This is a case study on the development of the Gardens by the Bay, Bay South and Conservatory Complex to provide intelligent and integrated building responses. This article demonstrates the effectiveness of combining a number of environmental design and building services optimization steps to achieve a sustainable design. Key initiatives undertaken include high-level daylighting design of the building skin to achieve exacting natural light requirements inside the spaces, while at the same time limiting thermal loads. Desiccant dehumidification systems are applied to minimize system cooling loads, so that waste heat from biomass combined heat and power (CHP) can drive substantive portions of the conditioning requirements. A waste stream made up of horticultural biomass is also identified and proposed to be utilized to provide the primary fuel for the biomass CHP system. In addition, this article provides a case study of how external structures are integrated to the building to provide ventilation and renewable energy harvesting.
This article presents a case study of the Gardens by the Bay, Bay South (GBBS) project in Singapore to illustrate how design optimization and crossdiscipline integration can result in a highperformance and responsive building. Bay South Gardens is comprised of 52 ha of landscaped gardens on reclaimed ground in Singapore’s new Downtown in Marina Bay (the estuary mouth of the Singapore River). The gardens feature a 20,000 m2 complex of cooled conservatories and 18 huge structures supporting vertical gardens ranging in height from 25 to 50 m, known as the ‘supertrees’. The project is currently under construction and is due to be completed in late 2011.
Source: Davey, M., Bellew, P., Er, K., Kwek, A., & Lim, J. 2010. Gardens by the Bay: High performance through design optimization and integration. Intelligent Buildings International, 2(2), p. 140-157. DOI: 10.3763/inbi.2010.0029