Climatic Design Principles: Visit to Historic Building with Monash Architectural Students
IEN had the pleasure to give talk - on location - about climatic design principles for tropical buildings. We brought the 15 architectural students from Monash University (Melbourne campus) to the recently completed historic building, Bangunan Sultan Abdul Samad, which had no choice but to apply the climatic design principles for comfort, daylighting and ventilation, because the building was completed in 1897 before Kuala Lumpur was electrified.
View or download the slides that we presented to the students:
We also spoke about other related topics, such as outdoor thermal comfort and latest research on deadly heatwave events finding that elderly people above 65 years old significantly more likely to succumb to deadly heat stress than younger people.
On a related note, we told the students about the benefits of planting trees to cool down tropical cities, such as George Town, Penang, which currently is undertaking a big tree-planting program with the express purpose of making the city more thermally comfortable.
Lastly, the students were very interested in discussing innovative building design strategies, such as sky cooling and desiccant dehumidification, that we have developed to cool and dehumidify tropical buildings without the use for electricity. We let the students use our thermographic camera and showed them our comfort cube equipment, to make them aware of ways to measure the thermal environment around them.
Always a pleasure to inspire students. Thanks to prof. Erik L'Heureux, who lead this travelling studio ("Hot Air Transformations: Kuala Lumpur"), for reaching out and letting us share our theoretical and practical building design knowledge and help to inspire the next generation of architects.
Links and acknowledgements:
Monash University Hot Air Transformations: Kuala Lumpur Travelling Studio program: https://www.monash.edu/study-abroad/outbound/program-search/hot-air-transformations-kuala-lumpur
COOLER Cities #04: Outdoor Thermal Comfort Study Before Tree Planting: https://www.ien.com.my/post/cooler-cities-04-outdoor-thermal-comfort-study-before-tree-planting
Building owner, Khazanah, homepage about Bangunan Sultan Abdul Samad: https://www.khazanah.com.my/our-investments/dana-warisan/khazanahs-heritage-assets-and-projects/bangunan-sultan-abdul-samad/
Thank you to IEN staff, Sarah Salim and Amelie Hottner, for helping out with the student visit.
Gallery from Monash student visit:
Group photo with Monash University architectural students in Kuala Lumpur Gregers Reimann passes book to Erik L'Heureux. Big smiles Gregers Reimann, Sarah Salim and Amelie Hottner, IEN, just before Monash student visit Gregers Reimann giving cargobike ride to Shin Tseng in front of Pickle Dining restaurant, KL Gregers Reimann and Erik L'Heureux during discussion with Monash students at BSAS building Monash students group photo in BSAS building, 14 April 2026, Kuala Lumpur Gregers Reimann giving cargobike ride to Erik L'Heureux after dinner, Hot Air Transformations studio Introducing the Monash students to durian. Perhaps their most memorable / traumatic experience ;-) Introducing the Monash students to durian. Perhaps their most memorable / traumatic experience ;-) Introducing the Monash students to durian. Perhaps their most memorable / traumatic experience ;-) Front page of slide deck. Heart of Kuala Lumpur with Monash students
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