconic.’ But this cannot be so and there is a need to understand the importance of contextual buildings.”

This is the theory proposed by Dr. Steffen Lehmann, who is a German Australian urbanist, author, theorist, educator, and a research professor in the School of Built Environment in the same time. Being an architect who emphasizes on the idea of “Green Urbanism”, Dr. Steffen Lehman believe that urbanization of cities and the environmental consequences has always moved hand in hand. Hence it is relatively significant for building design to be in response to the surrounding context.

Contextualism suggests an architecture strategy that responds to its surrounding environment by respecting what is already there. In this case, PJ Trade Centre located at Damansara Perdana would be a perfect piece of architecture representing the essence of contextual architecture, with three contextual factors of designing: “Respect to the surrounding” design intention, environmental strategies and materiality considerations.

‘ Respect to T he S urrounding’ D esign Intention

In response to the theory brought up by Dr. Steffen Lehmann, emphasizing much on the importance of designing according to context, the proposed design of PJ Trade Centre seems

to have very much meet the criteria of being categorized under contextual architecture. PJTC was designed based on the “Respect to the surrounding” design approach, where the main intention is to create a continuity of green into urban scape.

The 2.5 acre “Forest Plaza” created in front of the main entrance of PJ Trade Centre was one of the strategies of bringing the design closer towards the idea of contextual architecture; giving the impression that the design is a continuity of the forest from the hills.

1600+ trees plantation over the development of the “Forest Plaza”

The surrounding context itself, is identified as an area which has yet to be fully developed; hence, the presence of greens from the forest plays a significant role when comes to the building design, where the “context”, or in this case, the forest should be very well premeditated.

“Greens brings life to a building”, mentioned by Dr. Steffen Lehmann who highly encourage the concept of integrating green into urban cities. Taking the theory of “Green Urbanism” proposed by him as reference, PJ Trade Centre appears to be a relatively good piece of architecture as the idea of merging the building with the surrounding green context not only works on the exterior of the building but as well blending in deep into the very hearth of the development; this clearly brings out the difference between landscape designing with green urbanism.

“Green” strategies being implemented in front of offices, corridors; creating life and in the meantime providing

leisure spaces for workers to chill and relax.

Green elements can be found all over the whole office development, which meets the design intention of recreating a “sense of life” in a building, especially one which functions as a normal office block. Through introducing green medium into the design in large scale, the whole development turns out to be relatively vivacious and vivid; where PJ Trade Centre no longer merely perform as an ordinary office block, but on the other hand had its initial function being further enhanced by turning it into a tourist attraction.

Living facade concept proposed for the design of PJ Trade Centre

The vent block facade (*main facade) of PJ Trade Centre was designed based on the concept of a living facade, which advocates the idea of “more life as time goes by”. A living facade is a vertical surface incorporating vegetation into its structure or face to facilitate various aesthetic, environmental, social or economic benefits. Where in this case, the concrete vent block facade of PJ Trade Centre is envisaged to be rendered with creepers and moss as time goes on, breathing life into the wall of the facade rather than letting it deteriorate as time ages. This further strengthen the design theory emphasized by Dr. Steffen Lehmann, where every building should be designed “respect to the surrounding”.Environmental Strategies

It is always important to understand the significance of the surrounding context according to the design therapy of Dr. Steffen Lehmann; hence the surrounding environment has been one of the key elements to be put into considerations when comes to contemporary architecture. PJ Trade Centre was designed based on a few environmental strategies, referring to the local climate of the context as a foundation in order to increase the overall performance of the design.

Full height ceiling- to- floor glass curtain wall applied on the East facade of PJ Trade Centre

PJ Trade Centre was designed in such a way where the main entrance is orientated facing the East, where the acceptance of natural sunlight into the building can be maximize through the engrafting of glass curtain walls. This is best seen in the design of the main lobby of PJ Trade Centre, which is a modest but comfortable and airy- space, with no air conditioning or artificial lighting installed. The 9- meter high glass lantern lobbies were erected with full height ceiling to floor glass walls as a strategy to enhance the permeability of natural daylight into the lobby during the morning, with trees planting inside and out to soften the direct heat penetration. This creates a relatively pleasant and comfortable atmosphere to the occupants, allowing subtle amount of sunlight pouring into the designated space.

Triple volume lobby allows sufficient space for stack ventilation to take place

In the meantime, the triple volumed glass lobbies function very well as a passive cooling strategies as the heat from direct solar radiation could be driven away from the internal space through effective stack ventilation. This strategy works on the rule of convection; where warm air rises and cool air falls. Stack ventilation or convective air movement relies on the increased buoyancy of warm air which rises to escape the building through high level outlets, drawing out excessive heat penetrated into the lobby area. In this case, it is possible to achieve thermal comfort as heat flow through air movement.

Concrete vent block applied on the West facade of PJ Trade Centre

On the other hand, concrete vent block were applied on the west side of the design to function as an effective shading mask against direct heat penetration into the office building. The usage of vent block on the West facade functions as a heat sink, controlling the amount of direct sunlight in contact with the office building and creates a barrier separating the building from the highway which is overexposed to heat radiation. The concept of a breathing facade is implemented on the concrete vent block facade as well by having creepers and mosses enmeshing together with the surface of the concrete as a perfect way of cooling down the whole facade.

Moreover, the presence of green elements on the vent block facade not only act as a natural air filter which percolate and trap dust particles from the polluted air, controlling indoor air quality of the building; but on the other hand also serve the design right by reducing traffic noise transmission from the highway through sound diffusion method. Noise control is relatively important in the design of PJ Trade Centre since it is a development of an office building, especially the West side of the building which is directly in contact with the

Damansara Puchong Highway, LDP. Having green elements applied on the facade in this case functions perfectly in order to minimize the sound disturbance created (through Structure Borne Transmission) to the office spaces inside the building. Hence maintaining excellent interior acoustic performance.

Wind tunnel created in between office blocks

PJ Trade Centre is designed in such a way where large voids were created in between office blocks in order to make use of the environmental advantage present at the surrounding context. This is to drive maximum wind into the design especially during the Southwest Monsoon Season from late May to September. Wind flow across the building through the large voids created in the design using the idea of cross ventilation (Venturing Breezeway Effect) in order for effective overall heat shift control of air movement. Functioning also as a wind tunnel, the large voids in between office blocks plays a relatively important role to achieve the optimum air change rate (ACR) of the design, which is needed to constantly ventilate the building in order to attain thermal comfort.

Materiality Considerations

Material has always been one of the main factors to be considered when comes to designing. Material selection of a design is a complex process which is not only about choosing the strongest and cheapest materials available, but is also influenced and determined by numerous preconditions, decisions and considerations. In the case of a contextual architecture being emphasized by Dr. Steffen Lehmann, material selection has to be even more prudent due to the fact that the presence of physical context around brings about the need of using materials related to it.

The whole design of PJ Trade Centre is based on the idea of crafting an energy efficient and environmentally friendly building with textured and earth toned local materials - mainly overburnt bricks which creates certain visible connection between the design with the surrounding context.

Overburnt Bricks as the main selection of material in the design of PJ Trade Centre

In order to treat the design of PJ Trade Centre gently on the earth, the attitude of the choice of material is to keep things simple, economical and unpretentious, using a more sustainable and Eco- friendly approach in order to fit in with the context. The brick facade were designed intentionally in such a way where the surfaces are not plastered nor painted, neither are the walls and ceiling in the car park in order to retain a sense of originality into the design; making use of the nature of the material itself to create a slight relation between the colour temperature of the building design with the green forest. By using such choice of material, the design would be a lot more interesting due to the visual experience which it gave to the occupance.

Metal mesh as flooring material in the design of PJ Trade Centre

Besides, the usage of metal mesh as flooring material on the pedestrian bridge of PJ Trade Centre not only enhanced the visual connectivity between the occupants and the pedestrians below, but also served a big impact on allowing maximum air ventilation through the building. The penetrable surface of metal mesh creates a sense of permeability which allows wind to pass through without any obstruction, hence perfectly controlling the heat flow of the building and providing thermal comfort to the occupants in PJ Trade Centre. Furthermore, the porous habitude of the metal mesh seems to merge and blend with the surface of the brick facade and allowing subtle sunlight to penetrate through, thus creating excellent visual experience to the users.

Conclusion

PJ Trade Centre is a good piece of architecture representing the essence of contextual architecture, where the priority of design was given to the local condition of the surrounding context of Damansara Perdana. From the design of the trade centre, it is clear that how the encompassing environment in an area can had tremendous effect on the path and route of building design. Just like the theory mentioned by Dr. Steffen Lehmann,

“Every developer thinks that each building has to be ‘iconic.’ But this cannot be so and there is a need to understand the importance of contextual buildings.”

It is impossible for every design to stand itself as an iconic building, but it is possible to form a balanced city brimming with building design blending and merging with the surrounding context, which brings about a sense of harmony and concordance in the perspective of architecture design.