After a nice lunch the GLCM crew headed off to the next site. We arrived at the Samwoh Smart Hub. The building had lots of greenery in front of the building and the interior was very polished.

We were then welcomed by one of the presenters of the day. Before moving on to the next room he made sure to explain a group of diagrams on a TV. He detailed that the building was one that prided itself in being a positive energy structure. The energy from the solar panels exceeded that of which the building required.

In the next room our group was shown 2 videos that are very important to the Samwoh corporation. The first clip embodies the values the company keeps close to their hearts as they strive for a certain quality, diversity, and satisfaction. To them the client is very important and creating connections is a driving factor to their success. At the forefront of their design an idea of innovation is present.

The 2nd video gives respect to the origins of Samwoh showing depictions of the company at its humble beginnings of solely supplying construction materials. Eventually the company expanded to what it is today and the message pushed in the video is that it should never just be “good” enough, rather there should be constant changes and innovations.

After the clips we were given a presentation of the Samwoh Smart Hub, explaining its ability to be a positive energy building in much more detail. Some highlights would be the double fin edge the building that utilizes the sea breeze to help cool the building. Another example would be the use of full height glass windows in order to maximize natural lighting. These windows, however, normally allow the building to be prone to solar heating. In order to combat this, the windows were chosen double glazed.

Following the presentation was a walk through of the gallery depicting the history and changes Samwoh went over the years and the awards they have attained. To Samwoh these awards are evidence of their hard work and innovation so they are very proud of them.

Further down the gallery were batches of asphalt and concrete. Each batch had its own unique feature like the steel slag asphalt that used the waste from for steel factories as the aggregate in the batch leading to a stronger asphalt. Apart from the material based focus of the company they have several other services that they provide.

The gallery ended with a light show in which a model of the smart hub was used.

The final part of the entire tour was a showing of the Samwoh Innovation Centre. Within the lab we were shown the process in making the batches and the process of testing some of their physical parameters. Apart from that there was some live interactive demos. One to point out was the stretching of 2 bitumen samples. One was very simple to stretch and seemed to have permanent deformation whereas the other was much harder to stretch and was more of an elastic property as it tried to get back to its original shape.

Overall, the experience was very informative and reminiscent of CEE 300.

Blog by Joel Bollas