SJ Campus: Cooling Through Passive and Active Design Elements

Singapore is one of the world’s most humid countries, with a mean annual relative humidity of 82 per cent and a daily variation ranging from 90 to 60 per cent from mornings to afternoons, frequently reaching 100 per cent during periods of heavy rain.¹ This, combined with day temperatures that average up to 33 degrees Celsius² (with a historic record of 37 degrees in May 2023³), results in a challenging climate that demands the adoption of technology to achieve thermal comfort. Famously, founding father Lee Kuan Yew even credited air-conditioning as an enabler of Singapore’s development,^4,5 but a sustainable solution to cooling spaces requires holistic built environment strategies.

Today’s new and existing buildings in Singapore are being incentivised to fulfil Super Low Energy (SLE) standards or higher with the aim of reaching 80 per cent of SLEs by 2030.6 As a greenfield addition to the Jurong Innovation District, SJ Campus does so and beyond—it fulfilled the Building and Construction Authority (BCA)’s Green Mark Platinum Super Low Energy (SLE) and BCA-HPB Green Mark Platinum for Healthier Workplaces certification, as well as getting WELL Pre-Certified by the International WELL Building Institute.^7,8 Notably, it implemented a slew of cooling strategies, featuring a combination of landscaping features alongside passive and active design elements.

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LANDSCAPING FEATURES

SJ Campus sits on a narrow, steep and irregular site, with a height difference between the street level and the adjacent Jurong Eco-Garden. Furthermore, the site predominantly faces east-west with potentially high solar radiation and heat gain.

To overcome these challenges, the buildings were deliberately arranged into smaller masses to maximise their north-south alignment, with pilotis ‘floating’ structures that create a series of indoor and outdoor landscaped courtyards. This allows for larger and more unique tree specimens to be preserved on the site, as well as vegetation below the floating structures. For example, a 60-year-old banyan tree has been preserved despite being located close to the entrance and the basement structure. One biophilic water feature, a pond at the entrance, is also completely natural and has not been treated with any chemicals.

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PROJECT DATA

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Read more stories from FuturArc 4Q 2024: Tempering Temperatures!

1 https://www.weather.gov.sg/climate-climate-of-singapore/
2 Ibid.
3 https://www.weather.gov.sg/climate-historical-extremes-temperature
4 https://www.vox.com/2015/3/23/8278085/singapore-lee-kuan-yew-air-conditioning
5 https://www.digitalnpq.org/archive/2009_fall_2010_winter/16_yew.html (Archived: https://archive.ph/AlaXw)
6 https://www1.bca.gov.sg/buildsg/sustainability/green-building-masterplans
7 https://www1.bca.gov.sg/buildsg-emag/articles/biophilic-design-harmonising-nature-and-the-built-environment-in-surbana-jurong-campus
8 https://surbanajurong.com/resources/news-press-releases/creating-a-smart-sustainable-future/
9 https://www.researchgate.net/publication/241889494_Energy_Consumption_of_Underfloor_Air_Distribution_Systems_A_Literature_Overview