Conclusion

Thermal Comfort Chart

Macro Analysis

Rhombus Bangsar

Passive Design 1 : Natural Ventilation

Rhombus located along Jalan Penaga and nestled in the Klang Valley’s premier lifestyle hub of Bangsar. It’s avant-garde design and striking modern interiors serve to provide a private home for the discerning. Exclusively for lease, each home features expansive outdoor terraces with unparalleled views of the KL cityspace. This architecturally distinctive residence is also a PAM’s Gold Award and sole winner of the Malaysian Institute of Architects 2013 Award in its category. Beside that, Rhombus also received the Green Building Index Certi�cation because of its green features.

Based on the �gure 1, site plan on the annual wind rose diagram, monsoon wind with a high frequency will come mainly from the north east direction. The architect took advantage of it and designed Rhombus with the orientation that the east and north-east facades will receive most wind. The Rhombus are designed with residential rooms are facing the east side, to gain maximum wind to regulate the units.

The neighboring building, Bangsar Peak, are located next to its west direction. The monsoon wind that comes from north east will meet Bangsar Peak and pushed back to the direction of Rhombus's west facade with openings. This will aid the building with more natural ventilating air to let stack ventilation and cross ventilation to occurs.

The building has openings around the common area, which is its's �rst 3 �oors. Instead of relying on air conditioning, the common areas depend on the natural wind and ceiling fans to regulate the temperature. Cross-ventilations and Stack-ventilation principles are also applied into Rhombus's design.

Figure 1

Figure 2

Stack VentilationAccording to MS1525, stack ventilation is where air is driven through the building by vertical pressure di�erences devel-oped by thermal buoyancy. The warm air inside the building is less dense than cooler air outside, and thus will rises and try to escape from openings high up in the building envelope; cooler denser air will enter from the openings lower down. At the same time, the ambient air replaces the air that has risen, become a ventilation.

Based on �gure 2, section of Rhombus, there are few openings among ground �oor, �rst �oor and second �oor, mainly open-ings are located at the second which also connected to the swimming pool area to let the warm air escape from the build-ing. As a matter of fact, warm air rises and cool air sinks, there-fore, it is much more hotter on the second �oor compared to the ground �oor of the building. When the hot air rises, it leaves the lower space vacuum, whcih allows fresh air to come into the building and form a cycle of ventilation.

Based on the thermal comfort chart on the right hand side, the lowest and highest humidity percentage for Bangsar are 51% and 90% relatively. Neither both of the humidity percentage belongs to the Ideal comfortable zone. The chart shows the space within the building isn’t within the thermal comfort range. Therefore, natural ventilation is applied in this building to bring the heat away from the building, so that the user within the build-ing will be more comfortable.

In conclusion, the building has achieved the thermal comfort range through the usage of natural ventilation. The building has successfully applied the ventilation theories in this building. The building could still achieve thermal comfort without the usage of air-conditional. Therefore, we could conclude that the passive design of this building is successful.

3rd Floor(Residence)

2nd Floor(Common Area)

1st Floor(Common Area)

Ground Floor(Common Area)

To outdoor(Common Area)

Cross VentilationAccording to MS1525, cross ventilation is the technique of using natural air movement from the outside and drawing it inside to cool buildings. Rhombus has 1 main entrance and other openings which are facing to east and west. The orientation of the building allows the wind to enter directly from the east entrance and escape through the west entrance. Therefore, the wind draught consistently brings in fresh air into the building, so that the users in the building will feel comfortable inside the building.

Second Floor Plan

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The photos above show the openings that allow the hot air to escape from the building

Building Science 1_BLD 60803 Tutor: Ms Sujatavani Woo Wen Jian 0315123 | Benny Tan Shiowee 0315447 | Nicolas Wong Xiao En 0314377 | Yuan Khai Shien 0314818 | Lee Yaue Shen 0315381 | Preston Liew Ru Ping 0313822

Conclusion

Figure 3A

Figure 3B

Psycometric Chart

East Elevation without Shading Devices

East Elevation with Shading Devices

Figure 3B shows that without the shading device, the building receive maximum direct sunlight that will penetrates into the interior living spaces. Furthermore, exterior wall will transmit heat directly into the interior spaces due to exposure of direct sunlight.

In contrast with that, with the aid of the shading device, undesire direct sunlight that penetrates through the interior living spaces is greatly reduced from morning until noon time and shaded percentage is up to 80%. Add on to that, the heat generated by the direct sunlight will be distributed at the balcony before heating up the interior space.

Figure 3A shows that with the outspan length of the shading structure, direct sunlight will be welcome to penetrate into the interior space to shine up the interior space throughout the morning periods until 10am. 10 am onwards, the amount of direct sunlight received will be slowly decreases to reduce unwated direct sunlight.

According to the sun path analysis,the shading device works throughout the year with a high efficiency rates.

Time: 10:00Date: 22nd March

Time: 10:00Date: 22nd September

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According to MS1525, the configuration of the building was considered as one of the passive design strategies. Eggcrate shading devices are very effective shading device in a hot climate country as well as under east and west exposure. The principle of the shading device is using both verticle and horizontal shading elements to maxi-mize shading efficiency. In Rhombus, Eggcrate shading device are found and form by the structural horizontal balcony floor/ roof and the vertical walls that separate the units. Each units contain a eggcrated balcony facing to the east direction.

Passive Design 2: Shading Devices

Psycometric chart was generate showing the ideal comfort range in Kuala Lumpur. The Ideal Thermal Comfort Zone (Yellow) was achieve via both Active Design Cooling as well as Passive Design Strategies. Shading devices was introduced on the building as one of the passive design strategies. From the analysis that was done, it proves that this passive design lowers the temperature by increasing the total shaded area and reducing the radiation gained from sunlight. Hence, the comfort level is lower and is get closer towards the Ideal comfort range (Red).

Shading CoefficientSC = SC1 x SC2SC1=Glass Shading CoefficientSC2=External Shading Device

SC2:R1: Width of Horizontal Projection / Height of FenestrationWidth of Horizontal Projection: 2.0Height of Fenestration: 2.5Ratio (R1): 2.0/2.5 = 0.8

R2: Width of Vertical Projection / Length of FenestrationWidth of Vertical Projection: 2.0Length of Fenestration: 5.0Ratio (R1): 2.0/5.0 = 0.4

SC1: SHGC of Low-E double-glazing = 0.27SC x 0.87 = SHGCSC = SHGC / 0.87= 0.27 / 0.87SC1 = 0.31

(According to MS1525, page 14, Table 7)From R1 and R2, Shading Coefficient of Egg-Crate Louvers (SC2) = 0.5

SummaryAccording to MS1525, value of shading coefficient is ranging from 1.00 to 0.00. The lower the rating, the less solar heat is transmitted through the glass, and the greater its shading ability.

SC:SC = SC1 x SC2 = 0.31 x 0.5 = 0.155

Thermal Comfort

Figure 4A Figure 4B DBT(°C) 5 10 15 20 25 30 35 40 45 50

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Ideal Thermal Comfort ZoneComfort Level that achieve through Passive DesignExterior Temperature Zone

The generated diagrams beside show the thermal comfort of the building. Analysis shown that with shading device (Figure 4A) provide more thermal comfort inside the building as the gained heat radiation of the interior is much lower than the structure that with shading device removed. Figure 4B is a structure with removed shading device which provide lesser thermal comfort. Therefore, the lower the radiation gained in building, the lower the temperature of the building, the more the thermal comfort was.

Woo Wen Jian 0315123 | Benny Tan Shiowee 0315447 | Nicolas Wong Xiao En 0314377 | Yuan Khai Shien 0314818 | Lee Yaue Shen 0315381 | Preston Liew Ru Ping 0313822Building Science 1_BLD 60803 Tutor: Ms Sujatavani