A research paper study about Using Natural Vegetation as a Sustainable Approach in Cooling and Humidifying to Achieve Effective Thermal Comfort in Belum Rainforest Resort

1. Using Natural Vegetation as a Sustainable Approach in Cooling and Humidifying to Achieve Effective
Thermal Comfort in Belum Rainforest Resort
ARC 2213/2234 Asian Architecture 0
Asian Architecture [ARC 2213/2234]
PROJECT 1: CASE STUDY
Using Natural Vegetation as a Sustainable Approach in Cooling and Humidifying to Achieve Effective Thermal Comfort in Belum Rainforest Resort
NAME: NG YOU SHENG
STUDENT ID: 0309997
LECTURER: PN.NORHAYATI BINTI RAMLI
SUBMISSION DATE: 11/11/2014

2. Using Natural Vegetation as a Sustainable Approach in Cooling and Humidifying to Achieve Effective
Thermal Comfort in Belum Rainforest Resort
ARC 2213/2234 Asian Architecture 1
Table of Contents Page
Abstact ………………………………………………………………………………………………………….………. 2
1.0 Introduction ………………………………………………………………………………………….………. 3
2.0 Contribution of different types of vegetation in cooling and humidifying..….….. 4
2.1 Vines...…………………………………………………………………………………….….………. 4
2.2 Trees …………………………………………………………………………………….……….…… 6
2.3 Shrubs .…………………………………………………………..……………………….….……... 9
3.0 Problems encountered when having large amount of vegetation.………………… 11
3.1 Trees overgrowth ……………………………………………………………………………… 11
3.2 Defoliation ………………………………………………………………………………………… 12
3.3 Density of vegetation ………………………………………………………………………… 12
3.4 Insects and Animals …………………………………………………………………………… 13
4.0 Other elements which helps in cooling and humidifying……………………………….. 14
4.1 Rammed Earth ………………………………………………………………………………….. 14
4.2 Timber ………………………………………………………………………………………………. 15
4.3 Concrete …………………………………………………………………………………………... 16
4.4 Water features ………………………………………………………………………………….. 16
5.0 Conclusion ……………………………………………………………………………………………………. 17
Reference Lists ……………………………………………………………………………………………………… 18

3. Using Natural Vegetation as a Sustainable Approach in Cooling and Humidifying to Achieve Effective
Thermal Comfort in Belum Rainforest Resort
ARC 2213/2234 Asian Architecture 2
Abstract
The purpose of doing a study about Using Natural Vegetation as a Sustainable Approach in Cooling and Humidifying to achieve Effective Thermal Comfort in Belum Rainforest Resort is to discover how the vegetation could actually benefit the surrounding buildings to achieve effective thermal comfort. With Malaysia being a tropical climate country, vegetation are very important element which can be fully utilized as part of the architecture. Being set in such context with rich natural vegetation, it is essential to discover and identify how different type of vegetation could be used in different part of the building. To support the justification of this research, numerous sources of literature review and document analysis were conducted. The belum rainforest resort is visited to study the application of different types of vegetation in every part of the building and also observe the outcome in achieving effective thermal comfort. It is known that the belum rainforest resort is well blended with the natural vegetation, greeneries can be found in almost any corner of the resort. Tall trees are well incorporated in the building which can block some solar radiation from entering the building at the same time reducing the consumption of cooling energy. Besides that, the shading cast by trees, shrubs and wines also reduce glare and heat from penetrating through the façade, therefore reducing the building heat gain. As a result, less energy were consumed to achieve thermal comfort. Moreover, the evaporation of water from vegetation, surrounding soils and water feature also act as natural evaporative cooler by lowering the ambient temperature. As a conclusion, the natural vegetation is an important factor in order to achieve effective thermal comfort in a sustainable way. It is shown that different types of plants could benefits the building in dissimilar approach and every species might be crucial for the building.

4. Using Natural Vegetation as a Sustainable Approach in Cooling and Humidifying to Achieve Effective
Thermal Comfort in Belum Rainforest Resort
ARC 2213/2234 Asian Architecture 3
1.0 Introduction
The belum rainforest is the largest and oldest rainforest in peninsular Malaysia, it is believed that the forest existed for over 130 million years. It is located in the midst of tropical rainforest, Pulau Banding. The architect’s concept of designing this resort is to let the resort submerged into the forest, as time passing year by year, trees will over growth the architecture. Therefore a lot of vegetation can be found in the resort and surroundings. Besides being aesthetic purposes and users’ experience, those vegetation also help in achieving effective thermal comfort.
This research paper will mainly focus on the vegetation which offer significant values in cooling and humidifying the surrounding to achieve effective thermal comfort. Whereas thermal comfort is the condition of mind that expresses satisfaction with the thermal environment and is assessed by subjective evaluation (ANSI/ASHRAE Standard 55).
Figure 1.1 The belum rainforest resort sitemap
(Source: http://www.belumrainforestresort.com/pics/mapb.gif)

5. Using Natural Vegetation as a Sustainable Approach in Cooling and Humidifying to Achieve Effective
Thermal Comfort in Belum Rainforest Resort
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2.0 Contribution of different types of vegetation in cooling and humidifying
Different types of vegetation may have different usage to help building in achieving thermal comfort. Landscaping by utilizing vegetation is a very effective strategy for cooling and humidifying the microclimate. Several benefits can be obtained from using natural vegetation appropriately, besides aesthetic value that natural vegetation provide, it also able to adjusts the microclimate surrounding it, at the same time reducing the energy usage of building by cooling down the surrounding air and surfaces, increasing the relative humidity of the air. Meanwhile in belum rainforest resort, the vegetation has been divided into three main types which included: vines, shrubs and trees.
2.1 Vines
Frank Lloyd Wright once said "a doctor can bury his mistakes, but an architect can only advise his clients to plant vines." Planting vines will actually cool down the building and the result is surprisingly effective. Vine refers to plants which have a trailing grow habit. In belum rainforest resort, there are a lot of vines grown on trellis, walls and facades. Vines that grow on facades will help shades the openings, reducing the direct solar heat gain from penetrating into the interior of the building. Climbing vines can sometimes be more effective than trees in terms of providing shades because vines can be placed at specific area such as window openings, it requires just a very small space to place trellis and the vines will grows quickly to cover up and cools down the particular spot.

6. Using Natural Vegetation as a Sustainable Approach in Cooling and Humidifying to Achieve Effective
Thermal Comfort in Belum Rainforest Resort
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Figure 2.1.1: Vines growing on bamboo façade.
Besides that, due to the rapid growing properties of vines, it can cover a large surface area, making the shading devices more functional by growing vines on it. The large coverage of shades provided can moderate hot sunlight by reflecting UV from the sun.
Figure 2.1.2: Diagram shows part of the UV sunlight are being reflected by the vines.

7. Using Natural Vegetation as a Sustainable Approach in Cooling and Humidifying to Achieve Effective
Thermal Comfort in Belum Rainforest Resort
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Ficus vine is one of the vegetation that can be found commonly in belum rainforest resort, the vines grow rapidly on wall, besides shading the building, it also reduce solar heat gain by reflecting the sunlight, slowing down the building heating process. Hence, it will result in cooling down the exterior wall as well as interior spaces.
Figure 2.1.3: Vines growing on a wall.
2.2 Trees
A tree is a perennial plant, it has long trunk along with branches and leaves. In tropical rainforest, a tree is usually huge, providing large crown span hence a large area of shading. A tree has a relatively slow growing speed compared to vines, therefore it usually takes a long time to fill and provide shading for a building. In belum rainforest, some trees are already existed and reserved during the development of the resort.

8. Using Natural Vegetation as a Sustainable Approach in Cooling and Humidifying to Achieve Effective
Thermal Comfort in Belum Rainforest Resort
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Different species of trees can be used in different parts of the building as their characteristics are different. Trees which have branches lower to the ground are trees that are more suitable to be placed near the building openings; it can create shades to decrease direct sunlight from penetrating into the building. The shading provided by a tree is better than other artificial shading device because a tree can cools down the surrounding air properties. On the other hand, trees that grow taller than building are more appropriate to be placed to shade the roof and wall of the building, reflecting part of the sunlight and decrease the speed of heating from roof and wall into the building. While trees are correctly placed and scaled, it can block excessive solar radiation from striking into the building. Besides that, tree shadings will help in slowing down the surface of the building from heating up, making the building cooler during the day. Except for shading, trees that are located around the site act as windbreaks, contribute in blocking hot winds.
Figure 2.2.1: Tall tree which provides shading to the roof.

9. Using Natural Vegetation as a Sustainable Approach in Cooling and Humidifying to Achieve Effective
Thermal Comfort in Belum Rainforest Resort
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There are also numerous trees in smaller size have been used in belum rainforest resort, those smaller trees are nicely placed right beside the windows of the building, reducing sunlight and heat from entering the interior space, resulting a more cooling space inside the building.
Figure 2.2.2: Smaller size tree placed beside the window.
Figure 2.2.3: Diagram shows a tree located besides the opening, reducing amount of sunlight and heat entering the building.

10. Using Natural Vegetation as a Sustainable Approach in Cooling and Humidifying to Achieve Effective
Thermal Comfort in Belum Rainforest Resort
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Apart from shading the building, trees also provide shadings to the ground, decreasing the ground surface temperature, cooling down the ambient. Large amount of leafs is also an advantage of integrating a tree in architecture, leafs can absorb short wave solar radiation very well and doesn’t release much long wave radiation when it heats up due to its low emissivity property. Fallen tree leaves can reduce ground temperature and soil moisture loses when it covers up the soil.
2.3 Shrubs
A shrubs is a type of plants with multiple stems and shorter in height, normally below 6m tall. As a result of its height, it usually doesn’t contribute much in shading the building. Nevertheless, it actually helps a lot in cooling down the ambient by evapotranspiration, also known as evaporative cooling.
Figure 2.3.1: Diagram of evapotranspiration
Image source: http://bionews-tx.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/09/Evapotranspiration.gif

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Thermal Comfort in Belum Rainforest Resort
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On a hot sunny day, a shrub acts as a natural evaporative cooler. Leaves continuously release vapour into the air by transpiration, cooling down the surrounding air. The sunlight heats up the leaves thus excites the water molecules in the leaves and transformed into vapour, those vapour are capable to hold great amount of energy without releasing it as heat. At the same time, the vapour are significantly effective in absorbing heat from surrounding environment, making it very effective in cooling and humidifying. The shrubs are actually absorbing 90% short wave radiation incoming from sun, and another 10% is reflected back to the sky. The evaporative cooling effect normally reaches its highest effectiveness during the midday, when evaporation levels are highest. Studies have shown that open pores leaves will release about 50% to 70% of the amount of vapour that would be released from the same water area under the same weather conditions.
Figure 2.3.2: Shrubs planted in belum rainforest resort.

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Thermal Comfort in Belum Rainforest Resort
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3.0 Problems encountered when having large amount of vegetation
Despite having all the advantages, integrating natural vegetation into buildings will encounter several problems.
3.1 Trees overgrowth
By having large trees around the building, sometimes the foundation of the building will be affected by the growing roots, which at last leads to building structure failure. To prevent this, the locations of the structure and the trees have to be carefully considered before the construction took place. How big and wide the trees will grow when mature have to be measured and a sufficient space has to be provided. In the case of belum rainforest resort, some trees are already existed before the construction. Therefore architect has to avoid placing important structural components near the existing tree. Other than that, the randomly growing of tree branches will also affect the building such as branches growing into the corridor. In order to prevent the branches from affecting the spatial quality and the user experience, the vegetation that planted near the building have to be managed regularly.
Figure 3.1.1: An existing tree which has branches and roots too near to the building.

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Thermal Comfort in Belum Rainforest Resort
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3.2 Defoliation
Another major problem faced when having large amount of vegetation around the building is the leaves defoliation. Large amount of leaves will fall from trees everyday caused by the wind and also dried leaves will fall down automatically, if the fallen leaves are left untouched, it will cause a lot of problems. Fallen leaves can contain water after the rain, which will become a breeding paradise for mosquitoes, while the mosquitoes may cause a lot of troubles and disease for human such as Dengue.
3.3 Density of vegetation
Apart from that, while integrating vegetation into the building that located besides building openings such as doors, windows and corridors, the natural lighting and ventilation of the spaces have to be well thought out. It will become negative impact if the density of the vegetation is too high, the spaces inside will be too dark and unventilated, thus requires a lot of mechanical devices to make the space habitable, which is obviously not the aim of sustainable architecture. It requires a lot of maintenance for the vegetation to perform its best to achieve cooling and humidifying, the density of the vegetation should be just good enough for sufficient sunlight and natural ventilation to enter the building, creating a very comfortable environment for the users in a sustainable way.

14. Using Natural Vegetation as a Sustainable Approach in Cooling and Humidifying to Achieve Effective
Thermal Comfort in Belum Rainforest Resort
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Figure 3.3.1: Showing the density of vegetation in front of room opening; Interior view
3.4 Insects and Animals
Furthermore, integrating natural vegetation in the context of belum rainforest resort also caused a problem of attracting insects and animals into the building, thus affecting the operation of the building. Allowing some insects activity around the architecture sometimes can be beautiful such as butterflies, bees, grasshopper and etc. because they are part of the ecosystem; nonetheless, some harmful insects are not welcomed like mosquitoes. Planting specific types of vegetation are one of the solution to counter this problem, research conducted shown that mosquitoes dislike the smell of a type of vegetation known as Serai, it is a shrub that will release its smell which act as mosquito repellent. For that reason, Serai can be found at some spaces which activities will took place such as gathering area and

15. Using Natural Vegetation as a Sustainable Approach in Cooling and Humidifying to Achieve Effective
Thermal Comfort in Belum Rainforest Resort
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learning space. As a factor belum rainforest being located in a rainforest, animals like monkeys can be found when there are tall trees. An interview conducted regarding the monkeys issue, according to the management staff in belum rainforest resort, they actually use the explosion sound of the firecracker to keep the monkey away from the resort. In my opinion, it is not a good method to keep the animals away; there should be other friendly method to prevent animals for damaging the resort.
4.0 Other elements which helps in cooling and humidifying
In belum rainforest resort, aside from integrating natural vegetation helps in cooling and humidifying to achieve effective thermal comfort, there is also several passive elements applied around the building which help in approaching it.
4.1 Rammed Earth
One of the significant elements used in belum rainforest resort is the thick rammed earth wall located in front of the phase two resort. Rammed earth walls are tremendous thermal mass, it is a material that absorbs heat well, at the same time blocking large amount of sunlight from heating up the interior spaces. Thanks to the properties of rammed earth, it actually contributes in cooling the belum rainforest resort.

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Thermal Comfort in Belum Rainforest Resort
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Figure 4.1.1: Rammed earth walls used in belum rainforest resort.
4.2 Timber
The main building materials used in belum rainforest resort is timber and concrete. Timber is an excellent thermal insulator caused by its empty cell walls which consists of little airs that reduce the efficiency of heat transfer. Large amount of timber is used in the phase one of the resort as building material resulting in effective thermal comfort because heat from the exterior hardly penetrates through timber, with a combination of integrated natural vegetation, creating a cool and comfortable environment in the building.

17. Using Natural Vegetation as a Sustainable Approach in Cooling and Humidifying to Achieve Effective
Thermal Comfort in Belum Rainforest Resort
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4.3 Concrete
Besides that, concrete are the main materials used in phase two construction of belum rainforest resort, whereas the main benefits of using concrete in terms of building cooling are its high thermal mass. It is capable of decreasing the amount of heat gaining in the interior spaces from solar radiation, improving thermal comfort.
4.4 Water features
On the other hand, several man made water features can be found around the context of belum rainforest resort. Water is an element that will create a sense of serenity and it essentially has a psychological cooling effect. Except for the psychological feeling, the evaporative process of water feature is also a passive cooling feature in the resort. Having the same concept as evapotranspiration process of natural vegetation, water feature also release vapour in the sunny day, resulting in cooling down the ambient environment as water vapour absorbs the ambient heat while the water moisten the air and risen up the relative humidity through the same process.
Surrounding the belum rainforest resort is the temenggor lake, it plays an important role in altering the microclimate of the resort, it surrounds the whole island and act as a heat sink absorbing heat during the day time, thus affect in cooling of ambient environment around the resort.

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Thermal Comfort in Belum Rainforest Resort
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5.0 Conclusion
Malaysia is a country rich in having a lot of tropical forest, meaning tropical vegetation can grow in the tropical climate easily which we should fully utilize the resources available to make it something beneficial. We always feel more comfortable to stay under shaded area during daytime due to the hot sun and high temperature; therefore it is a very wise and sustainable idea to cool the building using vegetation to achieve effective thermal comfort. Whereas natural vegetation can be used to provide shading for building opening, walls as well as roofs, dramatically reduced solar heat gain. The process of evapotranspiration by natural vegetation also enhanced the effectiveness in achieving thermal comfort.
By visiting and staying in the Belum Rainforest Resort, it feels comfortable to stay close to the nature, while this research is to reveal the benefits of having vegetation around the resort and how it helps in achieving effective thermal comfort in a sustainable way as a reference for future designers or owners when considering a sustainable way to approach thermal comfort.

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Chicago and Houston (including updates for Baton Rouge, Sacramento, and Salt Lake City). (Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory.) eScholarship, University of California.
Kardinal Jusuf, S. (2009, November 29). INFLUENCE OF WATER FEATURE ON TEMPERATURE CONDITION IN HOT HUMID CLIMATE. Retrieved October 10, 2014, from http://stevekj.blogspot.com/2009/11/influence-of-water-feature-on.html
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Vegetation cover through Landsat ETM+:A case study of Shenyang. doi:10.1109/URS.2009.5137474