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137 Market Street - Buildings are often indiscriminately and prematurely demolished for redevelopment without critically assessing whether total demolition is indeed necessary. The 137 Market Street Office Project demonstrates how an office building, built in the 70s in pre-stressed structure and deemed obsolete by the Developer, can be remodeled into a modern office in a sustainable way.
This building had 25% un-utilized /under-utilized floor area. It lacked modern M&E infrastructures, and the original façade and the mechanical equipment had outlived their useful life spans. Conventional thinking would rule out major remodeling as the foundation is not able to support substantial additional load and major alteration to the pre-stressed floor plate to enhance floor plate efficiency is deemed impossible.
We believe that “total demolition and rebuilding” is a waste of built resources and environmentally unsustainable, and seek to offer an alternative sustainable design solution.
This is made possible with the following innovative design solutions:
1. EXISTING STRUCTURE AS RESOURCE - To retain the existing structure as resource, the significant challenges are as follows: a. How to increase GFA without additional piling to strengthen the foundation; Load Replacement strategy is adopted. A total of 5 existing reinforced concrete floor plates were demolished, and replaced by 7 floors of new lightweight composite steel frames/bondeck floor. The final building load is lighter than the original one. b. How to modify the pre-stressed floor plate to create a larger lift shaft and M&E shaft, to make changes to staircases design and improve floor plate efficiency. An ingenious locking device is developed to allow the pre-stressed floor plate to be trimmed for enlargement of lift shaft and other floor plate modifications. This innovation is central to the viability to the maximum structural retention design. c) Enlargement of Floor Plate Fibre wrap is used to strengthen an existing column and beam group that was over-stressed in the process of enlarging floor plate (with cantilever of 4.5m) to improve the floor plate efficiency. d) Overcoming Constraints of Low Ceiling Height of Conserved Structure. The typical existing floor had a low floor height of 3.4m. High performance VRV split unit air conditioning system is selected over the ducted AHU to provide a good 2.8m clear ceiling height. 2. ENVIRONMENTALLY SENSITIVE FAÇADE - a) Façade: Vertical Monsoon Window. Using the vernacular ‘monsoon window’ found in SEA region as a design generator, a unique façade solution is developed using high performance double-glazed Low-E glass, and leveraging on the local authority Bay Window Guideline (exempted in building floor area calculation). The standard bay-window is manipulated through a series of shifting and stacking to allow the creation of vertical monsoon window. A Vertical Monsoon Window is a sheltered operable window that can remain open to facilitate natural ventilation; as and when needed, even in rainy/monsoon weather. The result is a unique and ‘breathable’ building façade that stands out amongst other anonymous sealed corporate buildings. The bay window also provides psychological illusion of a larger interior space.
3. ACTIVE SUSTAINABLE BUILDING MANAGEMENT & GREEN M&E SYSTEMS - a) User Friendly Building Management System (BMS). A BMS is developed to create an interactive interface between the building and users The BMS monitors and collates energy consumption for each office unit. Tenants are allowed to tailor their daily air-con usage to suite their working hours for flexibility and minimize wastage. Tenants with energy consumption below mean average consumption is entitled to a rebate. This helps to incentivize the tenant’s behavior towards energy conservation to become a daily lifestyle. b) Green Corner
Multiple LCD TVs on the lift lobby wall displays information on the “green features” and “green practices” of the building. Live information fed on air conditioning temperature setting and power consumption, water consumption; overall building energy consumption helps to raisetenant awareness of the green features. c) Green M&E Strategies - 1. Light sensors at the perimeter of the building to take advantage of day-lighting; 2. LED light and motion sensors are used to reduce energy consumption; 3. A high performance VRV air-conditioning system to better manage the air-con consumption. 4. Air-purging system to purge contaminated air on a regular basis;
4. ENVIRONMENTAL FRIENDLY MATERIALS - a) Sources of Materials. All materials and equipment are sourced mainly from the Asian region to reduce the transportation carbon footprint. b) Use of Singapore Green Label Scheme (SGLS) Certified Products. Environmentally friendly products and recyclable material were used when available.
5. CONSTRUCTION CONSIDERATION - a) Environmental Health. The site is located in a dense CBD. Existing floors are demolished in a controlled manner, to minimize noise pollution during the construction process. b) Construction Waste Recycling. Less waste is generated, to minimize stress to the waste management system and reduce dependency on new raw material resources. c) Just in Time Construction. As the project site is in the middle of the CBD area, for efficient construction management, accurate detailed shop drawings were produced for offsite fabrication and delivered to site for immediate installation.Bay window is designed as volumatric unit.
JUST IN TIME CONSTRUCTION - NewAiuminumcompositewatl dadding. c New Aluminumfines..;th night lighting incorporated(Prefab). c NewCW/ BayWindow(Prefab). Detail Structural Plan base on actual - site measurment allows for accurate off; -site fabrication. This is to avoid on site modification which is considered inevitable in all A & A construction.
CONCLUSION - 137 Market Street was transformed to a modern office with high performance full height curtain wall, complete M&E support and many environmentally responsive and sustainable design features.
A shift in attitude toward appreciating existing built environment as resource – in place of indiscriminate demolition and rebuilding – is timely and should continue to be encouraged, as it makes for a more sustainable future built environment.
Teh Joo Heng Architects was established in April, 2000. - Teh Joo Heng Architects is a design oriented firm that focuses on creating imaginative and innovative design solutions to conventional design problems, thereby bringing a fresh perspective to all design projects commissioned.
The design philosophy demands thorough inquiry into design issues in a rigorous search for innovative design solutions. The design process respects the traditional built environment and regional culture as heritage while embracing new technological possibilities. The design solution is expressed in strong and clear architectural forms and spaces to meet the aspirations of the Client, while adding to the body of knowledge in architecture and the built environment.
The Principal is a hands-on architect with extensive professional and academic experience.
With a variety of projects completed, the firm has acquired sufficient management experience and technical expertise to deliver projects of good design quality.
