PROJECT 3.1

MAJOR PROJECT

Collaboration with UTM, ABS & IFM on International Building Design competition 2023

Background

The Built Environment has a huge role to play in creating a healthier and more sustainable world. As development in Singapore increases, greenhouse gas emissions increase. This creates a significant impact on human health and the environment (Gutter, 2020). In addition, buildings account about 40% of global carbon emissions, thus sustainable measures are needed to reduce energy use and transition to greener solutions to meet the global climate goal (Bryan, 2022).

Food security is an important issue in Singapore. As more than 90% of local food is imported, the country is exposed to external forces and disruptions in the global supply chain. Singapore aims to have 30% local food production by 2030 to reduce its reliance on imported products. In addition to increasing local food production, reducing food waste increases food availability and reduces the carbon footprint (Ong, 2022).

Therefore, to tackle the climate change and food supply issue in Singapore, we proposed to have a self-sustaining building A multi-purpose building consisting of markets, farms, and residential areas. Vertical farms grow food that will be sold at neighbouring markets, and bio-waste from the area will be converted into energy to offset energy consumption. By creating a self-sustaining building, it reduces its environmental impact while producing locally sourced food.

International Building Design Competition (IBDC) addresses the 3 key areas under the Built Environment which include Integrated Planning and Design (IPD), Sustainable Urban System (SUS), and Advanced Manufacturing & Assembly (AMA). The requirement for this competition includes a minimum of 5000 sqm for the proposed gross floor area, a project site location, and building typology [4].

In this project, we have employed the use of IPD, SUS, and AMA. IPD helps to seek efficiency and drive collaboration among the members, optimizing the usage of SUS to achieve low-emission building and efficient building management while AMA enhances the efficiency of supply chain and construction process.

To propose a design of a self-sustained building that integrates vertical farms, market hubs, and residential features to address the key areas of the built environment to tackle the current issues in Singapore. It provides the surrounding population with a local supply of food, a facility to educate the community on the process to have a self-sustaining building to encourage their engagement to achieve our net-zero-energy building, and a residential space for the increasing population of Singapore. In addition, technology integration can assist with controlling and reducing carbon emissions. Overall, the design is to improve the food security of Singapore while reducing the environmental impact.