Stack effect: Ken Yeang’s ongoing quest for ecological propriety gathers momentum in Singapore
Ivor Richards
Every project by Ken Yeang, whether built or not, is part of his singular pursuit of a totally ecological architecture integrated with environment and climate, which reduces consumption of non-renewables and is energy efficient with reduced emissions. This process has been publicly enacted by Yeang over several decades, and is exemplified by both his buildings and research. His latest project is a new National Library for the island state of Singapore. Designed in a competition of 1998, though some seven years in making, it is his most significant project to date.
The site lies on a square urban block next to the famous Raffles Hotel. A basement plinth forms an open piazza at ground level, with two framed blocks above separated by a bridged atrium and covered with a louvred roof canopy, hovering above 16 floor levels. Crossed by the naturally ventilated atrium on the axis of St Joseph’s Church, and linking Victoria Street and North Bridge Road, the piazza is a major public space and will be a forum for festivals, book-fairs, concerts and other events.
Public activities, including multi-media, language training and children’s reading, community facilities, exhibition space and garden terraces are contained in an organic-shaped block together with main entrances and public circulation. The open atrium acoustically separates this curved form from the main rectilinear block that houses the National Library collections in a flexible framework of levels. The public lending library is located in the principal basement, with all deliveries one level beneath, while major book storage is off-site. The libraries incorporate state of the art technology for retrieval and data with a fibre-optic backbone.
[ILLUSTRATION OMITTED]
[ILLUSTRATION OMITTED]
Vertical circulation is on the north-east corner with lifts, escalators and security-control at each floor. Level 3 is the first major event in the vertical arrangement containing access to the public auditorium, below the library, with two upper galleries. Level 7 marks the first bridged entrance to the National Library collection, which can be arranged freely on each upper level within an open colonnaded space on a nine metre square bay grid. A curved book wall defines the linear space with stacks placed centrally and readers’ tables at the naturally lit ends. The various collections are housed on the ascending levels, with a digital catalogue at each floor. Level 11 contains the spectacular triple-height space and mezzanine–the big National Library space with its symbolic great wall of books curving across the plan. Level 16 concludes the formal schema with a panoramic viewing port.
On the hot west side, the National Library spaces are flanked by a linear shield-wall of support rooms, with garden sky courts at three levels on each end. These features recall Yeang’s Menara Mesiniaga tower in Kuala Lumpur (AR November 1995), but in this case the solar shield-wall is on a much greater scale. Yeang’s signature sunshading is also on a larger scale; here it is an assemblage of huge blades with 6m deep ‘biplane’ wings on open atrium locations. All provide solar shading and anti-glare performance. Of the many ecologically responsive features, the low energy design has three operational modes–passive, mixed and full. Passive includes optimised daylighting, good solar orientation, sunshading, natural ventilation, responsive facade design, appropriate building colour (off-white throughout) and use of landscaping. The National Library workspaces and collections operate in full mode of air conditioning and artificial light. The third strategy (mixed mode) combines natural and artificial ventilation in transition spaces such as lobbies, foyers and the courtyard. These are supported by airflow and energy simulations, along with predictions of comfort.
[ILLUSTRATION OMITTED]
[ILLUSTRATION OMITTED]
[ILLUSTRATION OMITTED]
[ILLUSTRATION OMITTED]
[ILLUSTRATION OMITTED]
[ILLUSTRATION OMITTED]
[ILLUSTRATION OMITTED]
[ILLUSTRATION OMITTED]
In all this architectural endeavour, Yeang remains self critical and in constant evolution, through his rigorous concern for theoretical, technical and aesthetic advances. In contrast to the rectilinear tropical new Modernist work of young Singaporean architects, Yeang has introduced his own organic geometry and a poetic interpretation of a series of ecological ideas into his first major urban masterpiece.
[ILLUSTRATION OMITTED]
[ILLUSTRATION OMITTED]
[ILLUSTRATION OMITTED]
COPYRIGHT 2005 EMAP Architecture
COPYRIGHT 2005 Gale Group
