Paper on Terrace Housing: TAKING CUES FROM THE PAST: INCREASING THE LIVABILITY OF TERRACE HOUSING IN MALAYSIA THROUGH THE RAISED FLOOR INNOVATION

Author:

Mazlan Mohd Tahir, Nur Akmal Goh Abdullah, Azimin Samsul Mohd Tazilan, Nik Lukman Nik Ibrahim, Mastor Surat, Abdul Halim Ismail, Zuhairuse Md Darus, Ismar M.S. Usman 

Architectural Research Group UKM 

Department of Architecture, Faculty of Engineering, 

Universiti Kebangsaan Malaysia,Malaysia. 

mazlan@vlsi.eng.ukm.my

Abstract:

The ubiquitous terrace house is still the most popular housing type in the country. Terrace housing has long been considered the densest form of  property development and in Malaysia has become the stereotyped form of accommodating the masses. However, its design has been plague with various issues for decades. It has been associated with bad design, heat collector, safety issues and unsightly renovations. In contrary to the tropical architecture with sun shading devices, ventilation, openings and the use of local material such as timber, terrace houses have been designed as masonry and reinforced concrete boxes fitted with air conditioning. The modern day terrace house whilst designed has perhaps overlooked one of the most important elements of a tropical house that is the raised floor. The traditional raised floor design involves issues such as ventilation, lighting, thermal comfort and social aspects.  

This research intends to explore the various issues mentioned above and proposed to uniquely develop a new design for in-house habitation as well as providing for an aesthetically pleasing look. It suggests a possible and promising way of increasing the livability of terrace housing by the means of a raised floor and at this stage it is still in the experimental stage. 

More on the paper can be read here and here.