One city

Project 1 : Case Study: Identifying Innovative Passive
Design Strategies
Building science ( ARC 2413)
Tutor : Mr. Prince
Chu Szi Wei 0314160 Christiody 0304191 Poh Ziyang 0807P68823 Sean Hiu Ji Ren 0309874
Soe Woei hao 0309924 Usman Farooqi 1102p11235 William Yap 0314127
One City Mall
(Malaysia)
Chu Szi Wei 0314160 Christiody 0304191 Poh Ziyang 0807P68823 Sean Hiu Ji Ren 0309874
Soe Woei hao 0309924 Usman Farooqi 1102p11235 William Yap 0314127

Introduction (Malaysia)
Malaysia located in South China Sea in the heart of South East Asia. Malaysia is divided into two
geographical section which is Peninsular Malaysia and East Malaysian (Sabah Sarawak in North
Borneo). 40% of Peninsular Malaysia is Landmass. There are several mountains ranges running north
south along the backbone of the peninsula. 60% of the country is still rainforest. There are forest
covering over half of Malaysia with notable Tropical forest in Sabah and Sarawak.
West coast consist of mangrove swamps and mudflats which separate into bays and inlets. The major
island are Langkawi, Penang, Pangkor of the west coast, Redang, Tioman, Kapas, Perhentian and Rawa
off the east coast.
Malaysian Borneo, Sarawak has alluvial and swampy coastal plains with rivers along the jungle and
mountains. Sabah has coastal plain which gives way to mountains and jungle. For example Mount
Kinabalu at 4094m height (13,432ft) and the height of Mount Kinabalu became the highest peak in
Malaysia. (Figure 1)
Figure 1. Map of Malaysia (Location)
Figure 2. Malaysia Climate Graph

Malaysia is Hot and Humid all year around. The wettest season on West coast of the peninsula is
between September and December. On the East Coast and Sabah and Sarawak, it’s between October
and February. Besides that, Rain comes in short terms, strong burst and hide the sun on temporarily.
From one of the sample chart of Malaysia Climates Graph (Figure 2), Malaysia weather benefits from a
tropical climate with high temperature and high humidity throughout the year. The Daytime
temperatures of Malaysia rise above 30°C and at the night time the temperature rarely drop below
25°C. On the other hand, the relative humidity level in Malaysia is between 55% - 70% . On March is
particularly humid and very uncomfortable.

1.0B Project Description
Located in Subang,One City Skyparkstands out as one of few high rise building among the
surrounding housing areas. From afar it looks like a rectangular cuboid decorated with green
stripes though make no mistake as having being completed last year (2013) , it is the only
one of its kind in Malaysia. Standing a total of 10 stories high, it seeks to blur the lines
between modern architecture and the essence of mother nature as this building is proof
that a sustainable building need not be all funky but can also take on a more simple and
suddle form.
One City Skypark was given the Green Building Index Silver award,by the Malaysian
government. Green Building Index (GBI) is Malaysia’s green rating tool for both towns and
buildings, created to widespread the idea of sustainability in the built-environment and to
raise awareness of environmental issues amongst the construction and design community
as well as the public such that a brighter and greener future for future generations can be
archived. This award is separated into a few levels of achievement such that of certified,
silver, gold and platinum. With the latter being the best One City Skypark is second runner
up from platinum though that itself is a great achievement as the building must fulfill a
range of 66 to 75 points in order to get the certification of silver ranking.
Figure 1.0B Green BuildingIndex Logo
Figure 1.1B GBI Certification Proof

The GBI Silver was accredited to One City Skypark because of its unique sustainable designs
such as:
1) The usage of a vertical green wall to cover the wind channels as well as aid in cutting
down the heat island effect generated by the building.
2) The placement of water features parallel to that of the layout of the building to act
as a heat sink in which will aid in cooling the building via evaporation as well as
conduction between the stone floor.
3) Implementation of wind channels that provide the building with a natural ventilation
which lowers the overall humidity and promoting evaporation which in return cools
the building
4) Usage of large skylights on the 10th floor as means of natural lighting.
Figure 1.2B Wind Channels
Figure 1.3B Skylights

In a way these features help reduce the energy required for the building to function and
provide thermal comfort to its users , in return the cost required to ventilate and light the
building is also greatly reduces. Thus with all these features in place only is One City Skypark
able to obtain a Silver GBI.
Figure 1.4B Green Wall
Figure 1.5BWater Features

Design Concepts
Standing tall at 10 stories high and being the only highrise building in the surrounding area ,
One City Skypark stands proudly acclaiming no resemblance to the surrounding context
without even so much as blend into the surrounding housing areas. It has its first 4 floors
dedicated to shop-lots allowing visitors to indulge in food, fitness and leisure such that of a
cinema and a gym on the 4th floor. The remaining 6 floors however are reserved for offices
and meeting rooms in which makes up of more than 50% of the people in the building, lastly
the 10th floor is the sky-roof in which visitors can stand and walk on the massive skyline. The
roof I also host to 2 restaurants which only open at night which takes advantage of the
stunning night view.
Figure 1.6B horizontal element of the interior

Having being built to express the harmony between modern architecture and mother nature,
One City Skypark makes sure that its concrete and glass façade blends well with the flat
green wall such that they don’t seem out of place. The box like form of One City Skypark
also allows the designer to play around with having vertical glass windows paning across
horizontally. The interior however is like that of a layered cake, each floor is layered and
stacked such that the horizontality is not broken. This creates a big contrast between both
the interior and exterior, as thefaçade has a vertical element whereas the interior is more of
a horizontal element.
Figure 1.7B vertical element of the facade

Figure 1.8B Ground Floor
Figure 1.9B Ground Mezzanine Floor

Figure 1.10B 1st Floor
Figure 1.11B 1st Mezzanine Floor

Figure 1.12B 1A Floor
Figure 1.13B 1A Mezzanine Floor

Figure 1.14B 2nd Floor
Figure 1.15B 3rd Floor

Figure 1.16B 4th , 6th , 8th Floor
Figure 1.17B 5th , 7th , 9th Floor

Figure 1.18B Roof GardenFloor

3.0 Wind Analysis
Figure 3.0 Wind roseat Kuala Lumpur
The wind rose indicates the wind frequency by hours for the whole year from different
directions. Besides, it shows the wind speed distribution from less than 10km/h to 50km/h
in the circular graph. The lighter the colour the more hours the wind is coming from that
particular direction and particular speed. We can learn from the diagram that the wind is
coming from all directions almost equally, but slightly more from South East direction. The
frequency of wind speed is higher in the range of 10km/h to 30km/h. As a matter of fact,
Kuala Lumpur is a windy area, as indicated as the many hours of prevailing winds.
Ventilation in buildings serves three main purposes. First is to maintain a minimum air
quality, where 1-2ac/h is sufficient. Second is to remove heat, 2-15ac/h is needed normally.
Third is to provide perceptible air movement to enhance thermal comfort, where 0.5-2m/s
of air speed is needed.
Natural ventilation is preferred as it has lower running cost, zero energy consumption, low
maintenance and lower initial cost. It is also considered healthier and more natural and is
seen as a psychological benefit. There are two types of natural ventilation, the first type is
wind-driven and the other is stack effect.

Cross Ventilation
Cross ventilation is induced by wind pressure. When the wind pressure difference is low,
there will be little ventilation. As there is no high buildings around the One City Mall, it is
unobstructed by the prevailing wind, which is good. For cross ventilation to be effective, the
depth of the building should be less than 5 time the floor/ceiling height. In One City Mall,
the ratio of depth of building (from east to west, 160 meters) to the east-west opening
height (65 meters) is about 2.5, which is more than sufficient for natural cross ventilation to
occur. Besides, there are two large openings at in the North-South direction, with depth to
height ratio of about 1.1, which in theory helps the natural ventilation if there is prevailing
wind. As wind speed and direction is variable, the more opening area is distributed, the
more likely it is that there will be a pressure difference between openings to drive the flow.
Hence, these narrow openings do help in ventilating the atrium.
Figure 3.1 Third floor plan showingthe naturally ventilated atriumand the openings atthe prominent east
and west facades.North and south façadehave narrow openings for ventilation too.
As suggested by the windrose, the more prominent cross ventilation is from east to west.
However, cross ventilation from all other directions are important too.

Figure 3.2: Cross ventilation caused by the different in wind pressure
Stack Ventilation
At the same time, the tall atrium has created stack effect, where thermal buoyancy is
created due to the difference in indoor-to-outdoor air density caused by the temperature
and moisture difference.The taller the atrium and the bigger the temperature difference
between the lower air space and the higher space, the larger the buoyancy force, and hence
the stronger the stack effect. As the air at the higher atrium space trapped and warms up by
the skylight, it became less dense than cooler air outside, and thus will try to escape from
openings high up in the building envelope, like roof opening around lift shafts and higher
wall openings. Cool denser air due to lesser exposure of sun will enter the openings at the
lower part. This process will continue if the air entering the building is continuously heated
caused by the solar gains from the glass roof.
As stack ventilation can operate when no air pressure is available (no prevailing wind), it is
important to maintain minimum air quality and to remove heat and moisture. We can see
that One City is not purposely designed for optimal stack ventilation, although stack
ventilation should naturally occurs in the tall atrium of the building. The higher temperature
at the top floor atrium is undesirable, as it heats up the air-conditioned shop lots at the
same floor level. This can be solved by providing a higher atrium than the occupied floor and
let the warm air to maintain well above its occupants.

Figure 3.3 & Figure 3.4 Higher atrium should be more appropriate for stack ventilation as it does not heat up
the upper shop lots and circulation spaces.

4.0 Sun Analysis
As Kuala Lumpur is located just 2°30’ north from the equator, the sun at noon is always
above our head and tilts slighted towards north in months close to June and tilts towards
south in months close to December. The morning and evening sun is always on the east and
west respectively and just slightly tilted towards south or north depending on months.
The long axis of the One City Mall is running east-west and the short axis is running north-
south. This configuration is ideal in Kuala Lumpur as the low morning and evening sun ray is
always hitting the building envelop at east and west facades, and hence heating up the east
and west facades. The noon sun is always almost above the building and heating up the roof.
Figure 4.0 Annual sun path at the One City Mall.The blue and red curves at the bottom of the circle indicate
the sun angles at two solstices.

Figure 4.1 5pm in 21st JuneSolstice (the sun reaches its highest excursion relative to equator and has the
longest day light hours)
In June solstice day, the sun is at the north side of the building. In the afternoon the sun
warms up the north façade at the same time causing glare in the building. The excessive
heat and glare can be shaded by vertical shading devices which is absent in the One City
Mall.
Figure 4.2 5pm in 21 December Solstice (the sun reaches its lowest point and the day light hours is at its
shortest).

In December solstice day, the sun is at the south side of the building. As oppose to the
June’s sun path, the sun warms up the south façade in the afternoon and at the same time
causing glare in the building. Just as the north façade, the installation of vertical shading
devices can reduce heat and glare on the south facades in months close to December.
Figure 4.3: Surface insolation of the One City Mall
Surface insolation analysis shows the distribution of incident radiation over the buildingfacades.
The total radiation received by the buildingis mostly on the roof of the buildingby a large
margin. It shows that the roof received more than 1959000Wh/m2
of total radiation over a
period of a year, while the façade just receive about 200000Wh/m2
of total radiation, which is
about 10 times less radiation than the roof. This analysis exposes the weakness of the building
design, which uses large panel of glass roof. As the single glazed skylight has very low R-value
(thermal resistance), the heat can penetrate into the buildingeasily and heats up the atrium.
This generallycreates a large glass house effectto traps heat and cause thermal discomfort to
the occupants. Although some parts of the roof are designedas green roof, which itself is a good
thermal insulator, the skylight seems to negate its function as roof thermal insulation.

Figure 4.4 Daily direct and indirect solar insulation in Kuala Lumpur shows that One City Mall is well lit by
natural daylight.
Figure 4.5 The atrium is well shaded by the two tall blocks at north and south as shown. The average annual
natural daylight received at the atrium’s ground floor is about 50% of the daylight outside of building even
without taking into consideration of skylight.
The atrium is naturally litwith sufficient natural daylight in afternoon and may need some
artificial lighting in overcast day or as the sun goes down.

Figure 4.6 Shadow range study
As One City Mall is the tallest buildingin the area surrounded by highways in all directions, there
are no other buildings obstructing or casting a shadow on the mall thus it gets maximum
exposure of sunlight all year round. The shop lots at the south of One City Mall are much shorter
and do not cast shadow on One City Mall.It has no right to light issue at all.

5.0 PASSIVE DESIGN FEATURES
Green walls
One of the ascendant designs of One City Skypark is the presence of green walls. A green
wall is a wall partially or completely covered with vegetation that includes a growing
medium, such as soil or in One City Skypark case, vines that creep one wires stretched
vertically against the walls. However, One City Skypark building does not only benefit on the
greenery of the green walls but also allows the building to have wide openings that are
partially covered with vines which not only give a more ventilated and cooling interior but
also a more desirable interior and exterior design as shown in Figure 5.0.
Figure 5.0

There are mainly 2 types of green walls, and in this case, the One City Skypark uses a Semi-
intensive green wall that requires a support mechanism for climbing plants such as vines.
These support mechanism are cables or a wire mesh that enable vines to wrap itself around
forming a dense green wall as shown in Figure 5.1.
Figure 5.1

Benefits
The benefits of green walls are that these too can be used to create a cool shady
environment due to the greenery absorbing sunlight and maintaining the quality of air
instead of allowing it to penetrate through the walls of the building and allowing heat to
permeate into the opening of the building hence reducing the total amount of heat gain into
the building.
Figure 5.2

Besides that, the green walls protect the façade of the building by reducing the potential
rainwater damage upon the wall, hence minimizing the maintenance required.Furthermore,
green walls can substantially aid inreducing the loss of biodiversity due to urbanization. Such
that green walls consist of a variation of plants, invertebrates, and pollinators which not
only replace the existing biodiversity but also serve as nesting spots and habitat for many
species. Local plants species are generally used for the green walls to ensure maximum
benefits and often vary based on the original environment.
Figure 5.3

Technology of Green Walls
The major category of green walls is green façade and living walls. Green facades allows
cascading groundcovers or climbing plants to engulf and act as a coating towards bare
supporting structures which help to reduces the need for finishing. Plants are usually rooted
at the base of the structures or on planters. Moving on, Living walls are mainly comprised of
panels that are vegetated or cohesive fabric systemthat are attached to a structure or wall.
Segmental panels can be made out of either plastic containers, geo textiles, irrigation,
growing medium and vegetation( Sharp, 2010).
Figure 5.4

5.0 Passive Design
Water Feature
Water feature can be varied from ponds, lakes, fountains and pools. Water feature
could be in both indoors and outdoors. As for One City Mall, it has a skylight which allows
sunlight to penetrate through the building, making the building heat conserving. Hence, this
is where the water feature plays a big role. During the day, if excessive sunlight penetrates
through the skylight, making the interior heat conserving, the pond in the interior of the
building absorbs the heat, making the building more ventilated.
Figure 5.5
Running water attracts negative ions, which themselves attract dirt particles in the air. The
combination pulls dirt out of the air and into the fountain where it can be purified. Having
a wall fountain will snag dirt right out of the air that would have otherwise worked its way
into your lungs.

Technology of Water Feature
Figure 5.6
To begin with, man-made urban ponds is defined as bodies of water that are formed and
upheld by humans instead of mother nature, within this wide ranging categories are a
number of sub categories for example water gardens where the key function is aesthetic
displays, fish ponds where the main purpose is building and housing an ecosystem that
breeds fish, backyard ponds and garden ponds where the pond is applied more as a
landscaping structures, or industrial ponds where the purpose is to stone water as part of
some industrial process

Figure 5.7
There are many categories of filtrating system such as internal filters, external filters and UV
filters. Internal filters are hidden under water, internal filters are ideal for smaller ponds.
They are generally less expensive than other types of filters, but the must be removed from
the water in order to be maintained. Usually water goes into the filter and then into the
pump.
Figure 5.8
The Main reason external filters are widely used is due to the Easy access that makes
anideal maintenance process. External filters are commonlyuse formaintaining larger bodies
of water. Water is pumped from the pump to the filter and recirculates externally allow the
user to change and maintain the filter regularly.

Figure 5.9
UV Sterilizersmustbe usedinconjunctionwithanyproperlysizedfilter. The Pondwaterpassesinto
a beamof UltravioletLight(UV) createdthe device.The UV lightkillsunwantedbiological organisms
whichare then removed fromthe waterbythe UV filter.Like filters,UV sterilizersmustbe sized
accordingto the volume of waterinthe pond. The plusside of usingthismethodisthatthe filter
doesnotneedto be maintainedasregularlyasthe internal andexternal filters.

Benefits
Figure 5.10
The sound and appearance of running water can relax your mind, even lowering tension in
your joints and muscles. For example, indoor fountains, like a wall fountain, table-top
fountain or other type of water fountain, can help you become more relaxed. An indoor
fountain is just one component of a healthy and relaxed lifestyle, but it's totally worth it.
You'll love the way it looks and the way it makes you feel. The designer of One City Mall
really pull it off on considering the comfort of the clients.
Whether you are worrying over a loved one, a difficult work or school assignment or
anything else, indoor fountains might be able to provide the jolt of relaxation you need.
When you are feeling the mental pressure of stress, there is no better place to let off steam
than by your indoor fountain. Reason being why there are couches situated near the flowing
water in the mall. Lying on the couch and closing your eyes as you listen to the water rush
down the wall is the perfect medicine for your troubles. As your mind relaxes, your body will
loosen as well.

Other Benefits
The result has been a huge shift in mind-set that has seen WSUD enshrined in planning and
policy responses to climate change, and an acceptance that tackling flooding and drought
doesn't have to be in isolation to creating liveable cities. A water feature in the heart of a
city, for example, will enhance the micro-climate and reduce heat island effect, while whole
productive landscapes can be supported by waste-water recycling.
Figure 5.11
During the day, the ponds on the roof conserve the heat, making the cold breezy night
less freezing. Besides that, the water feature gives a benefit of being able to plant
greenery in the building, providing an ecosystem in the building. Greenery helps to
soften the artificial urban landscape and provide visual relief from the concrete jungle
environment for residents and office workers.

Figure 5.12
A surface water body is effectivelyan ecological resource if that is supporting habitat for
aquatic organisms or wildlife and it has become assimilated into the natural landscape as
well as the local hydrogeological system. Some man-made surface water features contains
ecologically valuable habitat that helps . This habitat may be an intentionally designed into
some man-made surface water bodies, or may develop unintentionally through colonization
by native flora and fauna. Certain man-made water bodies may be specifically designed to
preclude aquatic or wildlife habitat and are unlikely to contain ecologically valuable
resources. Man-made dry detention basins and dry swales created for purposes of
stormwater management are examples of water features that often fall into this category.
Evaluations to determine whether a man-made surface water feature contains ecologically
valuable habitat should be conducted by an ecologist or ecological risk assessor.
6.0 Conclusion
One City Mall Puchong
One City Mall, one of the first green “malls” built in Selangor which incorporates a passive
design to reduce carbon emissions as well as cuts down the island effect of suburban areas.
A complete site visit revealed that there were various flaws in the building design but, they
can be improved to further enhance the efficiency and the comfort level of the mall. Despite
the use of natural ventilation to aerate the compound, a rather stuffy and humid air was felt
mainly due to the effects of the skylight. The skylight is able to refract massive amount of
natural sunlight but, manages to trap a substantial amount of heat into the open space of
the mall. The excessive heat through the skylight heats up the space too much and forces
extra use of synthetic air-conditioning. This could be seen at most of the shops settled
around the open space of the building as, the shop keepers tend to use either a portable fan

or an air conditioner to ventilate their stalls. The one city design has two entrances which
also act as air vents on two sides of the mall. The air flow provided by these entrances
counteracts with the skylight’s abilities to gain heat. However, the design, as we analyzed
during the site proved to be ineffective because of a very humid environment at the mall.
Moving on, the skylight design is effective in terms of bringing in natural light during the
day. Both the openings on either side play a major role in providing natural light and
ventilation as well. The entrances don't provide enough cold ventilation to counter the
excessive heat gain through skylight. Keeping this in mind and a detailed study of the
building reveals that the skylight should be tinted with smart glass tint instead of
conventional tempered glass so that the amount of heat permeated into the mall can be
reduced. A smart glass tint will remove the excessive gain of heat through the skylight and
will add up to maintaining a more comfortable environment within the mall. The natural
lighting lost by the tinted skylight can be replaced by by entrances. In addition, more air
vents should be incorporated in the building so that a more steady air flow is available. The
overall view of the design strikes as a very green design but a thorough analysis shows some
innate flows which come through a green approach. These factors can be controlled
through minor changes in the structure layout of the building but, keeping convenience and
practicality in mind, improvement of things is always better than starting from scratch.

One city

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