Singapore Builds Up Green Building Research Capabilities; Plans Are Modeled After FLEXLAB®

December 20, 2012

This press release is from the Building and Construction Authority of Singapore:

The Building and Construction Authority inked a partnership with U.S.-based Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory (Berkeley Lab) on 16 November 2012 to build a facility for test-bedding green building technologies. The collaboration is pivotal to developing new innovations and solutions for greater energy efficiency of buildings in Singapore, thereby reducing carbon emissions and contributing to the sustainability of the built environment.

The new facility to be built at the BCA Academy will be modelled after Berkeley Lab’s FLEXLAB® (Facility for Low Energy Experiments in Buildings) located at Berkeley Hills. While there will be differences in terms of size and scope due to space constraint, the new test-bedding facility at BCA Academy will be the first rotating research facility in Asia. The novel design will allow the solar impact on wall surfaces to be assessed, thus simulating the actual building site location with ease. In building the new lab, BCA will work closely with Berkeley Lab to tap their expertise in areas including design & construction, data acquisition and collaborative research projects.

When completed in end 2013, the new facility will allow building systems and components to be tested in “real-world” conditions and let researchers and manufacturers change the configuration to test key building elements that impacts energy consumption and building performance. These include high-performance building envelopes, advanced cooling & air distribution systems, next-generation lighting and whole system integration through smart sensing and controls, as well as ventilation, lighting, walls, windows and shading.