Jason Pomeroy’s B House project reflects a sustainability where tropical vernacular meets modern technology to achieve a carbon negative home.
Nestled in the prime Bukit Timah residential enclave, the avant-garde forms of this two-storey detached home would undoubtedly draw the attention of passers-by.
First carbon negative house in Singapore
Beyond its futuristic aesthetics, it is the first carbon negative home in Singapore and it boasts a slew of sustainable design features that has earned it the inaugural Green Mark Platinum award for landed property from the Building and Construction Authority.
Made of 2 bungalows
Referred to as B House, it is one of two family bungalows that were commissioned by a client who wanted to push the boundaries of sustainable design and not incur utility bills again. The client currently occupies one of the bungalows and the other is home to an expatriate family.
Designed by architects, Pomeroy Studio
The man behind the design of these two homes is award-winning architect, academic, author and television presenter, Prof Jason Pomeroy. He is the founding principal of Pomeroy Studio, who was the design architect, landscape architect and sustainability consultant for the project, while Hiladt Architects managed the local authority submissions and compliance, as well as contract administration.
Jason is regarded as a thought leader in sustainable design and he was also responsible for the ‘Idea House’, Asia’s first zero carbon home.
“My studio believes in what we call the 3D’s – to ‘Distil, Design and Disseminate’. We distil the essence of past building traditions and their socio-cultural and environmental responsiveness, in order to be able to design for the present, after which we can learn from such endeavours to disseminate the knowledge for future generations,” he says.
What is a zero carbon home?
A zero carbon home generates on-site clean energy that is equivalent to the energy consumed by its occupants. As a carbon negative home, the property goes beyond zero carbon by generating more clean energy via solar power than the occupants actually consume, which is then supplied back to the grid, stored or used for other purposes.
“For a home to be truly sustainable, I believe we have to look beyond just the environmental, but also consider, cultural, social, economic, technological and spatial parameters too. This is a more nuanced view of sustainable development that goes beyond the often accepted triple bottom line revolving around social, economic and environmental aspects,” Jason emphasises.
6 Pillars of Sustainability
Here is how B House exemplifies the six pillars of sustainability, namely cultural, social, spatial, environmental, technological, and economic.
1. Cultural
B House is a reinterpretation of the colonial Black and White bungalow, combining its passive design strategies with modern technology.
Jason and his team conducted extensive studies into the socio-cultural and spatio- cultural aspects of the Black and White bungalows before distilling their findings into formal and programmatic expressions in the home.
Verandah spaces are used for public entertaining or private contemplation, and shutters and monsoon windows are a nod to tropical architecture without resorting to pastiche.
2. Social
In order for the home to be sustainable, the design process entailed a rigorous understanding of its occupants – their typical day, movement patterns and so on.
This analysis informed Jason’s mapping of the social organisation and also allowed for a clearer delineation between public (formal reception area), semi-public (courtyard and verandah) and private (bedroom) areas.
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3. Spatial
Characteristic of tropical vernacular architecture, the courtyard is an integral space that forms the transition between public and private realms. It also serves as a form of passive environmental strategy by facilitating natural ventilation and allowing daylight into the heart of the home.
Apart from their programmatic and environmental contributions, verandahs also give the home its unique curvilinear appearance. Extended verandahs line the two wings of the house and give the impression of continuing into the walls and roof.
4. Environmental
The home adopts a passive approach to green design, starting with orienting the massing such that its narrower elevations face east and west. This minimises the solar heat gain and maximises cross-ventilation facilitated through the use of movable sliding screens along the facades.
Lofty ceilings and a variety of fenestrations optimise airflow, while a shallow floor plan enhances daylight penetration. These passive strategies all contribute to the reduction of artificial cooling and lighting loads.
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5. Technological
From design to construction and completion, the project took 18 months. Its modular design comprising a 1.2-metre planning grid helped to half the construction time and minimise wet trades. Working with modular components of 300 mm, 600 mm, 900 mm and 1200 mm also negated the need for special sizes or parts and mitigated wasteful offcuts.
Jason shares: “An array of just 100 sqm of photovoltaic (PV) cells per house was sufficient to bring both units to a zero carbon position. Coupled with an extensive application of rainwater harvesting and installation of water-saving devices, consumption is reduced by 465m3 per year.”
6. Economic
It may come as a surprise, but the construction cost of these two sustainable homes are comparable to regular detached homes of an equivalent scale and located in the same district. In other words, there was no premium for going carbon negative.
“This was largely in part due to the design process of Pomeroy Studio and Pomeroy Academy, working closely together to turn a research and development opportunity into a commercially viable product that could be scaled to affordable housing of under $150 psf in future,” Jason shares.
Rooftop Solar System
The 100 sqm of rooftop solar PV system only accounts for 1.5 percent of the overall construction cost. Based on Jason’s estimates, the overall PV output of approximately 18,360 kWh/year is sufficient to provide for a household of five including energy-efficient LED lighting, ceiling fans, receptacle and pump loads. The balance can support the occasional use of an energy-efficient air-conditioning system.
These parameters encapsulate an evidence-based, quantitative and qualitative approach to design that underpins the work of Pomeroy Studio and Pomeroy Academy. “
We used environmental modelling software to shape and hone the design and green guides to material specification previously researched and authored by a leading British academic institution in conjunction with Pomeroy Academy,” Jason elaborates.
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Common misconceptions about sustainable homes
One of the most common misconceptions is that sustainable homes are environmental homes. We are fixated with environmental sustainability and the reduction of consumption.
A sustainable home needs to be far more holistic in this post-pandemic, trans-migratory, digitally-enabled age. This is why sustainable homes should not just be about the environmental agenda or the socio-economic, but encompass the social, economic, environmental, spatial, cultural and technological aspects as well.
Another misconception is that sustainable design is costly design. Rather, it is economic design. If we apply passive environmental approaches to design from our forefathers and mothers, we can be reducing the reliance on artificial light and ventilation and water consumption and driving down capital costs and operational costs.
The work we have done over the last 10 years is testimony to high-achieving sustainable homes on par or even under the costs of the ‘business as usual’ homes.
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Architects in Singapore embracing green design
We are getting there, but we need to look beyond the token gestures and the greenwashing.
Legislating for a greener future and the active and commendable efforts of the Singapore Green Building Council do help, but we also need to educate ourselves to the fact that the term sustainable development was made back in 1987 – an era with fundamentally different challenges to what we face today.
So, it is time to be taking a far more nuanced view of green design. Hence, our propagation of six, and not three pillars of sustainability.
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Zero Carbon HDBs and High Rise Condominiums
There are only a handful of net-zero homes in Singapore. Singapore is taking large steps towards a green future, with a number of HDB projects attaining Platinum to Gold Plus Super Low Energy Green Mark accreditation in the last ten years, mostly in Punggol.
This can be attributed to Punggol being designed as an eco-town, serving as a “living laboratory” to testbed on-going research and innovation for new building technology, sustainability initiatives, digital technology, and to integrate green urban solutions. In the coming years, there will be a greater number of net-zero homes in such regions.
Homebuyers not willing to pay more for sustainability
In the latest PropertyGuru Singapore Consumer Sentiment Study H2 2022, it was found that only 12 per cent of respondents were willing to pay more for a net-zero home. This in itself suggests the continued general misperception that net-zero homes cost more than average homes, potentially reinforced by practitioners who still have not got the basics of sustainable design right.
However, what many home buyers and owners fail to see are the long-term cost savings involved in having a net-zero home. It is optimistic to note that perceptions are shifting and there are increasing incentives by the government. Even banks in Singapore have been actively rolling out Green Home Loans with benefits ranging from lower mortgage rates, to subsidies with the use of solar energy systems or cash vouchers.
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Singaporeans need a mindset change around sustainable design
We need a mindset change. The biggest challenge for the industry and the general public is understanding that it is not what a sustainable building costs, but what it saves. The stigma of green design costing 30 per cent more than normal buildings will continue to be challenged and de- mystified as more and more green buildings are assessed in terms of their capital costs and operational costs in comparison to non-green buildings.
Common perceptions that sustainable design is costly will continue to change, with an increased awakening that the costs initially associated with green design are marginal and yet the upsides considerably outweigh the former.
Green projects have better rental value
Improved habitable conditions, reduced energy and water consumption and therefore utility bills and greater social mobility all contribute to an increase in savvy property purchasers basing their decisions on such tangible savings and lifestyle improvements. The World Green Council has also published findings that highlight the heightened tenancy retention, rental and sales value increases of green projects, which further demonstrate that designing green is not only good for the environment, but also good for the pocket.
It will only be a matter of time that the word ‘sustainable’ will be dropped from a sentence. It is an appendage used extensively in marketing collateral, and the sooner everyone realises that sustainable design is good, back-to-basics design that utilises tried and tested principles from generations before, the better.
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Sustainable Singapore with greener homes
With majority of the population living in high-rise flats and condominiums, how can we, collectively as a nation, achieve greener homes? The UN World Commission on Environment and Development defines sustainable development as “development that meets the needs of the present without compromising the ability of future generations to meet their own needs”.
We acknowledge that transforming a nation into a sustainable one is a long-term, ongoing process to further the green agenda to tackle present and future challenges and cataclysms.
Singapore Green Plan 2030
The Singapore Green Plan 2030 is one such indicator of the nation’s commitment to the green agenda- a whole-of-nation movement to advance Singapore’s sustainable development agenda that charts ambitious and concrete targets.
The Housing & Development Board has also rolled out the HDB Green Towns Programme, a 10-year plan to make HDB towns more sustainable and liveable by reducing the energy consumption in HDB towns by 15 per cent by 2030. Key focus areas include: promoting green commute, reducing energy consumption, recycling rainwater, reducing waste, and cooling HDB towns.
While these green initiatives provide opportunity for cleaner and greener living, residents have to be receptive and adapt their lifestyle to adopt new technologies and infrastructure (such as EV chargers, E-waste recycling bins and cycling racks) to collectively make a difference.
How to make my HDB or condo more sustainable?
How can the individual homeowner or household living in non-landed homes incorporate sustainable elements into flats and apartments?
Our homes are increasingly expanding in functionality. We are spending an increasing amount of time in our homes in this post-pandemic era, where homes have shifted beyond a place for living, to places for working, learning, playing and recuperating.
1. Green Renovation: Reusing materials
Green renovation is one aspect to creating more sustainable living environments. Reusing existing materials and use of recycled and durable materials will bring down the amount of waste generated from home renovation. It is also key to specify green materials and fixtures, such as top-rated Energy and Water Efficiency labelled equipment that will bring down monthly utility bills.
2. Use Non Volatile Organic Compounds (VOC)
Beyond cost savings, greener homes also enhance health and well-being. For example, the use of low or non-volatile organic compound (VOC) products and materials ensure harmful pollutants are not circulating in the air. Green-rated products in Singapore can be easily identified as they bear the Singapore Green Building Product (SGBP) logo that indicates how efficient or green a particular material is.
3. Grow Plants in Balcony
Viewing the balcony as an extension of the living room can provide more social space. Using the terrace as a place to grow herbs and vegetables can allow families to be more self-sustaining. Such spaces can be a further means of reducing noise and noxious pollutants from the outside and thus become an environmental buffer to one’s homes too.
Photos by Robert Such.