Active energy conserving strategies of the Malaysia Energy Commission diamond building

Energy efficiency in office buildings for the tropical climate has been a subject of much discussion in the building industry. The Malaysia Energy Commission Sustainable Building, also known as the Diamond Building was built as the third Government Energy Efficient building after the Low Energy Office (LEO) and the Green Energy Office (GEO). It is located in Putrajaya, Malaysia which has a hot and humid tropical climate. The cutting-edge design has incorporated the most advanced features available in Malaysia for sustainability and energy efficiency. The aim of this paper is to investigate the design of active energy conserving features for a sustainable office building in the tropical climate and assess the effectiveness of these strategies. In carrying out this study, the methodologies used are non-participant observation conducted through visits to the building and interviews with the designers and users of the building. An analysis is then made on the effectiveness of the various energy conserving strategies implemented. It was found that the implementation of active energy-conserving design strategies are still under experimental investigations in Malaysia and that designers have yet to make compromises in deciding on the energy conserving strategies to be used. Finally, this paper provides a useful reference in the field of sustainable design in the humid tropical climate. © 2012 The Authors. Published by Elsevier B.V. Selection and/or peer-review under responsibility of SUSTAIN conferences committee and supported by Kyoto University; (OPIR), (GCOE-ES), (GCOE-HSE), (CSEAS), (RISH), (GCOE-ARS) and (GSS) as co-hosts.