"Right First Time" with a Green way to Sustainable Built Environments and Architecture in the ASEAN Area

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This paper reviews commitments to environmentally sustainable development and energy efficiency in the ASEAN area during the last two decades after the Kyoto Protocol, especially in the building sector with the development of Energy Efficiency Building Codes since the 1980s. It discusses a sustainable design process that ranges from passive design to the application of efficient building services systems and renewables integration. The importance of thoughtful passive design before the use of any artificial building services system is stressed. A set of design tools is then introduced in the case study of Vietnam, in order to optimise most important passive design parameters at early stages of design like glazing ratio and building form, and to investigate the building energy code compliance potential of the design right from the beginning of the process. Following the process, the architect should be able to evaluate quickly the sensible cooling load of the building design, which is dominant in ASEAN area, and compare it to the benchmarking values of a notional building that fully complies with the design standards set up in Building Regulations or Energy Efficiency Building Codes of each country in the area. The paper argues that an analysis on energy demand of the passive design would give the architects a much better idea about the energy efficiency of their design, rather than looking at the energy consumption which needs to take into account the efficiency of building services systems that in some cases could be misleading. A holistic approach to sustainable built environments in which energy is an element, such as the green building rating system LEED in the US, also needs to be addressed from the early stages of design and targeted as a design purpose, not just an added component.

Stream: Environmental Sustainability

Paper: A paper has not yet been submitted.

Viet Tuan Do is currently working at the London office of Atelier Ten Ltd, collaborative partners in the design of environmentally friendly buildings in the United Kingdom, the United States and around the world with signature architectural practices like Foster and Partners, Richard Rogers Partnership, and Robert A.M. Stern Architects. He is a graduate architect from Vietnam and holds a Masters in Environmental Design from The Bartlett of UCL, University of London, completed under an E7 scholarship granted by the G7 nations. In 2006, Viet Tuan Do was awarded the International Award for Excellence by The International Journal of Environmental, Cultural, Economic and Social Sustainability for the Best Paper of the year that summarised key contents of his thesis completed at The Bartlett in 2004. During recent years he continues developing previous initiatives towards energy efficient buildings into holistic approaches to sustainable built environments and architecture which were discussed at international forums such as the RIBA International Conference 2007 organised by the Royal Institute of British Architects and recent PLEA - Passive and Low-Energy Architecture Conferences.