SOLARIS Passive Designs Features

Passive Design Feature 1: Continuous Perimeter Landscape Ramp

Figure1: Continuous Perimeter Landscaped Ramp surrounded the façade of the building.

The most prominent passive design feature that can be found in Solaris, Fusionopolis is the
Continuous Perimeter Landscape Ramp. It has a total length of 1.5km that begins from the
basement level eco-cell (Figure 3) and slowly rises up to the roof garden by wrapping itself
around the building façade in a continuously ramp form. (Harl, 2011)

ROOF GARDEN

ECO-CELL
(Basement Level)

Figure 2: The conceptual idea of Figure 3: Eco-cell which located at the

ramp distribution wrapping the basement level which contains a storage
building. tank for rainwater harvesting system.

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 The maximum gradient of the ramp is 1:20 and it has a minimum width of 3 meters
including a parallel pathway that has been surrounded by a landscaped planters. (Solaris
Fusionopolis, Singapore. (n.d.). Solaris Fusionopolis. Retrieved May 21, 2014, from
http://www.designbuild-network.com/projects/solaris-fusionopolis/) It hence turned into an
accessible park where users could walk on it. This has also eased the maintenance of the
greenery surrounded. These plants are important in filtering the air and also providing
better air quality into the space.
The ramp was designed in such a way that it will be opened up once it meet the corners of
the building, which is called sky terrace. Sky terrace is not only a pathway, it is an open
space where people can spend their time relaxing. Sun shading louvers above the sky
terraces will be following the rise in height of ramp and this allows more light to permit.
Those special elements of the ramp corporate well together and make it important in
providing passive insulating, shading, and cooling to the building.

3meter

Figure 4: Greeneries and the pathway on the Figure 5: Sky terrace, where the ramp is
ramp. opened up.

The vegetation acts as a thermal

buffer since it is the first to be in
contact with the exterior
surrounding. Through the
transpiration process, water
absorbed by plants evaporate into
the air from their leaves which serves
to cool themselves and the
surrounding environment. Therefore,
air moving into the building (via
wind) is filtered and cooled,
providing a fresh airflow within the
Figure 6: The process of thermal buffering building incorporated with both solar
shading louvers and double glazed
wall system.

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SKY TERRACES

The ramp does not meet the corner of

the building at this point. Hence, slab
is extended and it acts as an overhang
to shade the space underneath it.

A larger area of plants at this level,

Sky Terrace. It shows how the space
was opened up once it meets the
ramp. It consists of two level at a time
where both are well shaded by plants,
sun shading louvers and the overhang
slabs. Users are allowed to access the
roof garden through the ramp as well.
The function of shading has naturally
decrease the amount of heat
absorbed and passively cools down
the indoor temperature.

Figure 7: A sectional cut of Solaris at the

corner of the building where sky terrace
exists.
(Source : http://www.archello.com/en/project/solaris)

Figure 8: Section of the perimeter ramp (Source : http://www.archello.com/en/project/solaris)

Figure 9: When the ramp reaches a certain height where it covered up the wall, a small opening
was created. This is to enable natural sunlight to penetrate into the space although it was
blocked by the ramp. This space will gain less natural lighting compare to the others.

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 Passive Design Feature 2: Naturally
Ventilated Grand Atrium
The second passive design
feature that makes Solaris a Green Mark
System Platinum certified building is the
Naturally Ventilated Grand Atrium. It is
a public gathering space or plaza which
plays an important role in connecting
two tower blocks of Solaris building. It is
also the first space where all the
entrances lead the visitors to.
Tower A consists of nine floors
whereas Tower B has sixteen floors
(including roof gardens). These vertical
landscaping shows a connection in every
level and it acts as a thermal buffer and
create relaxation for users while
experiencing the space.

Figure 10: Naturally ventilated and day lit

grand atrium

Tower B

Grand
Atrium

Tower A

Figure 11: A model shows the distribution of spaces and how did the atrium falls in between two
tower blocks.

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 Figure 12: The wind frequency is higher at Northeast and Southeast direction.

Figure 13: The orientation of building shows less consideration in responding to the wind direction
since the wind will not be passing through the main atrium directly (red arrow). This reduces the
opportunity for a better flow of air circulation. (Source : http://www.archello.com/en/project/solaris)

Besides connecting two spaces together, the atrium together with the solar shaft are
important in providing sufficient sunlight and ensuring well ventilation in the building. The
atrium is well-designed to ensure that warm air can exit through the overhead glass louvers
and cool air is able to circulate the lower spaces, thus increasing human comfort in non-air
conditioning zone. From first-hand observation, there is minimum use of mechanical cooling
systems in the building, however the temperature is generally cool and pleasant from first-
hand experience.

Figure 14: Overhead glass louvers made by low efficiency double glazing glass to reduce the
absorption of heat.

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 Figure 15: Section shows the flows of air circulation throughout the atrium, stack ventilation
(Source : http://blog.cpgcorp.com.sg/wp-content/uploads/2012/03/Solaris_Section.jpg)

The type of air ventilation happened in the atrium is stack ventilation. The RIBA website
defines stack ventilation as the most efficient natural ventilation where air is driven through
the building by vertical pressure differences developed by thermal buoyancy.
(http://www.architecture.com/) When the air inside the building is warmer than the air outside,
high dense of cold air will be forced into the building. The warm air will be replaced and slowly
escaped upward through opening above, which in this case is the overhead glass louvers. Even
though no wind pressure occurs, stack ventilation is still available. In Figure 13, the building
orientation seems to have less consideration in response to maximise the flows of wind
towards the building. This explain how air ventilation inside the building works although the
building orientation is not well-designed.

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The atrium’s walls at both entrance sides were fitted with “rain-check” glazing which admits
wind but keeps rain out. The pieces of glass walls are all slanted out in and fitted with the
perforated panels. The rain screens prevent any external rain or moisture driven by the wind
from entering the building, however rain-check wall allow the air movement to persist in
different weather conditions.

Figure 16: Location of Rain-check wall at

both ends of the naturally-ventilated atrium
(http://www.archello.com/en/project/solaris)

^Figure 17: “Rain-check” Glazing wall

>Figure 18: Section of “Rain-check” Glazing
showing how rain water is prevented from
entering the space without blocking the flow
of air.

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