Suvarnabhumi Airport, Bangkok, Thailand

A highly transparent building envelope under Bangkok’s climatic conditions requires excellent sun and heat protection capabilities for a low energy envelope performance. New solutions for weather, noise and heat protection have been developed and combined into an integral building design, where building envelope and installed mechanical equipment work together creating optimal comfort at minimum energy consumption. With the outdoor temperatures of 25-35° C, an airport terminal filled with equipment and passengers around the clock, 24/7 cooling is needed. An overhanging roof made out of louvers protects the completely glazed terminal facades from the sun. Solar and long wave heat radiation strongly impact user comfort. This was a particular concern in the departure gates of the 3,5 km of concourses where the large air volume is thermally stratified, providing cooler air only where needed and letting the upper layer of the space remaining unconditioned to save on cooling energy. By applying a low-e coating on the inner side of a lightweight, triple layer membrane roof, the long wave heat radiation emitted from the hot roof is blocked creating a so called thermal mirror as it simultaneously reflects back the temperature of the cooled floor surfaces. The result is a ”pool“ of cool air at the occupied levels that remains comfortable at all times. In addition the radiant floor system provides the cooling very efficiently which allowed to downsize the ventilation system by 40%.
Only the intensive collaboration within the design team enabled the successful integration of new material developments into an integrated building design concept with significantly minimized energy consumption of the building while providing optimized thermal and visual comfort for the passengers.

tamu.edu: Innovative Design Concept for the New Bangkok International Airport, NBIA>