The Greenhouse at Dulwich College (Singapore) Wins at the ASEAN Energy Awards 2026

The Greenhouse at Dulwich College (Singapore) has been named the winner of the Energy Efficient Building – Zero Energy Building category at the ASEAN Energy Awards 2026. The award was presented on 7^th October in Manila, Philippines, as part of the 26^th ASEAN Energy Business Forum held in conjunction with the 44^th ASEAN Ministers on Energy Meeting.

Completed in October 2023, The Greenhouse is the latest addition to the Dulwich College (Singapore) campus, housing a range of educational spaces including classrooms, computer rooms, an auditorium and workshops. As the first international school in Singapore to receive the BCA Green Mark Platinum – Zero Energy Rating with three badges in Health and Wellbeing, Intelligence and Maintainability, the building represents a comprehensive approach to sustainable design that is both performance-driven and people-centred.

The Greenhouse at Dulwich College (Singapore) occupies a dense site, flanked closely by existing campus buildings on both sides, a constraint that the design team transformed into an opportunity. A north-south building orientation, tilted envelope and a full-height stepped atrium work together to draw daylight deep into the building’s interior while managing solar heat gain. The atrium also enhances natural air movement through the stack effect, reducing cooling demand without mechanical intervention. Key design decisions, from building orientation to envelope detailing, were informed by building simulations covering solar radiation, natural ventilation, wind-driven rain, daylighting and glare.

Complementing these passive strategies is a suite of high-efficiency active systems. Passive Displacement Cooling (PDC) deployed across classrooms, the auditorium and collaborative spaces relies on chilled-water cooling coils and natural convection rather than mechanical fans, achieving an air-side efficiency approximately 50% better than code requirements. The lighting system uses 100% LED fixtures, achieving around a 50% reduction in lighting power density against code. Smart Internet-of-Things (IoT) sensors across air-conditioning, lighting and comfort systems ensure that energy is consumed only where and when it is needed, with CO2, occupancy and photocell sensors working in tandem to modulate conditions in real time.

Given the site’s limited roof space, the project adopts an expansive Building-Integrated Photovoltaics (BIPV) system extending from the north façade to the rooftop, functioning simultaneously as a sun-shading element and a renewable energy source. The building envelope is tilted at ten degrees to prevent self-shading and maximise solar energy harvested. Supplemented by photovoltaic installations across other campus buildings, the project achieves a 101% energy replacement ratio, comfortably meeting its net-zero energy target and reducing operational carbon across the building’s lifetime.

The Greenhouse at Dulwich College (Singapore) stands as proof that rigorous environmental performance can be achieved without compromise to the quality of the spaces that students and staff inhabit every day. The award underscores DP Sustainable Design’s commitment to advancing sustainable design through the convergence of environmental performance, design excellence and data-driven innovation.