Terrace Housing of Malaysia: July 2011

Sunday, July 10, 2011

Article: No Brand House

Sources:
Page 66-67
Architecture Asia Magazine
Issue 4/October 2008 - December 2008
Publisher: Pusat Binaan Sdn Bhd
Kuala Lumpur: 2008

Article: Singapore Alleyway House

Sources:
Page 70
Architecture Asia Magazine
Issue 4/October 2008 - December 2008
Publisher: Pusat Binaan Sdn Bhd
Kuala Lumpur: 2008

Saturday, July 9, 2011

Article: GROW A GREEN HOME

Reference to this article: The Star Special

By TAN CHENG LI

Pictures by ART CHEN

One architect has devised ways to make his linkhouse more liveable in the tropical heat.

DARK and stuffy – that’s what most linkhouses are. So families are left with little choice but to keep lights on, even during the day, and the air-conditioning perpetually running. This can send their carbon footprints bloating.

Architect Clement Wong feels that Malaysians need not live that way and to prove it, he has renovated a typical linkhouse to include various design elements that can raise the comfort level up several notches. The result is that his 22 x 85 feet (6.6 x 25.5m) double-storey linkhouse in Taman Desa, Kuala Lumpur, is surprisingly bright and airy.

“The house is 30 years old and so needed a bit of work. I took the opportunity to look back at the fundamentals of a good design and incorporate them. This is a green home DIY. I had a lot of cost considerations, so I did not put in fancy green things but just went back to basics.”

Going back to fundamentals meant Wong had two aims: promote cross-ventilation and tap natural lighting.

“To cool buildings in the tropics, we need cross-ventilation and shade from the scorching sun. It is easy to get cross-ventilation. You just need two openings in a room. If there is only one opening, the room is air-locked.”

So in his house, Wong made sure that no walls obstructed the kitchen from the living hall. This allows constant airflow through the house.

He had chosen the house, which doubled up as his office, for its north-south orientation which maximises natural lighting. To brighten the interiors, he punctured the ceiling with skylights. Tastefully designed to blend into the architecture, these 25cm-wide openings have tough laminated glass covers to ensure security. Through these slits in the ceiling, sunlight floods the kitchen, dining area and stairs landing.

“There is no need to turn on a single light in the daytime,” Wong proclaims proudly. In addition to that, narrow gaps just beneath the glass covers of the skylights allow hot air to escape, which further cools the house.

The pride of the house has to be its green roof. It is a welcome oasis from the busy road outside and the surrounding hot roof tops. This secret space is perfect for Wong’s wife Grace Soh to do yoga and son Ernest to run around. Wong created a 6m by 3m space for the roof garden simply by shrinking the roof and making it slope sideways.

“The green roof is nice-looking and cools down the building dramatically. The roof has to be as light as possible so I mixed polystyrene crumbs with the soil to reduce the weight,” explains Wong.

To conserve water, he installed a simple rain harvesting system. Gutters divert rainwater from the roof into a storage tank. The water is then piped into three gardens. So not a single drop is wasted. Concerns over acid rain which can corrode the piping system, however, deterred Wong from using rainwater in the bathrooms (for flushing).

To keep the carbon footprint of the house small, Wong left the bathroom walls bare and not tiled up. His eagerness to put discarded stuff to good use is seen all over the house. The floors are not paved over with tiles but a composite made of white cement and marble and granite chips (such as those used for potted plants). Polished to a high shine, the effect is like terrazzo flooring.

“The stone chips are something that people won’t use otherwise,” says Wong.

Instead of buying new plywood for formwork (mould), he used salvaged roofing material – and got interesting results, in the form of corrugated walls. The kitchen cabinets were salvaged from a renovation project he did. All they needed were a fresh coat of paint and new handles to look good.

Use of waste is again seen in the front gate perimeter wall. “I told the contractor to bring any stones he can find at construction sites.” The odd-sized granite stones are pieced together by cement and left unpolished, creating a rough-hewn look that is not unappealing.

Despite renovating the house since early last year, the task is still not finish as Wong not only personally sources for materials, he is not rushing himself. “It is a work in progress. I like to say that I am growing a green home.”

He envisages the house as a model of how to make a typical terraced dwelling greener and more comfortable. In fact, one potential client, after viewing the house, was impressed enough to commission Wong to renovate his home.

“If you buy a terrace house, you will need to do it up. So why not take the opportunity to incorporate useful features. Forget about expensive costly techniques. Get the fundamentals right. Even a terrace house, despite having little exposure to the sun, can use sunlight,” says Wong. He has demonstrated that even simple steps, such as changing the interior layout, can do wonders to a home. Isn’t it time you insist on that from your architect?

Clement Wong Biography: A Professional Architect practicing in Kuala Lumpur, Clement Wong was trained in the University of Melbourne, Australia. He returned to Kuala Lumpur and joined the Architectural Projects Team in 2000 and become the office’s Chief Design Architect from 2004 to 2008. Clement Wong started his own practice called Clement Wong Architecture in 2009. His current works include Eco-tech Vertical Farming in China; REHDA new headquarter in PJ; several housing estate development and bungalows around Klang Valley which emphasis on “green features” and sustainable designs including his own home office retrofit. The home office was featured in the Star Newspaper in Sept 2009. Clement Wong is also a Green Building Facilitator associated to the Green Building Index rating tool specific for Malaysian buildings.

Practice: Clement Wong Architecture

Paper on Terrace Housing: PRIVACY AND MODIFICATION OF TERRACE HOUSING AMONG MALAY OCCUPANTS IN KLANG VALLEY, MALAYSIA

Author:

Zaiton Abdul Rahim

Faculty of Human Ecology, Universiti Putra Malaysia

Abstract:

Privacy at home is important for normal functioning of daily activity. However, in the context of housing in Malaysia, there are many opinions which suggest that existing terrace housing in incongruent with the privacy needs of its inhabitants. Inconsistency between the house as a site for privacy and the occupants result in behavioural adaptation and redefining of privacy needs, which over time, changed the concept of privacy. Due to its importance, privacy is expected to be one of the main reasons for housing modification which has become a Malaysian culture.

This research is focused on examining the concept of privacy in the context of housing among Malay families living in terrace housing, and the relationship between privacy and terrace housing design among Malay families living in terrace housing, and the relationship between privacy and terrace housing design and modification. The research employed a combination of survey interview and case study which uses in-depth interview, analytical review of housing layout drawings and site observation. The research involved 374 respondents for the survey interview and 11 respondents for the case study from three housing schemes in Gombak and Kajang. SPSS (Statistical Package for Social Science Software) was used to analyze data from survey interview. Data from case study were interpreted and transcribed to provide consistent results which complement each of the analyses.

The research found that the concept of privacy in the context of terrace housing among Malay families have changed. Privacy of the family is given importance as compared to community ties and individual privacy. The changes are partly attributed to terrace house and housing environment which do not support the privacy needs of Malay families. It was found that at tthe private level, privacy is most affected by some aspects of terrace housing design particularly the lack of a clear division between the public and private spaces. At the public level, privacy is affected by the overall arrangement of housing units and the external factors of housing environment. Privacy is found to influence housing modification base on the specifics of design attributes modified. However, financial resources of the family, availability of space, individual family's privacy perceptions and expectations and housing environment influenced the level of privacy achieved after housing modification.

Reference: here.

Website: MALAYSIA REAL ESTATE RESOURCES

Interesting topics on terrace housing can be read in MALAYSIA REAL ESTATE RESOURCES blog, although it mainly revolves around all types of property. For instance:

Abandoned projects

Concept of 2-in-1