INTRODUCTION TO GREEN ARCHITECTURE

AE 4010

Submission - 01

K.D.W.A.Wijesinghe- 092155B

B.Arch Level 4

Department of architecture

University of Moratuwa.

Introduction to green architecture

Level 4, B.Arch Degree Program, Department of Architecture.

Submission 01

Building Name : Colombo jewellery Stores.

Address : No;01 , Alfred House Gardens, colombo 03, Sri Lanka.

Telphone : +94 11 2597584 / 2585187

Fax :+94 11 2588048

Email : jewellery@cjs.lk / watches@cjs.lk

Web : www.cjs.lk

Authorized Person : Accounts Manager-Mr. Chathuranga (resource person)

Map -By Google Maps

Figure 1 Google position mapFigure 2 Google satellite image of the map

Figure 3 Zoomed satellite image of the building

Submission 02

Façade details

Figure 4 North facade- Fully Blind

Figure 5 West facade- Front Elevation

North façade is a full blind wallbecause; the whole facade is coveredby adjacent building.

Being a fully covered wall it has noany contribution to impact with thebuildings power consumption, but itacts as a permanent boundaryseparating the buildings inneratmosphere from the outside.

Further, it acts like a barrier tothe external microclimate if thebuilding to prevent making impact tothe inside of the building.

The north blind facade (brick wall)

The most important façade thatdepicts the architectural characterof the building.

The eastern façade at the firstfloor level fully covered with darkreddish-brown gloss wall tiles.

Then at the beginning of the firstfloor a jutted out (2400mm inheight) cladding wall has designedto give the space for their title/shop name board.

Then a series of clear glass windowshave been introduced. The set ofsteel framed windows has given anidentical gap with the set of finsabove.

Each fin is 250mm thick with the

Figure 6 South facade- Elevation from Alfread House

Gardens Road

Figure 7 East side elevation- Rear elevation

After the analyzing of the main four facades by its ratios of opaque to transparent, we can get a rough idea about the buildings performance of respond to the external interdependencies. Even the building is designed in 80’s, the building has successfully responded to the context by having a specific fin design to cut the direct sunlight, but unfortunately any of glass windows above the first flooris not operable. The small negligence of the design has affected the

The buildings south façade isalmost similar to the frontfaçade. Actually the west andthe south facades can beconsidered as one singlefaçade because the facadeswere jointed with a curveshape corner.

Therefore the dimensions arealmost same with the westfaçade and the opaque totransparent ratio is 1: 1.195.

The east façade or the rearfaçade of the building isalmost the same except thethree exposed structuralcolumns. And also the 1500mmheight glass window set is notpresent at the first floor.

Therefore there are somedifferences in the quantitiesof opaque and transparent.

The opaque area of the façadeis 185.29sqm and the

building in a heavy stake, because the building happened to be mechanically ventilated. But there were not any signs of existence of a mechanical ventilation system provided; may be the core reason to fail and abandon a precious urban space that can be used.

Building’s basic plans

Figure 8 Basement floor plan @ -2250mm

Circulation zone

Circulation wingElevator

Pantry / Kitchen

Main accounts

Storage- files/ Watch

Dining area

Figure 9 Ground floor plan @ +900mm

Circulation zone

Generator room

Access ramp

Elevator

Sales agents’ room

Manager room

Main Customer

Stair-way

Circulation lobby

Elevator shaft

Figure 10 First Floor Plan @ +3900mm

The building’s basement floor is a totally enclosed space maintained and conditioned by mechanical ventilation systems, such as, split type AC systems.

The spaces are fully lighted with T5 fluorescent bulbs.( luminaries with 3 bulbs each 15W )

The watch repairing lab at the basement level, is specially treated and there were several electric machinery but with a low electricity consumption.

The kitchen and pantry area was mechanically ventilated with an exhaust fan.

The elevator is used at rarely because; only the basement and theground floors are functioning.

Basement is mechanically ventilated with 3 split type AC units and a single split type AC unit for the ground floor showroom.

First floor space

Circulation zone

All the floorsexcept the firstfloor are empty.First floor iscurrently used as a

The customer gallery/the showroom is highly lighted with ceiling recessed warm color CFL spot lighting for exhibition of the jewelry and their elaborative details.

Several food lights have been introduced for the exterior holdings at the ground floor level.

Figure 11 separated building skin & exposed building structure

The building is constituted with a system of horizontal reinforced concrete fin system fixed to the slab-beam structure margined by a layer of glazing between the fins and the building’s main structure. The glass layer is not a continuous layer, but an infill to the openings of the fin structure.

The jutted out structure @ the first floor level (8ft high clad structure) gives wide shading to the ground floor entrance area and also visually separate the void fin structure and the solid ground floor of the building.

The fin structure acts like a external primary skin of the building which is fully opaque at the ground floor and introduced secondary skin, Glass at the upper level above the ground floor.

RCC slab-beam

Clad structure

Wall tiles @ ground external

Basement

Concrete finstructure

Glass skin

Figure 12 Elemental shading skin separated from the building

Figure 13 Building technologies Exposed wireframe view

The building over all has responded to the external environmental forces that are specific to the area but the building has not designedin a way to minimize the usage of energy. Actually as the building was

Secondaryskin-Glass

Primaryskin-RCC

Entrance

Clad

Single pitchsteel roof

hidden by the

Concrete fin

Glass skin

Cladding feature

Opaque walls @

Basement level

designed and built in the 80’s there were no any consideration about an energy crisis at that time in Sri Lankan context.

The building has not designed to catch the wind or any how to enhance the cross ventilation. The building itself is a compacted cube of glass and concrete, which incorporates isolated modular spaces within the building with high energy consumption demands.

Submission 03

Monthly electricity consumption of the year 2012

Month Consumed units ExpenditureJanuary 5362 104022.80February 5139 99696.60March 6018 116749.20April 5514 106971.60May 4302 83458.80June 5921 114867.40July 5535 107379.00August 5121 99347.40September 5171 100317.40October 5576 108174.40November 5367 104119.80December 5988 116167.20

Total 65014 1261271.60

January

FebruaryMarchAprilMayJuneJuly

August

September

October

November

December

01000200030004000500060007000

Consumed units of electricity (kWh)

Consumed units of electricity (kWh)

Figure 14 electricity consumption graphs

January

FebruaryMarchAprilMayJuneJuly

August

September

October

November

December

020000400006000080000100000120000140000

Expendditure on electricity (Rs.)

Expendditure on electricity (Rs.)

Figure 15 Expenditure on electricity

The Colombo Jewelry Store building is a one of the best identicallandmarks of the area especially because of the reputation of thecompany and its architectural features. The building was designed in1983 and it has a great architectural identity while responding to the

context and its natural forces. Apart from the basement and the groundfloor level, the all the other floors are not functioning in themoment because they are undergoing a full refurbishment soon. All thefloors from the first floor is empty. So all the data is relevant topresent functions of the basement account office, watch repairing lab,file storage rooms, dining area and a small pantry area at thebasement and the showroom, manager room, and the security room at theground floor level.

No of computers in the office : 08

Type of air conditioning system : Split type AC systems

01 for the ground floor customergallery area.

04 for the basement level accountsoffice.

Set point temperature of the AC systems : 22°C

No of personals working in the whole building : 30 approx.

(Including the office and the jewelry showroom)

Interior finishes, Lighting and materials

For general lightingin the offices at thebasement, they haveused ceiling mountedluminares thatcontains three T5florescent Tube bulbseach 15W and 45W for aluminare.

Then in the watchrepairing lab they

have used special lighting for detail vision and several desktoplights.

For the documentation or file store rooms the common florescentluminaries was used.

At the showroom of the ground floor they have used serious artificiallighting using ceiling recessed spot lighting, several light boxes and

back lighted boards.

The interior of theshop area iselaborative anddetailed withlaminated timber. Thetimber clad walls arebeing finished withmatt finished varnishto suit the luxuriousinterior.

The floor is alsofinished withlaminated timberflooring and the

columns have been covered with acrylic boars matching with theinterior theme and the mood.

All the interior fittings have been done with timber and steel. Glazedshow cases and table tops have been used for the exhibition of thejewelry items.

The basement is the most activespace of the building. The walls are simply skim coated and painted inwhite, except the wall of ground floor dining area, which have beencovered with wall tiles to match with the look of exposed brick wall.

At the basement all the spaces have been partitioned with timber andtempered glass panels.

The watch repairing lab is specially treated with correct temperatureand humidity level, because of the most of the lab works were carriedout under the standards of repetitive watch brand. There were several

Figure 16 Basement office for Accounts Manager and his assistants

Figure 17 Interior of the jewelry showroom

machines at the lab, which were powered by power packs, which meansthat they are not machines with large power consumption.(theauthorized person did not give the permissions to take the photographsof the lab)

Also there are nine flood lights for the bill boards of the jewelrystore.

The first floor is completely allocated for filing and documentstorage and also locked down. From the second floor to sixth floor areempty floors with glazed Aluminum doors for access through backcirculation wing.

Figure 18 Fourth floor is completely empty

The all the floors from the second floor have the same properties. Allthe floors have been tiled and walls were skim courted and painted towhite.

The above mentioned fin system on building skin is appeared to behighly effective in shading. The direct sunlight almost fully cut downby the fins, and defused light is giving a sufficient amount of lightinto the spaces. Unfortunately any of these windows above the first

floor is not operable, so there should be definitely a mechanicalventilation system introduced when there will be live people workingafter their renovation.

Overview of the building, in the aspect of Green buildingapproach.

According to the Kenneth Yang’s “Partition matrix” the linkagesbetween the external environment and the building’s integral systemcan be used as an important feature of evaluation of building’sapproach to the green and eco design concepts. The key idea of thematrix is to get a holistic proportionate picture of the building’ssystems that engaged with energy consumption and energy embodiedmaterials, categorized into four main domains according to the natureof their linkages.

[LP] =

When considering the above mentioned building, the building’s designsystem is clearly resembles a one way duct for the energy andresources that inputs. As referred to the L11 partition the buildingsinternal interdependencies can be recognized more of a stagnatedstatus because the no of occupants and the pattern of work is notgoing to vary more because there is only the filing and documentinghas been done. Almost all the AC systems and the artificial lightingshould be turned on in order to maintain a comfortable and pleasantenvironment inside the building. So all type of inputs are going to bestatic quantities other than when there is a customer/s inside.Because the building has a very few no of occupants a stranger fromthe external to the internal building system can affect the matrix ina considerable way. The computers and the machinery in the watchrepairing lab are also the main contributors of the internal system.

The internal to external interdependencies; that represent L12 in thematrix is the energy and matter that outputs from the building system.Heated air, polluted water, solid waste, noise, fumes, organic waste,are among the main attributes of L12 according to Kenneth’s concept.However the Colombo jewelry store building has all those kinds ofenergy and material outputs, but there is no practice of Reduce, Reuse

L

L L

L

or Recycle those outputs in order to sustainably manage the limitedresources that needs to run the building.

Considering the external to internal interdependencies; L21 thebuilding primarily has been responded to minimize the penetration ofexternal natural forces (sunlight, heat, etc.). But most importantlyas the above data has showed the building has a huge amount ofelectricity input to sustain the interior atmosphere livable for theoccupants. Almost all the systems inside are based on the electricitygiven and there were none of alternative energy sources have been usedto limit the usage of general electricity supply. Also a generator hasbeen introduced, which the situation takes to a more worse kind of aproblem.

The external interdependencies; L22 is not mere a considerablepartition when it comes to the Colombo Jewelry Store building, becausethe sudden external environment is not more than a concrete junks thatcreates most of the global warming issues of the time. However thepresences of high winds (being close to the sea) open areas (Galleroad) gives a breathing space for the building’s outputs to dissolvein an instant.

According to the rough analyze of the features in relation to theKenneth’s partition matrix it revealed that Colombo Jewelry Store isnot a permissible building to exist in a time when the global warmingis a major concern of the world. The building should undergo a seriousconversion to a green (at least sustainability enhanced) principlebased design system, and should look forward for Reduce, Reuse andRecycle. If not the necessary steps are taken the building is going tobe one of the hazardous buildings in Colombo region.