Innovative Passive Design Strategies of The Menara Mesiniaga

“we’ll see green buildings long before 2020, I think the movement is intensifying. Within the next 5-10 years we’ll see a lot more green buildings being built. Not just buildings but green cities, green environment, green master plans, green products, green lifestyles, green transportation. I’m very optimistic.”Ken Yeang, Quote

Mesiniaga Logo and Aga Kahn Award Logo

Menara Mesiniaga

Architect : Ken Yeang , Malaysia

Mesiniaga Logo and Aga Kahn Award Logo

“The building that took benefits from natural renewable sources”

The futuristic bio-climatic tower, Menara Mesiniaga, also known as IBM tower was built in Subang Jaya, Malaysia in 1992. The tower which belongs to MesiniagaBerhad, was designed and built by the architect Kenneth Yeang using his 10 years research into bio-climatic design principle. According to the case study done by Bill Chan “ The bioclimatic high-rise is a tall building with passive low energy benefits, achieved through design responses to the climate of the place and through optimizing the use of the locality’s ambient energies, to enhance the quality of life and comfort for its occupants”.

Climate

Climatically both Singapore and Malaysia are a hot and humid country;The city of Kuala Lumpur is situated 3° North of the equator.According to the report by Safamanesh (1995), rainfall in Malaysia is heavier along the East coast than the West coast. Most urban and agricultural land is on the West coast and, consequently, so is most of the population. Due to its position relative to the equator, the country has no distinct winter or summer and temperatures are consistently somewhere between 20c and 40c with humidity level between 60 and 70 percent.

Green Certification

Menara Mesiniaga received the Aga Khan Award for Architecture. This is possible due to Kenneth Yeang’s ten-year research into bio-climatic principles for the design of medum-to- tall buildings. These concepts can be applied to many-storied structures in tropical climates (The Aga Khan Development Network, 2007).

View of the building from the main entrance

View of the building from its surrounding greenery. The sloped berm can be seen on the left side of the image.

Site Plan of Menara Mesiniaga

Site Location

The building sits beside a highway towering above a mixture of unplanned structure and environment; a lake which can be seen from every level of the building, some residential complexes and townhouses, office buildings, and a mosque. There is also a medical centre which is within view of the building. Overall, many of the surrounding buildings are low budget adaptations of older houses. The natural landscaping catches the eye’s attention with a substantial amount of growth within the area, in respect to community development. The traffic ranges from moderate to congested at certain hours of the day, due to the existence of the federal highway nearby.

Plans, Sections , Drawings

Ground Floor Plan of Menara Mesiniaga

East Elevation of Menara Mesiniaga

South West Elevation of Menara Mesiniaga

Section of Menara Mesiniaga

Part of Elevation on Menara Mesiniaga

Built Form

Mesiniaga’s verticality allows exposure to the full extent of heat, weather and temperatures. Mesiniaga’s exoskeleton which are the exposed steel and rein- forced concrete structure helps to reflect the sun, and the entirely exposed col- umns and beams are open to cross ventilated cooling. This single core services are built on the hot side which is on the east.

Sky Garden in Menara Mesiniaga

Planting and Sky a Garden

In order to shelter and insulate the lowest three levels from the morning sun, artificial sloping landscape was created to connect the land to the verticality of the building. Moreover, its circular spiralling body with landscaped sky courts that helps cools, ventilates and provide a space for occupants to relief.

Part of Elevation on Menara Mesiniaga that shows cantilevering roof top pool

Solar orientation and shading devices
Curtain wall glazing which are the garden insets provided on the north and south side helps reduce solar gain and provide thermal comfort for the occupants while the recessed and shaded windows are on the east and west side as a response to the tropical sun path. Moreover, cantilevering rooftop pool and a gym with curvilinear roof on the south facade helps provide thermal comfort for users of the facilities especially during the high-angled afternoon sun. Furthermore, the pool insulates and reflects the overhead sun.

The lobby entrance which is the half open to the surrounding land

Ventilation

Large multi-storey transitional spaces provides airflow in between the zones and provide better circulation of hot and cool air in and out of the building. Moreover, the permeable external walls of the building provides cross ventilation even in air conditioned spaces. Air movement is encouraged underneath the building, specifically at the lobby entrance as it is half open to the surrounding land while the other half is circled by the sloped berm.

Climate Analysis

Climate Location Malaysia

Figure 1 : Annual Relative Humidity for Kuala Lumpur

Temperature Location Malaysia

Figure 2 : Annual Maximum Temperature for Kuala Lumpur

Figure 3 : Annual Minimum Temperature for Kuala Lumpur

Figure 4 : Annual Average Temperature for Kuala Lumpur

Figure 4 : On-site Perspective sketch of Menara Mesiniaga

Humidity

Figure 1 shows that Kuala Lumpur has a high relative humidity in the range of 80% - 85%. Malaysia has a tropical wet climate with no dry or cold season as it is constantly moist due to year-round rainfall. With relations to building design, it is better to include passive ventilation by having windows open on opposite sides of the building to maintain a good cross air flow and eliminate interior humidity build up.

Temperature

Based on the Temperature’s graph (Figure 2, 3 and 4) the annual average temperature is around 26.6 degrees Celsius. On average, the warmest month is in April while the coolest is September. April would be also be the wettest month and June would be the driest month. For high rise building in high temperature locations, proper HVAC or adequate passive ventilation is necessary to maintain a cool temperature inside the building.

Sunpath Case Studies

Project Location Menara Mesiniaga, Malaysia

January 1st 1200

May 15th 1315

August 29th 1415

November 1st 0915

Lobby of Menara Mesiniaga that been shaded by the floor on top of it

The Advantages

In the design of Menara Mesiniaga, the architect purposely take advantage of all the sun light to penetrate inside the building. He intended to build the building in such a way to benefit natural sunlight and environment. (Safamanesh. K). When we went for a site visit to Menara Mesiniaga, we could feel the architect’s intention through every inner facade and spaces. Next, the enclosed rooms does not need much light and are located near the central core, which allows worksta-tions to be located on the outside edge where natural lighting and high quality views are available.

Annual and Daily Sun Pathway

A proof of the annual and daily sun path of Menara Mesiniaga. It is proving that the architect’s intention is to benefit the natural sunlight from every direction into the Menara Mesiniaga. In addition, from the Image, it is proven that more shading elements been in- sert on East and West Elevation rath-er than North and South Elevation. Moreover, the lobby of the building is inserted further inside to be shaded by the second floor’s balcony of the menara. Lastly, the natural sunlight also enter through the sun roof of the basement parking to reduce the light’s man made source.

Design Profile

Sunshade Details

Model of Menara Mesiniaga to show Louvres and Sun Roof

On the north and south facades, curtain wall glazing is used to control solar gain highlighted green colour

On the east and west facades, external aluminium fins and louvers provide sun shading highlighted green colour

Model massing that shows the Glazing and Shading of Menara Mesiniaga higlighted green colour

Wind Analysis

Ventilations

Due to various wind directions, the winds are nearly transferred equally.(Figure 5) Menara Mesiniaga main ventilation is by air conditioning and natural ventilation.The air conditioning systems for the counter area, offices, meeting rooms, cafeteria and few other areas are divided into two types. One of the air conditioning systems is the Energy Saving System which is used around the counter area and offices, as shown by the yellow ellipse, and the staying period in these areas are longer. Another one is called the Split Air Conditioner which is usually used in houses as it cools one or two rooms. For this building, Split AC are used in the meeting rooms and cafeteria for only a certain period of time. Moving on to natural ventilation¬¬, winds, the escape stairs are unenclosed and pushed to the edge of the building to allow wind to take part. The elevator lobby and washroom spaces have shaded window openings that gives in view and natural ventilation (Architectural review.V. 192 1993 Jan-June).The sliding doors on the terraces could be open up for natural ventilation to flow throughout the office areas. Besides that, part of highest floor which is an opened space swimming pool area allows for natural ventilation. Moreover, tiny gap to allow the wind to ventilate into the gymnasium under the overhang-curved roofing is provided. Lastly,the basement parking area is also ventilated as the entrance and exit are opened.

Since the energy consumption is reduced, the electricity costing of Menara Mesiniaga is maintained in certain amount which is cheaper compared to other building. Morevoer, the air of the site surroundings is also fresher due to the greener site context and also the flow of the wind.

Wind & weather statistics Morib/Kuala Lumpur Airport

Table and WInd Rose of Wind and Weather statistic of Morib/Kuala Lumpur Airport

The air flows(green arrows) and air conditioning air flows (yellow ellipse) throughout the building.

The basement parking area of Menara Mesiniaga

Air Conditioning in the office spaces in Menara Mesiniaga

Terraces found at each levels.

Thermal Analysis

Primary Shading Louvres

Secondary Shading Louvres

Thermal Comfort

A large part of the building, from stairways and lift lobbies to the toilet areas, was regarded as a penetrable membrane to enable natural aeration. The building is fitted out with an Energy Saving System which controls energy features including air-cooling system, elevators and other mechanical systems and it is used to monitor and reduce energy consumption in equipment. So, the main office areas are air-conditioned but the use of this system and the natural ventilation throughout the building, help to reduce its use to negligible levels, saving energy.

The evident building features of the IBM tower not only visually express the high-tech style of the company and its conceptual organic character, but also define it as a bioclimatic high- rise. Firstly, the building’s overall form, structural methodology, module cores, glazed surfaces, is oriented for maxi- mum environmental efficiency shading against direct heat but allowing for natural daylight. Second, where the main components of the building and its orientation cannot shade the build- ing, inventively calculated shading devices are fitted on the building face for passive cooling. Lastly, the exten-sion of the land that starts at the sloped berm spirals up the height of the building with planted terraces that fin- ishes at the inhabited rooftop. These ter- races not only provide for vertical gardens and transitional spaces, but also shades and ventilates the building.

The simple extension of the tower’s base produces several positive environmental effects. The sloped berm circles around half the circumference of the building, the other half opens the mezzanine floors to the surrounding land. This allows for a functional connection with the site, avoiding how typical confined lobbies separate the building from its landscape. As well, it inspires air movement beneath the building, producing a lobby entrance that is shaded as well as ventilated without mechanical effort(Balfour A. & Yeang K. 1994). The program that is in the entresol requires slight daylight; therefore, by building the hollow berm up to these levels it increases the surface area for planting and provides a chance for the building to involve the nearby vegetation.

The visible steel and reinforced concrete structure can be regarded as an exoskeleton that is suspending the differently shaped office floors with each floor’s main girders connecting to the concrete core for shear resistance. Where the general rule of thumb for buildings in colder regions is ‘skin outside, structure inside’, the tropical climate may have an exposed structure without contrary temperature effects. In fact, the structure that wraps around the curtain wall shields the sun off the building face and act as a heat sink. (Balfour A. & Yeang K. 1994) Of course, in a tropical climate where winter The core uses extensive passive heat- ing and cooling strategies and has no mechanical supportv because it’s programmed functions of circulation and washrooms involve low use peri-od. Instead of an internal service core, the concrete core of the building faces the outside and is located on the east side of the tower. This orientation allows the core to shade the building from direct sun rays and its material construction allows it to become a heat sink that will reradiate absorbed heat into the insides at night. The escape stairs are unenclosed and the elevator lobby and washroom spaces have shaded window openings that give in view and natural ventilation (Architectural review. V. 192 1993).

The majority of the building’s dou- ble-glazed, operable curtain walls lie flush to the facade only on the north and south side. Most of the west half of the building, external solar shades are installed. The southwest and northwest are protected by alumi-num fins offset approximately 40cm away from the building face (Powell R. 1999). These devices are utilized where high-angled rays may hit the curtain walls. But for more far reaching direct light, deeper, single panel alu- minum louvers offset from the building twice as far as the fins is fixed.(Powell R. 1999)Where extensive west-side shading is concerned, the alternately shaped floor plates partners with terraces to create indentations in the building form that help it shade itself. The land- scaped terraces that appear on every office level also allows for full height sliding glass doors that let in fresh air and greened intermediate spaces for a break from computer screens. The stepped terraces can be traced spiraling back down to the berm and the surround- ing landscape, generating a hall where employees may feel part of a progressive organization that has strong environmen- tal awareness. Inside, enclosed rooms are placed as a central core rather than being situated at the edge. This ensures good natural lighting and views out for the pe- ripherally located workspaces. Because the building is circular in plan, there are no dark corners.(Balfour A. & Yeang K. 1994)

Thermal comfort in this building is more than effectively achieved by these specific features, where mechanical cool- ing system is put to optimum use, not overuse. Furthermore, studies have shown greater occupancy happi- ness and employee output where the building can offer a connection with external spaces whether it is natural daylight or sky gardens that let work- ers relax and feel as if they belong to a whole (Space Design. 9401-9403 1994).

The major visible architectural ele- ments topping off the office levels in- clude a cantilevering rooftop pool and a gym with a curvilinear roof; these facilities are open to employees. The pool ‘greens’ the rooftop by insulat-ing and reflecting the overhead sun. The overhang of the curvilinear roof is enough to shade most of the entire south facade from the high angled afternoon sun. Crowning the building is a tubular steel trellis that shades the top floor amenities and is designed to accommodate solar panels in the future that will further increase the building’s ecological efficiency.

Cross section showing main green features

Sun Shaders and Garden Insets

cross section showing natural ventilation thru building

heat map thru section-red is warmest, green is coolest

basic air flow. Allowing for natural ventilation to interact with the internal cooling system cuts down on cooling costs.

Concept Analysis

Passive Solar Design

Menara Mesiniaga maximizes the passive solar design into their building. It plays with the sunlight that penetrates through the building and controlling it by using appropriate shading devices to reduce overheating and providing comfort.

The circular exterior shape of the building and orientation affects the amount of sunlight passing through as it accepts sunlight from all angles. Glazing and shading of glass windows are incorporated into the design to minimize the solar gain and heat load in the morning.

Glazed curtain walling is applied throughout the building to enhance natural lighting and also reduce temperature of the building and avoid overheating. Shading devices are also strategically placed at locations with high sunlight intensity. This is to give thermal comfort for users inside the building and reduce glaring as well.

Natural lighting is also found in the basement of the building which illuminates the parking lot, toilets and air-conditioning generator. Window openings are placed on the ground directly above these spaces in order to provide sufficient lighting. This helps reduce cost of electricity.

Thermal Comfort

Open spaces and well planned ventilated areas can be found throughout the Menara Mesiniaga building. Spaces like garden terraces, rooftops, service core and stairs located in the building helps en- hances thermal comfort for the users of the area by providing natural sunlight and ventilation.

The core uses extensive passive heating and cooling strategies and has no mechanical support because it’s programmed functions of circulation and washrooms involve low use period. Instead of an internal service core, the concrete core of the building faces the outside and is located on the east side of the tower. This orientation allows the core to shade the building from direct sun rays and its material construction allows it to become a heat sink that will reradiate absorbed heat into the insides at night. The escape stairs are unenclosed and the elevator lobby and washroom spaces have shaded window openings that give in view and natural ventilation.

Thermal comfort in this building is more than effectively achieved by these specific features, where mechanical cooling system is put to optimum use, not overuse. Furthermore, studies have shown greater occupancy happiness and employee output where the building can offer a connection with external spaces whether it is natural daylight or sky gardens that let workers relax and feel as if they belong to a whole.

The major visible architectural elements topping off the office levels include a cantilevering rooftop pool and a curvilinear roof. The pool on the rooftop helps by insulating and reflecting the overhead sun. The overhang of the curvilinear roof is enough to shade most of the entire south facade from the high angled afternoon sun.

Drawing of Concept Analysis