Burkill Hall: An environment-friendly building that is 128 years old
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ONE of the most environment-friendly buildings in Singapore today is 128 years old.
Burkill Hall, in the Botanic Gardens, was built in 1866 to house the directors of the gardens.
It boasts features such as broad verandahs and high ceilings, which make maximum use of natural light and ventilation.
It is ideal for the tropics. Ironically, it is now impossible to build a house like this in Singapore, without breaking building regulations.
In a paper on Ecology and Architecture, to be presented at a seminar on Eco-Architecture on Tuesday, Associate Professor Robert Powell of the National University of Singapore’s School of Architecture, said that existing local building codes and regulations sometimes work against ecologically-sound practices.
For example, he said, the codes preclude the use of structural timber, discourage overhangs or extended roofs longer than 1.2m.
They also discourage covered verandahs and balconies by including the area within the calculations of the gross floor area (GFA), which determines the development charges to be levied, among other things.
Prof Powell pointed out that existing legislation stipulates that the GFA is calculated by measuring up to the outside of external walls and includes all roofed areas.
"The implications of this are that developers who are concerned primarily with maximising the amount of usable floor space will require the external walls to be as thin as structurally possible.
"There is thus no incentive to insulate walls heavily or to create deep recesses to give shading."
He said that Burkill Hall, a reminder of life before air-conditioning, should be studied by architectural students before they start work, and periodically, by mid-career professionals to remind themselves of the basic principles of a house in the tropics.
The first storey consists of drawing rooms and bedrooms.
Above it, the upper verandah is open on three sides and this forms the main living area for the house which enjoys natural ventilation.
The high roof also gives both insulation and air movement.
Added Prof Powell: "But the GFA requirements would make such a house impossible to build today."
Source : The Sunday Times, November 6, 1994
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