Modification: Terraced House in Subang Jaya

Sources:
The Edge Malaysia: Haven:Out With Conventions
By: Sreerema Banoo


Terraced category
Gold Award
Location } Subang Jaya, Selangor
Architect } Ar. Chan Mun Inn of Design Collective Architecture Network Sdn Bhd

What's apparent to anyone visiting this 2-storey terraced house in Subang Jaya is the absence of features one often associates with such abodes. With an abundance of light, cross ventilation and open spaces, this home fee;s more like a bungalow or a loft than a conventional link house. And that was precisely what the owners and architect were aiming for. Both Lim Sue May and her husband had grown up in terraced homes and disliked many of the features of such houses. "So we wanted to break free of some of the terraced house constraints, such as limited lighting and ventilation," she explains.

 

Break with conventions they certainly did, and the end result is not only refreshing but very bold. Here's why: The architect, Chan Mun Inn of Design Collective Architecture Network Sdn Bhd, shaved the number of rooms from four to just 1 1/2, essentially turning the house into a series of interconnected, open -really open- spaces. Chan also removed a floor from the first level and in so doing created a double-volume ceiling height for the dining space. He removed the ceiling of the first floor as well in order to expose the framed timber roof trusses. And as if all this wasn't striking enough, Chan created a courtyard, complete with a vertical garden boasting some 350 plants.

  

To put it in a nutshell, this isn't an ordinary 22ft by 75ft terraced house.

Granted, the house looks pretty much like the other properties in the neighbourhood from the outside, but its interior is all its own, especially its sense of space. When you step into the home, you don't see walls or a series of rooms and formal spaces. No, you're treated to an uninterrupted view of the whole house, from the living and dining spaces right to the expanse of green that is the vertical garden. This, says the architect, was the intent. "The minute you step into the house, you can see the entire 75ft (length) of the house and in that way you experience the whole space at a glance."

For Chan, whose architectural practice specializes in detached homes, the aim was to replicate the spatial qualities of a bungalow. Because a terraced house lacks the square footage of a detached unit, Chan focused on the quality rather than the quantity of space.

This does not mean the house, which boasts a built-up of 1.500sq ft, lacks the requisite spaces that make up a home. There is a comfortable living area, a generous dining space, a modest-sized kitchen, ample storage space, a guestroom, an entrance space that can double as a mahjong area and even a wet kitchen - all this on the ground floor. The floor plan and orientation of these spaces are such that you can view the entire house from just about any point in it, giving rise to a loft-like feel.

The first floor comprises only the master bedroom and bathroom as well as an open-air deck in the rear of the property which the owner uses as the laundry and drying area.

Some may consider the treatment of the first floor, indeed the whole whole, somewhat severe, but you have to acknowledge the fact that by focusing on the scale and proportion of the space, and prioritizing light and ventilation, the architect has significantly improved the spatial quality of the house. 

When Chan broke down the walls and removed the rooms of the house, he removed some of the usual features of terraced houses - dark interior, poor ventilation and so on - at a stroke. "We wanted to see the sky and that's what we told Chan at the onset," says Lim.

Thanks to glass-panelled walls and strategically places transparent roof tiles, the house is bathed in light. "We wake up to the rising sun and at night there is the moonlight," Lim adds.

This abode was designed with the needs of the owners in mind. With only three occupants - the couple and their infant son Dylan - and the occasional visiting family member from out of town, the owners didn't need many bedrooms. The kitchen too is modest in size as the family prefer simple, light cooking. That said, Lim admits that the openness of the house means that the house is unforgiving when it comes to clutter - even the storeroom has a glass door. "So, this forces is to be disciplined when it comes to what we keep; it forces us not to hoard and to just use and keep what we need," she says.

A degree f restraint was also exercised when it came to the materials and colour, whether in the use of homogenous terrazzo for the flooring or the liberal use of white. Apart from painting the walls white, most of the furniture, whether permanent structures like the concrete benches than run along the entire side of the dining space and garden or the kitchen built-ins and fittings such as the lighting and blinds is also white.

While the colour choice certainly heightens the sense of space, interior designer Wong Pei San of Essential Design Integrated Sdn Bhd explains that white was also the most practical choice as it allowed touch-ups to be done without any fuss. "It's also a great canvas for introducing colour to the house," she adds. Here, colour has been introduced in the most unexpected ways - a bookshelf in the entrance foyer. The spines of the many paperbacks and hardcover books lining the shelves present a veritable rainbow of colours and a welcome distraction against the white.

While the owners confess to not being collectors of artwork, they do own a showstopper in the form of a raintree dining table. Fashioned from the trunk of a raintree, the dining table, which Lim was initially hesitant to acquire has become the focal point of the house. The table, that can comfortably seat 10 or more diners, is where the occupants and visitors congregate.

From here, you can take in the whole home, including the architectural details of its exposed timber trusses, but also the 20ft-high vertical garden. With more than 350 plants from seven species, this wall of green is a visual delight.

No wonder the owners find it difficult to tear themselves away from their home! For this young family, flouting conventions has certainly resulted in a home to be cherished and enjoyed

This article appeared in haven, Issue #44, August + September 2010, the deco and garden publication of The Edge Malaysia

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: EMBODIED ENERGY OF BUILDING MATERIALS: A COMPARATIVE ANALYSIS OF DOUBLE STOREY TERRACE HOUSES IN MALAYSIA

By TamilSalvi Mari

Compilation of Research Abstracts by SABD Academic.

Reference: Massa June 2009

Paper on Terrace Housing: THE NIGHT VENTILATION TECHNIQUE FOR TERRACED HOUSE IN HOT-HUMID CLIMATE OF MALAYSIA

By Doris Toe Hooi Chyee

Compilation of Research Abstracts by SABD Academic.

Reference: Massa June 2009

Paper on Terrace Housing: A PRELIMINARY STUDY OF THERMAL ENVIRONMENT IN MALAYSIA’S TERRACED HOUSES

Author:

Agung Murti Nugroho

Architecture Department, Faculty of Engineering, Brawijaya University, Malang (INDONESIA)

E-mail : sasimurti@yahoo.co.id

Abstract:

In a tropical climate, passive cooling is difficult to achieve with respect to mass housing design.  A good house design keeps the indoor environment favorable and comfortable during most of the year without the use of any mechanical devices. Terraced houses are typical examples with low comfort problem that need particular consideration. Low air velocity and high air temperature are experienced during the daytime and the wind effect is not well captured, especially in the single sided ventilation. Use of natural ventilation has been increasingly examined as an energy-efficient means to provide thermal comfort as well as a healthy indoor environment. This paper discusses the measurement of thermal comfort in Malaysia’s single storey terraced houses. The thermal environment and comfort conditions were investigated using field measurement technique. The results indicated that the design of single storey terraced houses is not effective in providing natural ventilation for achieving thermal comfort. The microclimate condition surrounding the terraced house indicated very low wind speed. Therefore, modification of the natural ventilation mechanism needs to be manifested and evaluated.

More on the paper can be read here.

Paper on Terrace Housing: REINTRODUCTION OF VENTILATION COMPONENTS FOR TERRACE HOUSES IN MALAYSIA

Author:

Ismail Said , Raja Nafida  Raja Shahminan and Rajeh Salleh

Department of Architecture, Faculty of Built Environment

Universiti Teknologi Malaysia, P.O. Box 791

80990, Johor Bahru, Malaysia

Abstract:

The migration of rural population to cities in Malaysia caused the government and private agencies to built 1.8 millions units of house from 1976 to 1995. Most of the houses are built in rows called terrace houses with openings only on the front and back elevations. The lack of emphasis of local authorities to regulate sufficient ventilation, low outside wind velocity and building design disregard the need of cross ventilation have resulted houses having poor natural ventilation of less than 1.0 m/s air movement in the interior spaces. The ventilation quality could be improved by the introduction of perforated components use by many traditional houses and shophouses in the country. The components include  tophungs of door and window, tall window with adjustable louvers, wall panels and gables. The introduction of these features in the terrace houses will improve the living comfort of urban housing, revitalizing the traditional craft to modern society, and harmonizing the urban dwellers in a multi-racial society by an architectural artifact. Utilization of the panel could boost the furniture and cottage industries which inline with the government policy.

More on the paper can be read here.

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. 

Paper on Terrace Housing: THE IMPACT OF WIDER FRONTAGE DESIGN OF LOW-COST DOUBLE STOREY TERRACE HOUSE (LCDSTH) TO AIRFLOW AND NATURAL VENTILATION IN MALAYSIA

Author:
Nurulashikin bt Md Taib @ Md Talib
Kulliyyah of Architecture and Environmental Design
International Islamic University, Malaysia


Abstract:

This thesis presents the result of an analysis which was done to predict the impact of wider frontage design of low-cost double-storey terrace house (LCDSTH) to airflow and natural ventilation in Kuala Lumpur. The existing LCDSTH has narrow frontage and deep plan which necessitates its internal planning with partitions to divide the spaces and arranged the rooms to have single-sided openings. These arrangements have extremely limited cross-ventilation potential and caused discomfort to occupants.

Due to the availability of natural ventilation from the prevailing wind in Malaysia, the LCDSTH design could be manipulated to enhance the natural ventilation to flow into the living spaces and gives cooling effect to ameliorate occupants' thermal comfort. Predictions of the mean internal air velocity in the existing and proposed LCDSTH are used to identify the potential plan for improving thermal comfort.

Computational Fluid Dynamic is chosen due to its capability in fluid dynamic studies. A specific software named FLOVENT is used to predict the internal air velocity by simulation the simplified building configuration of the existing and proposed model of LCDSTH. The outcomes of the simulated results are then compared using the graphic velocity vectors and contour from FLOVENT and also from the mean internal air velocity graph.

The results show that although the proposed design with wider frontage, shorter depth plan and different building height in a staggered and checker board pattern position give the best solution as compared to the existing plan, it is not significant enough to provide to the most preferable air velocity values of 1.0m/s for thermal comfort at every position of each unit in a row of LCDSTH. However, it does improve the performance of the mean internal air velocity in comparison with the existing double storey terrace house that has the design of narrow frontage and deep plan.

More on the paper can be read here.