IMPACT OF MASS ENGINEERED TIMBER BUILDING ON INDOOR ENVIRONMENTAL QUALITY

Abstract

Indoor environmental quality (IEQ) is a key component to achieve satisfactory level of comfort, well-being, and productivity for occupants. Singapore experiences a topical climate throughout the year with seasonal monsoon period which makes the overall weather slightly hot and humid. Singapore’s climate has significant effect onto occupants staying in naturally ventilated building such as the bunks in the Singapore Armed Forces Camp. Solider performance and well-being are cardinal in ensuring a strong and resilience force thus it is important to understand and evaluate the indoor environmental quality, thereafter, making improvement to meet acceptable level of IEQ. The SAF has recently constructed new accommodation building using Mass Engineered Timber (MET) which has shown better thermal performance as compared to traditional concrete building.

This study, hence, compare the indoor environmental quality of bunks that are constructed with traditional concrete with MET. The study examines quantitative parameters such as indoor air quality, thermal comfort as well as qualitative parameter such as satisfaction and thermal comfort level of the solider staying within the camp.

The results obtained from the measurement shows that the IEQ parameter of MET bunks performed better than traditional concrete bunks. Traditional concrete bunks failed to meet relevant standards for 4 out of the 10 quantitative parameter measured while MET bunks failed to meet 2 out of 10 of the parameters. The qualitative data also produced similar result with a higher occupant satisfaction level in MET bunks as compared to traditional concrete bunks.