A handout photo from Design 2000 Co., Ltd shows a cottage at the Mingalar Garden resort in Pyi township, Bago Division. The company is expected to win an award later this month from the ASEAN Centre for Energy for its energy-efficient design of the resort, an architect with the company claimed last week.

A YANGON-BASED property firm is to be awarded a regional prize for its design of the Mingalar Garden resort in Bago Division, according to an architect from the company who said the announcement had been leaked from the ASEAN Centre for Energy, which organised the competition.

Design 2000 Co., Ltd architect Daw Chaw Kalyar said a member of the centre’s judging panel told her the company would be named winner of the ASEAN Best Practices Competition for Energy Efficient Buildings under the “tropical” category when the prize winners are officially announced in Singapore in July

Mingalar Garden resort, 280 kilometres northwest of Yangon in Bago’s Pyi township, was one of 100 Myanmar properties entered in the competition under several categories by the Myanmar Architects Association.

U Sun Oo, chairman of Design 2000 and one of the company’s three architects, said the resort’s minimal energy consumption had been achieved by careful design and efforts to become as self-sufficient as possible.

Solar energy and hydropower are soon to join biofuels in providing electricity to the resort’s 23 bungalows spread over eight hectares, he said.

But while Design 2000 takes credit for planning the resort, built in 2001 by Flying Tiger Garden Group, U Sun Oo said the impetus to build energy-saving rooms came from the owner, Daw Khin Wai Wai.

Small rooms were key to keeping power demands low, he said.
“Each double bedroom in the cottages is only of 10-by-14 feet and air conditioning is only supplied to that area,” U Sun Oo said, adding that this accounted for just a third of each bungalow’s floor area, not including the bathroom and porch, and helped keep power usage to a minimum.

“(The competition’s) rules and guidelines required that air conditioning cover less than 50 percent of total gross floor area and not exceed 150 kilowatt hours per square metre per year,” he said.

According to Design 2000, the Mingalar Garden resort uses just 132 kilowatt hours per square metre annually.

Daw Chaw Kalyar said the company had planned the resort to blend in with the 22 hectares of woodland and lakes the property encompasses.

“When we designed the resort we spent a lot of time considering the environmental impact. We tried not to destroy the natural environment and to instead use materials that work harmoniously with it,” she said, citing the widespread use of wood, including teak.

Rooms also make use of insulation to regulate temperatures and cut down on the need for air conditioning.

Efforts are also underway to make sure as much electricity as possible is sourced locally.

The resort is currently testing a scheme to harness the flow of a nearby stream to generate power, Daw Chaw Kalyar said.

U Sun Oo added: “To get hot water for guests in the winter, the tank is heated using by-products like rice husks instead of … fuel like coal or charcoal.”

The resort also plans to introduce solar panels to power outside lights at night. “Batteries are charged by the sun during the day and then provide light at night,” U Sun Oo said.

The hotel is mainly used for overnight stays by people commuting between Yangon and Bagan, and Yangon and Ngapali, according to U Sun Oo.
Stays cost K30,000 per night.

Design 2000 also had its International Language Business Centre (ILBC) entered in the ASEAN energy-efficient buildings competition – which makes up part of the ASEAN Energy Awards 2007 – under the “new and existing building” category.

In 2005, Popa Resort in Mandalay Division won the “tropical” category in that year’s edition of the competition.