Greening Up High, continued

FuturArc: Why did you start building bioclimatic structures? Why did you choose to go this route?
Yeang: You have to go back about 30 years. I did my PhD on ecological design.... Part of doing my PhD was that I had to study ecology, which was part of the department of biology. One of the differentiating factors (of my approach to green design) is that a lot of green designers are actually into “gadget” architecture, into stuffing everything with photovoltaics. (They’re) sort of collectors of green architecture. But I look at it as an ecologist, as an ecosystem, as a biological system.

FuturArc: A building is a biological system?
Yeang: Yes. That’s where I come from. That’s my starting point. So from there, bioclimatic design is a subset of ecological design.

FuturArc: How so?
Yeang: When you look at ecological systems, ecological systems respond to climate.... Ecological design to me is defined as integrating everything we do as human beings with the natural environment. And if we integrate in a seamless and benign way, there won’t be any environmental problems. So that’s the biggest challenge confronting ecological designers.

To me integration is at three levels: physical, systemic and temporal. Physical is integrating with the physical ecological characteristics of the locality. That means the soil, the topography, the ground water, the vegetation, climate and so forth. That’s physical integration. The second is systemic, that means integrating with the processes of nature--the way water is used; the way sluice is discharged, the way it goes from the building; the way heat is emitted from the building--this is systemic integration. And then there’s temporal integration. Temporal integration is integrating with the way we use resources. In other words, we have limited resources and we are to use them in a way that will be sustainable for future generations.

So low-energy design is part of ecological design. Low-energy design starts with passive mode design. Shaping the building, configuring it, designing the façade, orientating it, and the use of vegetation, use of natural ventilation, use of colour, and so forth in relation to the climate of the locality.

It’s called bioclimatic design: design with the climate of the locality. So bioclimatic design is therefore a subset of low-energy design, which is a subset of ecological design.

FuturArc: How do you translate that into the tropical climate?
Yeang: First of all, buildings exist because they create conditions of comfort. If we don’t need conditions of comfort, we don’t need buildings. Buildings are also for protection from the climate. So how do we create conditions of comfort? How do people traditionally create conditions of comfort?

The native dwellings of any locality are classic examples of design for climate, designing passively. If you look at a Malay house, a Malay house responds by having pitched roofs for the rain. The building is raised above the ground to let the natural ventilation go through. You have several layers of windows, you have the shutters, you have the balustrades, then you have the curtains.

So it responds intuitively to the climate of the locality. If you look at the climate in the Arctic, you have igloo houses because they’re thick, they keep the heat in. No natural ventilation because you don’t want any. So if you look at the native house of any locality, they create conditions of comfort. That’s what I call passive mode.

In creating conditions of comfort, for me there are five modes: there’s passive mode, there’s mixed, there is full, productive, and composite. “Passive” is creating conditions of comfort without M&E systems; “mixed” uses some M&E systems; “full” means full mechanical and electrical systems; “productive” is where you generate your own energy; and “composite” is a combination of the above.

FuturArc: So when you get a project, the first thing you do is look at the basic passive approach?
Yeang: Yes, the first thing you do is start from there, because if you don’t, you make decisions that you’ll have to correct later on, which defeats the purpose of ecological design....You start with the ecology of the place. You look at the ecology. It starts with ecology, then you look at the climate, then you look at the site. You look at the program, and you look at the design concept. That’s how you design ecological buildings.

FuturArc: As your name is synonymous with green building, do people come to you looking for sustainable architecture?
Yeang: There is, if you like, a sort of pecking order of architects. I’m not in the superstar line-up because I’m not able to have a definitive sense of style, but I do have a theoretical base and I probably know more about green design than most people. Occasionally people come to me and give me projects because they want a green design. But most of the time people come to me because they want to have a signature building, or they just want to have a service.