Innovative Teaching of Building Technology to A rchitecture Students in M alays ia
5I'Raoand EzrinArbi
DepartmentofArchitecture Facultyof theBuiltEnv ironmen t
University of Malaya
Abstract
Architecture teaching invol ves notonlythe teachingof artandaesthe tics butalso thescience of building.Withthe increased usc of high-rise construction,intellige ntbuildingfeatures as well as the use of Building Services to make the build ings habitable, it becomes imperative that the studentsof archi tecture understand andappreciatethecomplexitiesof theengineering systems to make the buildingssustainableandenergyefficient. The process of Archit ecturedesign startswith the sketchdesig nbythearchitect.At thispo int,many majordecis ionsarebeingmadewith res pect to the orientation,fenes tration,servicecores,env ironmental control systemsetc.Thesepreliminary design decisions would affect the overallenerg y efficiency of the building as such. It is thus necessary for the arch itec tu re studen t to comprehend and assimila te advance d buil ding techno logies.Thispaperpresentsa novelapproachadopted in the DepartmentofArchitec tureat the University ofMalaya, commencing from the academic session2005-2006 forthe teaching of Adva nced BuildingTechnol og ytoYear 4students.
Keywo rds:l3l1ildillgTt'cllllology,Ellergyconeenmtion,lntelligcn!bllildillgs,Hlli/dillgService
In tro duction
Buildingsare increasingly becomingmore com p lex an d more sop h is ti cate d due to adva nc es in building technolog y, cons tructio n and engineer ing.Thus the Architect needs to depend upon a team of specialists who can handle the different aspectsofthedesignandconstructionof the buildings. Un like in the earlier days the architectandhencethearchitecture student sho uld beaware of thelatest technol ogical developments and their ada p tationfor the succ essful desi gn aswellasrunning of the buildi ngs
Architecture throughtheages and the building envelope
The "Pre -Indus trial" architecture was characterized by abunda nt resources and limited techn ology.Duringthat period the
architectsnecessar ily had tousethebuilding envelopeasthemodulat orand filter forthe har sh outdoor climatic conditions.The buildingenvelop ewasthe principalmeans ofcontrolling the visua landind oor thermal environmentin thebui ldings.Theluminous enviro nme ntin thebuild ings was by day lightingin mostinstances.JThe"Ind ustrial revolution" mar kedl y change d the above parameters .The adven tof new materials co upled with advances in mathemat ics, structural engineering , building services engineeringetc.,hasimmensely contribu ted tothe grow thof themode rn day skyscrapers andintelligent bu ild ings.The exteriorwall nowsim ply becom esamembersupported
I Werequ ire from build ings,as Irom men, two kindsof goodness:first the doingof theirprnctlcal dutywell: then they begracefulindoing it.(John Ruskin: Thestones of Venice, 1851).
JOl/mal of Design andtim BI/ill Environment
Compononts of anIntolllgont Building
Lifts:
Schedules Breakdow n, Traffic, Performance
Maintenance:
Breakdow n, Planttun ing , Condit ion monito ring , Planned mainte nance
Lighting:
u.f...l..ll - - - Sc hedules
Occup ancy sens ing
000000
000000
0 0 0000 00000 000000
000000
000000 000000 0000 00 BEMS
Utilitymonit ori ng Tenantbilli ng Lighting Alrcond ltlonlng Chill ers AHU's ,VAV.
Pumps,Fans, Energy control Security : Access Doors, Buil di ng s occ upancy
Fire---~~
Commun icatio ns : Voic e/v ideo/data -~~
Figure1, Componentsof an In telli gent Building
by struct ura l framewor kat eachfloor. The exterior wallthusbecomesaskin toexclude wind and rain waterpenetra tions into the buildings.The concurrentdevelopment sin air-conditioning,lighting,liftsandescalators allowed thebuildingsto become deeperand deeper in plan as well as to be designed to grea tel'heights.
The "Modernmovement"? used the freedom thus gained by the technical and engin eer ing developments toexplore new buildin g forms.Economy of structure,space,
I This is express ed, perhaps,as the ne wspirit or the 20'hcentury in the cla im by Gropius thatthe desi gner was released at last from the "ty ra nn y or the wall", whieh had become merely a boundary between the out- side and inside or the buildings.
labou r and cons tr u ctio n became the characteristics ofthenew Intern ationalstyle.
The conc urre nt deve lo p ments in th e hori zontal and vertical transportations in buildings allow ed the buildings to be designed to greaterheights.
Hence thenewbuildings aredesigned to be heavily dependent on electricalenergy for their sus tenance.This can be cons trued as "ene rgy dependent" architecturalstyle (Fuller Moore,1993)
Building servic es
Themoderndayskyscraper is dependenton energyresourcesand engin eering services sys te ms for its daily operations. These services arecommonlygrou p edunderthe generic heading of "Build ing Services".
lnnooatiueTeachlng of Building Technologu to ArchitectureStudentsill Malaysia Figure 1 shows some of the major
components of the Buildingservices for an Intelligent Building.
The Mechanical and Electrical services involved are,
1. Air-conditioning equipment viz., Chillers, AHU's, FCU's, filters, cooling towers etc.,
2. Transformer and associated switchgear rooms
3. Lift motor rooms and associated equipment rooms
4. Active and Passive fire protection equipment
5. Coldand Hot watersupply 6. Sewerage disposaletc.,
The scope, complexity, value, use and installation of these specialized building services machinery are increasing rapidly with the advent of the intelligent buildings.
An architect is expected to have a basic understanding of the above services so that proper space allocations for plant rooms, ducting cooling towers and other equipment are made during the initial design phase.
Any miscalculations at the sketch design stage are detrimental to the servicing and maintenance of the buildings, leading to Indoor Air Quality (IAQ) problems in the buildings. This can be observed during the recent SARS outbreaks in several countries as well as to the occurrence of Legionnaires diseasein the past decade.
Architecture stu d io teach ing
In the Architecture Studio,Design projects are the main vehicle by which all the subjects taught in the lectures, seminars as well as from fieldwork are integrated to enhance the learning and creative design skills.(Esa 2002).
Currenlarchilecluraleducallon
I
Fig ure 2: Archit ectur e Studio Teach ing Process(Ton y Brown2001)
Figure 2 is a simplified illustration of the architecture educational process. The project becomes the centralobjective for students.
(Tony Brown 2001)
Project based learning as a subset of Problem-Based-Learning techniques are often used in teaching as a method of achieving deep learning and simultaneous mature participation within the education process. Project-based techniques may range from the search for an optimal solution to precisely framed problems through to scenarios more akin to complex real life situations where the principaldifficulty is one of identifying and framing the appropria te parameters (Peter Skinner 2002).
Teaching technolo gy to architecture students
The aims of teaching technology to the architecture student can be itemized as follows,
• To explore and understand technological possibilities and limi ta tions,
• To learn various aspects of building design and construction
• To integrate technology into design
• To understand the roles of consultants amongst others.
Journal of Des;gn and timBuilt EIlV;rO lJ lIle"t
There hasbeenaconsciousefforttointegrate tech nologysubjectsin toarchi tecturedesign in recent years (Lim Guan Tiong 1999 &
Gyul aSebestyen2003).Specialist technology tutors arc brought into the studio to understand and aid in thedesign process.
Themathem ati calcon tentof thetechnology subje ct s are kept to a minimum and integ rati on and exploration of technology subjectsare encou raged.
At the Depa r tmen t of Archit ecture, University of Ma laya, Advanced Bu ild ing Tech nologyhad been trad ition ally taught overtwosemestersatthe Year41evel.During both thesemesters, thestudentsare given eightlecturesonspecialist topicsbyin-hou se lecturers aswellas by visiting exper tsand fromthetrade. Thestuden tsare alsotaken on site visits and arc req u ired tocomplete two assignments during the semester, to showtheirunderstanding of thedesign and operatio n of tall buildings under the Malaysian clima te.One of the assignments is setinthecontextofstudiodesign .
Innovativ e teaching of Advanc ed Building Te chn olo g y at the Univ ersity of Malay a
The arrangementdiscus sed above seems to be satisfac tory at first. The stu d io based assignment does ach ieve the objec t of in teg ra tion. However,it was felt that the studen ts werenotbenefitingfullyfrom the programme, as it was large ly left to the lecturers toin teg rate the assignmentsand lectures with thestu d io. Thestud ents were bogged down by the lectur es rather than learning onthe irow n.
Thus, starting from academic year 2004-2005 onwards, it wasdecid ed tobring allthetechnologylecturestosemester one.
Thus, the studen ts willget concentrated inputson buildi ngservices,structuresand constructiontechnology.Various specialist lect urers were invited to talk about their specialitiesanditsap p lica tion tothehigh- rise building with special re fere nce to
Malaysia.Asimple2-w eek assignmentwas set tounderstand the conceptofservicecores and theirutilization.Asecondassignment was set inthecontextof Putra[aya,the new administrative capitalof Malaysia,togive a feel fortechnologicaldeve lop men ts.
IntheSecondsemes te r, thestuden ts were introducedtheinnovativeteaching of technology.Thefirstbuildingused for th is purpose is the "Telecom Tower. (Mena ra Telekom) " as show n in Appen d ix1.It is oneofthenotableintelligentbuild ingsnear theUniversit y ofMalayacampus.Th is isa very unique tallbuilding with int elligen t bu ilding design fea tures.The techno logy aspectsof the building wereitemi zed and in troduced tothestudentsin theinaugu ral session.The studen ts had todo a studyof the overallbuilding and itsdesign as well astoindividuallydo adeep er stud y oftheir chosen topic. The stu d en ts had to organize theirstudy method sandsitevisits. Theyhad to liaise with the various consultantsand specialistcontractors.All th is had tooccur withina period of eigh t weeks.Thestudents regularly met-up in a discussion sess ion with thecoordi natorsonceeverytwo weeks todiscuss the materi als collected ,analyse their utilityandsharetheknowled geacross the class. The coord inators acte d as facilita tors andgave directions for further workaswellasexplainedanynew concepts and ideas the studen tsencountered.
The studen ts had milestones an d tar get s to mee t du rin g the semes ter.The examinationschedule issetou t inAppendix 2.The who le process is perceived to be a studen t-led ed u cational adv en ture and learningexperience.
Con clus io ns
Anewandinnov ativeconceptof teaching advancedbu ild ingtechnologyisdescribed. The students arerequired to doanin -depth studyof a bu ilding with reasonably complex structures, servicesaswellasconstruction features.Theyhavelearnedfastandseemed tofind the teaching process moreexciting
lnnooattoe Teaching of BJlildillg Tec!l1Iology to ArchltectureStl/dentsillMalaysia
and useful. The teaching process has met its intended objective of creating enthusiasm and excitement for learning of technology amongst the students. The students appreciate the building technology aspects of design as it is based on a real building ably assisted by the consultants and experts involved in its design as well as in the operation of the building.
Acknowledgements
The authors acknowledge the assistance given by Hijjas Kasturi Associates as well as the various consultants involved in the project. Acknowledgements are also made to the students involved in the teaching process for their unstinted cooperation and enthusiasm.
References
Fuller Moore, 1993, "Environmental Control Systems", McGraw-Hilt New York
LimCuan Tiong, 1999, "The importance of teaching technology subjects to tod ays
architecture students", CDTL Brief, National University ofSingapore,Singapore, Vol2 no.5. Tony Brown, 2001, "Ed uca tio n for Sustainability: An operational model for teaching sustainable design" Second Nature conference, Wisconsin
Peter Skinner, 2002, "Studio teaching in Architecture", Teaching and Educational Development Institute, University of Queensland, Australia
Esa Mohammed, 2002, "Cloballsa tion and Liberalisation : The Architect's challenge", Majlis PepperiksaanSenibina,LcmbagaAkitek Malaysia, Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia
Gyula Sebestyen, 2003,"New Architecture and Technology",Architectural Press,UK
APPENDIX 1
BAES4229 ADVANC EDBUILDING TECH NOLOGYII Sem est er22005/2006
Menara Telekom, Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia
-'.
Figure3: Telecom Tower (MenaraTclekoml
The design has been influenced by the bamboo shoot, which has a symbolic meaning in the Malaysian culture. The bamboo shoot represents strength, rapid growth and fertility.
Itwas completed in 2001 at a cost of RM600million. Towering ata height of 310 metres,the77storey buildinginjalanPantai Bahru is TelecomMalaysia'snewcorpo rate headquarters. The Telecom Tower is the world's 20th tallest building.
Its unique cu rvilin ear stru ctu re is basedonrenowned Malaysian sculp torand artis t Latiff Moh id in's award -wi nni ng master p iece - the Pucuk Rebung - which depicts a young bamboo shootwith strong foundations at its root and little leaves sprouting. The building is designed by Hijjas Kasturi Associates.
The state-of-the-art building is rated as a six-starintelligent building by City Hall, which provides infrastructure for multimedia services with high speed connectivity and features an energy-efficient facilities managementsystem.The building is equipped with an In tegrated Building Management System(IBMS)conceptcrea ted by Te le ko m Malaysia ' s res ea rch and development division to provide a productiveandcost-effectiveenvironment.
The IBMShasthe ability to integrate11 key mechanical and eng ineering sub-sys tems withi n the tower - ranging from the air- conditioningand ventilationsystem, to the lighting control system, and the security management and lift and escalator systems.
Another key feature in the building is the document conveyor system, which
transportsdocumentsandparcelswithin the build ing - fromthreefloorsund ergroundto the 55th floor,thehighest office floor in the tower.
Menara Tel ekom can house 6,000 occu pan tsand has22 "sky gardens" (one onevery thirdfloor )toprovide a cond ucive work ing env iro n ment. The land sca ped terracesare tranquil,private retreatsforrest and relaxation. Among the facilitie s are a professiona l performa nce theatre for an audience of 2,500 an d exh ib itio n hall s.
Occupa n ts of the building can also enjoy spo rting and recreational activities at the MenaraTelekom SportsComplex. An indoor gymnasiu m is also availabl e for exercise enthus ias ts.
Tel ekom Malaysia employees with you ng ch ildren can send the m to
"Tia ratots", a fully -equipped childca re centrewithan ind oor play cen tre.More than 100 ch ild ren spen d time at "Tiaratot s"
unde r the care of 15 gua rd ians wh ile their parentsare working.
Task
Studentsarerequired to carryoutan in-dep th analysisonthe above bu ilding to createan unde rs ta nding of how the Architecture designsolutions,structures,environmen tal controlsystems,bu ild ingservices,build ing cost etc., are utilised and integrated to producea creativeresp onse forpractical&
aesthetics purp oses. Theyare also required to stu d y how co m p lex an d co n fl ict ing requirem ents arcresol ved .
Learning Outco mes:
• Anawareness of the environmental and constructional factors that affect arc h itec ture desi gn deci s ions necessar y for the proper function of buildings.
• An under standingof therelat ionship betw e en structu res, services and architectureform ..
Working Method:
• Studen tsare to visit the build ing to view an d underst and the spa tial layoutand facilities.
• Attendaseriesof discussions with the building ' s desi gner s / consult a n t team to learn and unde rstand the princip le ideasinvol ved,the various factorstakeninto considera tion inthe designprocess,and the integration of various technical aspectswithin the build ing .
• Initially stu den ts are to work as a group to analyse thepossibl e topic s for thebuilding.
• Subse q ue n tlyeachstud en tisto select at least one topicfor an in-depth study. The topi cs tha tare to bediscussed and coveredmay encompassthe following aspects:
• In tegra tion of design, services and structures,
• Researchinto methods ofconstruction andtheireffects onthedesign .
• Foundations,
• Structuresand materials.
• Cladd ing,
• Fire protec tionand itsapplicati on in design.
• Energyuse andenergyconserva tion,
• Aircond itioningsystem,
• Building autom ation system,
• Intelligentbuilding design features,
• BuildingSecurity,
• Building exte rna l en ve lo pe and maintenanceand
• Landscape
Requirem ents :
• Disc uss io ns and powe r poi nt presen tation in a sem inarsession
• Final report: all the ind iv id u al sections tobebou nd together as one finalrepor t
• Submissio nof theen tire docum ent as aCO ROM.
• Report submission :To be announced laterinconsultationwiththe class
• Discuss ion and presentation : To be anno unce d laterinco ns ultatio n with theclass
APPENDIX 2
BAES 4229 ADVANCED BUILDING TECHNOLOGY II Semester 2 2005/2006
PleaselIoletiu:followillg schedules
Particulars Date andTime
Submissio nof Integra ted Reports 9:45am Tuesday 28'hMarch2006 ThisportionoftheAssignm entwil carry50"10Marksfor theFinal Exam ination,
INDIVIDUAL PRESENTATIONS-l Allthestudcn!«shollidbe"resell, Ifor till?elltireseesion
Too KcanKong Thisportionofthe Assignment willcarry Hu Siau Ping 30"10Marksforthe FinalExami na tion.
Cha nChu ngMeng LeeRenYing
Mohd HazwandyBin MohdZin 9:30am to12:30pm LinaTeoh Yee Chin MO NDAY24'hApril2006
INDIVIDUALPRESENTATIONS-2 Allthestudentss/lOuld
be
Vl'eseul (ortileentireS(!$Si OlI.
Yap Boon Kean This portion oftheAssignme n t will JessicaLooLi Quen carry30"10Marks fortheFinal Siti Aisyah llintiMahayudd in Examination.
Nor Fariha hWahidahYaaku bfs Md [sa
Loh Yu ngHu i 9:30am to12:30pm
Azri Bin Aziz Tuesda y25'hApril2006
Subm issionof the CORRECTED Final Thisportionof theAssignmentwill submission . The finalsubm iss ionwill carry20"10Marksforthe Final includ e2Copiesof theBOUND Exam ina tion
report+2CDRom's of thecomplete
work.[The CDshouldincludethe 11 am Friday 28'"April2006.
PowerPointPresen tations+pho tographs +thereports.]
Posti ng ofthe Draft Gradeson the 3pm Monday 8May 2006 Door of Assoc . Prof.S P Rao's
office
rue
18)Grieva nce Procedure: AnyAppeals 12 NoonTuesday 9 May 2006 should be in WRITING addressed
to Assoc. Prof.S PRao andto Prof. Ezrin.Reasons for the appea l must be clearly stated.
