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The Sime Darby Idea House
KUALA LUMPUR: Sime Darby Property Bhd’s Sime Darby Idea House, currently being built within its Denai Alam township in Shah Alam, is set to be the first carbon-neutral residence in Southeast Asia.
This is by virtue of green-building technologies that will be incorporated into the Sime Darby Idea House which include recyclable roof system and kitchen cabinets, rainwater-harvesting system, energy efficient appliances, environmentally-friendly light bulbs and solar panels.
"The first-of-its-kind in Southeast Asia, the Sime Darby Idea House was conceived as a test bed for new ideas in sustainable architecture, from which we hope to incorporate the learning and technologies from this house into future developments in our townships as part of our commitment to build sustainable communities," Sime Darby Property managing director Datuk Tunku Putra Badlishah told reporters after the signing of technical collaborations with 16 partners for its Sime Darby Idea House project this afternoon (April 1).
The 16 partners are Cisco Systems (Malaysia) Sdn Bhd, Meisniaga, Nippon-Paint (M) Sdn Bhd, Thinkscape Group, Jardine Engineering (Singapore) Pte Ltd, Jurusanwa Enterprise Sdn Bhd, W.Atelier Sdn Bhd, Melco Sales (M) Sdn Bhd, MyZwood Sdn Bhd, Melco Sales (M) Sdn Bhd, Saint-Gobain Construction Products (Malaysia) Sdn Bhd, Hunter Douglas (M) Sdn Bhd, Myhomepalm Integrated Sdn Bhd, Megaman Electronic & Lighting Sdn Bhd, Home Research Sdn Bhd and SmartPools Sdn Bhd.
Tunku Putra said there was no limit to the number of partners for the collaboration.
Meanwhile, Singapore-based architect Jason Pomeroy of BroadwayMalyan who is the consultant for the Sime Darby Idea House, told theedgeproperty.com that solar photovoltaic (PV) panels would be able to generate 17800kw/h per year.
"It is an additional of 21% of an average family of five’s usage at 14,000 kw/h per year. Therefore, all energy needs are catered for, with surplus," he said.
Pomeroy said the combined effect of energy savings, and higher rental and sale value for green buildings would offset the additional costs associated with these environmental-friendly buildings.
Meanwhile, Tunku Putra Badlishah said the prototype house would be opened to the public to enable the developer to get feedback from them on the initiative.
"Some elements from Idea House people would want immediately," he said. Rainwater harvesting, for example, has been introduced in Sime Darby Property's latest launches in Putra Heights within Subang Jaya, Selangor.
Sime Darby Idea House, which broke ground six weeks ago, is expected to be completed by end of this month and opened to the public in May. The almost 4,850 sq ft house will take six months to build, compared to the usual 18 to 22 months.
