GREEN BUILDING � STUDY ON THE EFFECTIVE USAGE OF PLANT AS SUN-SHADING DEVICE IN SINGAPORE

Abstract

In light of the emphasis placed on sustainable building in the built environment in Singapore, the construction industry is moving towards the concept of “Green Building”. While much has been invested into the development of green innovations and features in buildings, the end result can be very costly to implement. Hence, this study hopes to offer a possible alternative or a complement to the modern technology. One such consideration of environmental-friendly building materials to incorporate in the green building design is living green plants. As there are many uses for plants in the built environment, this paper will focus on the effective usage of plants as a sun-shading device in terms of visual performance. An experiment will be carried out to test the hypothesis that plants are able to perform as a sun-shading device by reducing sunlight illumination and glare and enable daylighting in a building to improve visual comfort. Comparison is also made between performance levels of plants and other commonly used sun-shading device to find out relative efficiency and advantages of plants over its counterparts.

Although there are limitations to the experiment, the findings do suggest that plants have the potential of performing effectively as a sun-shading device in buildings in Singapore.