AS8New Administration Block @ Kent Ridge Crescent, NUS

Massing Studies

Performing Arts

Student Community

Green Lifestyle

Communal Terrace

OpenStudent Space

Link to Dept. o

f Socia

l Work

Link to Forum

Link to Centra

l Library

Link to University Park

Link to

School of Computing

: AS8 New Administration Block: Educational: 10 Kent Ridge Crescent (NUS Campus), Singapore

: S$ 40,625,158.60: 68.51 m: 10,358.83 m²: 0.7836: 23 Jun 2014: 23 Jun 2016 (TOP)

: National University of Singapore (NUS)

: Architects 61 Pte Ltd

: BECA Carter Hollings & Ferner (S.E. Asia) Pte Ltd

: KTP Consultants Pte Ltd: COEN Design Pte Ltd

: Building System and Diagnostics Pte Ltd

: Building Façade Group (HCCH Consulting Pte Ltd): Rider Levett Bucknall Llp

: BCA Green Mark Platinum Award

Project TitleCategoryLocation

Contract ValueAMSLGFAPlot RatioContract AwardProject Completion

Client

Architect

M & E Consultant

C & S ConsultantLandscape Architect

Environmental Sustainable Design

Curtain Wall Consultant

Quantity Surveyor

Award

Inspirations

NUS’s New AS8 Administration Block is gaining its status as a landmark and an icon to differentiated groups of students and staff. Primarily designed to house academic and office spaces, NUS’s desire was to also create a visionary plan of a mixed use development to achieve flexibility in the usage of spaces and with a long term vision for future growth, and with a seamless connectivity encompassing the larger precinct. Situated on a slope site along Kent Ridge Crescent, the redeveloped AS8 creates a student-centric hub as the campus core which enhances NUS image as an attractive campus situated in an Asian culture. This new development is simultaneously timeless, respectful of the existing adjacencies, and responding to the tropical climate of

Singapore, wherein passive design concepts have been applied to react effectively to the environment.

AS8 comprises a double volume foyer plus mezzanine at the 1st level, teaching facilities at 2nd, 3rd and 4th floor, and the administration offices distributed in the residual 5th to 7th floor. The redevelopment also includes a basement carpark, and A&A to existing walkways and NUS Central Library,

within the precinct of the campus.

The form of the building is taken from configuring and playing with the general flexibility of blocks: volumes are pulled, other pushed back, subtracted, to generate negative volumes which became pockets of landscape and courtyards, open to the sky. These green surfaces act as social and recreational spaces for both students and staff alike, as places of interaction and relaxation during the day. They are the figurative lungs of the building, a reminiscence

of a cool forest clearing, with daylight filtering through the curtain-wall fins, evocative of canopies of trees.

Veranda concept was introduced in the form of naturally ventilated corridors that connect between air-conditioned spaces. These verandas can accommodate spontaneous spilled out activities, or to serve as study and discussion areas. Users enjoy the natural breeze from the exterior, while being sheltered from the hot afternoon sun. The introduction of such spaces reduced the total air-conditioned areas to approximately 43.9% of the total Gross

Floor Areas, thus achieved substantial energy saving.

Similarly to the traditional Malay houses in the South East Asia, the massing of AS8 is designed to have high degree of permeability in favour of the dominant winds directions, to allow natural ventilation to flow in and through the building across the central courtyards. Perforated aluminium screens are purposefully provided at the façade openings so as to protect the internal space from excessive solar transmission and heavy driven rain. The curtain wall system is enriched by a combination of vertical and horizontal fins, which maximize daylight and minimize glare and heat penetration. Facades facing east and west directions have deeper fins to impede glare and heat, while fins on the facades facing north and south are reduced in depth aiming to

redirect glare.

The basement podium negotiates the sloping ground upon which the development is sited, the double height columns at 1st and 2nd storey elevate the building’s core, which comprises a full height atrium culminating in a naturally ventilated skylight. The living-working spaces are distributed along the

perimeter of the atrium, and penetrated strategically to allow for the crossed ventilation to naturally cool down the block.

A revitalized complement to the Forum and the Central Library, the AS8 creates a seamless connection between these areas and the open plaza. This further emphasizes the entrance to the Library by making the link from the administration block visually present from a distance. AS8 has achieved the Green Mark Platinum Award, through vigorous design process of researching spectrum of tropical vernacular settlements and dwellings, of which key

principles of vernacular architecture were adopted to demonstrate environmental sustainability.

AS8New Administration Block @ Kent Ridge Crescent, NUS