Friday, August 31, 2007

Quadruple Houses in Malaysia #1

Universiti Teknologi Malaysia is a sprawling campus designed in the 1970s in the southern state of Johor in peninsula Malaysia. The design attempted to create a Malaysian architecture with the use of traditional Malay building forms, but constructed in concrete rather than timber, and the details are blown up. At the entrance, the mosque is an eclectic combination of middle-eastern styles.




An interesting part of the campus is the low-cost housing for workers tucked in a hidden corner. These are what I believe to be the first adaptation of the quadruple house in Malaysia. It is workers housing at Universiti Teknologi Malaysia, built in the 1970's. I believe that it was designed by the university's in;house Project Office.




You can see the cross walls above the roof

The houses are more like the ones in the Cite Ouvriere in Mulhouse rather than Frank Lloyd Wright's Quadruple House: most of the houses front a pedestrian footpath, and they are called cluster houses.


It's a public holiday here in Malaysia - we are celebrating Independence Day. I'm afraid there'll be a few more posts about Malaysia!


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Thursday, August 30, 2007

Rizal's House

Philippines 2005 709
The octagonal Casa Redonda, where Rizal's pupils would stay


During his exile in Dapitan, Philipine's national hero - Jose Rizal - bought a piece of land near the shore of Talisay near Dapitan. On this land, he built three houses- all made of bamboo, wood, and nipa.

In a letter to his friend, Ferdinand Blumentritt, on December 19, 1893, Rizal described his peaceful life in Dapitan.

"I shall tell you how we lived here. I have three houses - one square, another hexagonal, and the third octagonal. All these houses are made of bamboo, wood, and nipa. I live in the square house, together with my mother, my sister, Trinidad, and my nephew. In the octagonal house live some young boys who are my pupils. The hexagonal house is my barn where I keep my chickens."

"From my house, I hear the murmur of a clear brook which comes from the high rocks. I see the seashore where I keep two boats, which are called barotos here.
I have many fruit trees, such as mangoes, lanzones, guayabanos, baluno, nangka, etc. I have rabbits, dogs, cats, and other animals."

"I rise early in the morning-at five-visit my plants, feed the chickens, awaken my people, and prepare our breakfast. At half-past seven, we eat our breakfast, which consists of tea, bread, cheese, sweets, and other things. After breakfast, I treat the poor patients who come to my house. Then I dress and go to Dapitan in my baroto. I am busy the whole morning, attending to my patients in town."

"At noon, I return home to Talisay for lunch. Then, from 2:00 to 4:00 p.m., I am busy as a teacher. I teach the young boys. I spend the rest of the afternoon in farming. My pupils help me in watering the plants, pruning the fruits, and planting many kinds of trees. We stop at 6:00 p.m. for the Angelus."

"I spend the night reading and writing."


Casa Cuadrada, the square main house where Rizal ived, faithfully reconstructed with its original light native materials.


A plan of Rizal's land in Dapitan

Sources: www.jose-rizal.eu
Dingcho at community.webshots.com
Sonny's Multi-interest Site



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Wednesday, August 29, 2007

Mud Houses for Mars



Win the 1980’s, when NASA wanted ideas for how to build on Mars (or the moon), Persian architect Nader Khalili came up with a winning concept. No need to transport much from Earth; just bring woven plastic tubes. On Mars simply fill up the tubes with dirt to create coils that can be built up to form walls, then roofs.





We are not building on Mars or the moon yet, but Khalili is busy building his ‘superadobe’ mud houses here on Earth. This building technique is easily downscaled to become a low-tech housing house-building solution for poorer countries and for emergency housing.





It is also argued to be a sustainable form of construction because much of the material used is from the building site itself, minimizing energy use on transport. It uses a lot of labour and much less of equipment and materials that contain a high amount of ‘embedded’ energy.



More on Khalili's work at CalEarth.org

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Tuesday, August 28, 2007

The Kampong House in Kedah



This is a 'kampong' house from Kedah, a state in the north of peninsula Malaysia. This well- preserved house, were relocated to a park in front of the State Secretariat Office. The frame and wall cladding is made of local hardwoods - assembled without using nails - and the roof is made of 'atap', weaved from palm fronds.



We all love traditional architecture, but timber is getting more and more expensive. The cost of per square meter of sawn hardwood is more than the cost of concrete by a factor of 20 or more. Atap roofs are notoriously leaky.



These houses are highly ventilated and the lightweight structure has little thermal mass. They are 'ambient' houses that follow the surrounding outdoor temperature. That is fine in the shady countryside. In hotter town areas that suffer from the heat-island effect, they can get uncomfortably warm.



It is right that these houses are conserved, but for housing today, they serve as inspiration rather than solutions.




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