Khatib Clubhouse

Commercial, Online Exclusive Feature, Social, Urban Design / 2020

Khatib Clubhouse

November 3, 2020

The new 21,000 square metres Khatib Clubhouse comes sustainably designed with many first-of-its-kind facilities and amenities. It had its ground-breaking ceremony on 12 July 2018 and is purpose-built with the needs of the Home Team National Servicemen (NSmen) in mind. The 21,000-square-metre five-storey clubhouse is located within walking distance of Khatib MRT station.

Photo courtesy of Chiok Jun Jie; DP Architects

SHAPING AN ENERY-EFFICIENT ENVIRONMENT

Designed by DP Architects in collaboration with architectural engineering firm WSP, the Khatib Clubhouse was built with a sustainable and community-oriented mandate in mind. Accorded the BCA Green Mark Platinum certification, the clubhouse comes with energy-efficiency features, such as charging stations for electric cars, solar panels, smart lighting controls, rainwater harvesting and more.

Home Team NS Khatib is also the first clubhouse in Singapore to incorporate an ECO-filtration system (bio-film filtration) for its swimming pools, which sanitises the water with photocatalytic oxidisation. Without the need for chemicals like chlorine, this offers twice the lifetime usage of conventional decontamination methods, reducing energy use and up to 50 per cent water usage for pool maintenance.

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Photo courtesy of Chiok Jun Jie; DP Architects

PROXIMITY TO NATURE

The clubhouse is an urban retreat located in a neighbourhood green lung. A 10-metre wide central thoroughfare flows into the main lobby from the surrounding park seamlessly, creating a comfortable transition. An L-shaped configuration allows visitors to enjoy the verdure from main activity centres such as the gym, bowling alley and the banquet hall.

PLANTING STRATEGY

Located adjacent to a neighbourhood park and Lower Seletar Reservoir Park across the road, the clubhouse is designed with a connectivity with nature. Through biophilic designs, the sensory experiences created via the landscaping features contribute towards wellness, coupled with therapeutic experiences and lower stress levels for its members.

The planting design is inspired by natural habitats where one can discover myriad species, thematically curated to evoke the senses via colours, textures and fragrances. The different habitat-creation and biodiversity attracting designs are assigned at each landscape area following spatial and micro-climatic conditions. This can be seen from the Fern Forest at the shaded strips under the MRT viaducts and landscaped corridor with the sensory garden to the arid garden with pre-dominant, drought-tolerant species at the rooftop gardens.

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Photo courtesy of Chiok Jun Jie; DP Architects

The typically heavy water usage for irrigation to upkeep a lush landscape is reduced, supplemented by rainwater harvesting, where the automated irrigation is carefully controlled with a usage and rainfall monitoring system. With the borrowed landscape of the adjacent park and its mature ‘tree-line’, this greatly contributes and augments the development’s overall landscaping at different floor levels. This greening contributes in reducing the urban heat island effect, and augmented by cooling via generous air movement flowing through the naturally ventilated circulation corridors throughout the building.

PASSIVE VENTILATION AND DAYLIGHTING

With a sensitive, climatic design, most common areas of the clubhouse are naturally ventilated. A deliberate use of high ceiling spaces as well as open-sided corridors not only serve to connect with the landscape, but also creates effective passive ventilation.

A careful approach to avoid solar heat gain orientates the building in a north-south orientation, as well as locating back-of-house spaces along the western elevation to shield the main spaces from the afternoon sun. Moreover, a large rooftop garden serves as a canopy to the open spaces below as well as a social space.

A four-storey high Adventure HQ—Singapore’s largest multi-installation indoor hub—was also consciously designed in a deliberate effort to avoid air conditioning, fully opening up the façade to the surrounding landscape while creating an enjoyable naturally ventilated space.

SOLAR POWER

Sustainable innovations that help offset overall energy consumption include the multiple volume indoor arena, which utilises passive cooling and open air breeze, consuming no more electricity than the equivalent of one lightbulb. This is approximately 1,370 square metres of solar photovoltaic panels housed on the rooftop.

The clubhouse is expected to consume approximately 4 million kWh of electricity per year. To reduce the use of electricity from the grid, a part of the clubhouse’s rooftop will be provided with a solar photovoltaic system of 165 kWp, which is installed and run by an external vendor. Electricity generated by the PV system will then be sold to the clubhouse to supplement its electricity use and power its operations.

With an expected yield of 198,000 kWh of electricity annually, this can help the clubhouse offset 5 per cent of its electricity use. By reducing its reliance on the grid for electricity and substituting it with a renewable energy source, the clubhouse is able to reduce the carbon emissions associated with the generation of electricity from the burning of fossil fuels at the power stations.

PROJECT DATA

Project NameHomeTeamNS Khatib Clubhouse
Location2 Yishun Walk, Singapore 767944
Completion DateEnd March 2020
Site Area1.5 hectares
Gross Floor AreaApproximately 21,000 square metres, with 5 storeys and 1 basement
Building HeightApprox 21 metres
Client/OwnerHomeTeamNS
Architecture FirmDP Architects Pte Ltd
Main ContractorCMC Construction Pte Ltd
Mechanical & Electrical EngineerWSP Consultancy Pte Ltd
Civil & Structural EngineerKTP Consultants Pte Ltd
Quantity SurveyorAECOM Cost Consulting and Project Management (Singapore) Pte. Ltd.

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