Tuesday, November 22, 2011

Cars, trains and planes

In three slides, my friend Mohd. Peter Davis makes a case against our reliance on cars from a safety point of view.



Wednesday, November 9, 2011

Frugal Innovation


I was first introduced to the term Frugal Innovation reading Pralahad's "The Fortune at The Bottom of the Pyramid". I was reacquanted recently by a TED talk video by Ragunath Malshekar, "Breakthrough designs for ultra-low-cost products", If you can't spare the 20 minutes, this is what I learned from it:



















Frugal innovation is about radical, really radical, reductions in prices that is able to deliver important things to the bottom 4 billion of people in the world who earn less than USD2 per day. I suggest architects move on from the old arguments about Form vs Function - "Less is More", blah, blah...


 

Monday, November 7, 2011


I'd like to recommend this conference in Penang next year Saturday March 3rd to Monday 5th. I've signed up and I'm looking forward to it.

Welcome to ICSAUD2012
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CONFERENCE THEME
Intervention: Reaching Out to the Bottom Billion
VENUE at Berjaya Hotel Penang (Please Click): http://berjayahotel.com/penang/ 

IMPORTANT DATES
•    Early Bird Registration Fee Payment Deadline: Before 10th November 2011 •    Full paper Submission Deadline (After Review): 1st November 2011 
•    Late Registration Fee Payment Deadline: After 10th November 2011 
 
INTRODUCTION
Globalisation with all its positive effects however, has left the bottom billion behind.  The United Nation Millennium Goal of eradicating poverty by halve; fights hunger and disease; and provision of  basic amenities to the poor by 2015 requires aggressive and collaborative efforts from the world community for it to be successfully achieved. The conference showcases trends and practices in the development of sustainable architecture and urban design and set a platform for the fraternity to take up the moral challenges in addressing the bottom billion.  Themed “Sustainable Architecture and Urban Design Intervention: Reaching Out to the Bottom Billion”, it invites practitioners and academicians alike to share insights into the complexities faced when working to improve the quality of process and physical place for the use of the urban and rural poor.  The conference intends to highlight new ideas and fresh approaches to enhance the living standards of the bottom billion and find ways to articulate effective strategies to narrow the gap between the have and the have not.
OBJECTIVE
The objective of this conference is to provide a platform  to academicians, researchers, urban planners, architects, engineers, post-graduates, and those involved in housing, building and planning industries to discuss and share issues in relation to the conference theme.
DISCUSSION TOPICS
Technology for buiding design solutions 
Rediscovering traditional design for the alternative solution
Smart and k-city
Vehicle-free city concept
Heritage Buildings
Indoor Environmental Quality
Site Planning
Building materials and construction 
Energy efficiency in built environment
Renewable energy
Computer Aided Building and Urban Design
Planning design
Water efficiency
Passive design
Issues in hill cuttings and land reclamation
Autonomous buildings
Holistic construction
Culture landscape and agro-tourism 
Liveable City
Crime prevention
Human and social factors
Education in built environment
Maintenance and repair technique


This the link

Sunday, November 6, 2011

Why do terrace houses in Malaysia have back lanes?


Why do we have to have back lanes at the back of terrace houses? Underused and hardly maintained they become a favourite access route for thieves.

Many people say that it's a fire requirement -as access for fire fighting equipment. But if you look up the bye laws you will not find any clause that says so. Fire fighting access is from the main road and that's where thehydtants are located.

Alternatively, people may say that theFire Department requires the rear escape routes as an alternative to escape via the front door. This too is not true. Fire bye laws allow even 5 storey flats to hVe only one escape routes. The same for apartments above shops, which often can carry quite high fire risks,

Another excuse is that the rear lane required to drain surface water and sewerage from the houses. But surface water from the back garden can also be easily piped to the drains in front of the house.

And sewer from the toilets can be easily piped to go to main sewers on the main road as in the case of detached or semi detached houses.

This last answer though, provides a clue. Have a look at this clip from self-styled hero Huang's adventures in a back lane in"Nasi Lemak 2.0":
Walking down a Malaysian back lane - notice the doors...

The fact is sewer lines became common only in the second half of the 20th Century. Before that there was another system which served the terrace houses well enough. If you look at old prewar terrace or shophouses you will see that the toilets were built on high platforms located at the rear. The wc would be a simply a hole above a bucket. Every night, a "night soil" workers would remove the day's deposits and transport them out for recycling (I am told) in gardens that produce sumptuous vegetables.

Many young people of course haven't even heard of the term "night soil", and this sewer system has long been abandoned. But sadly, the practice of building back lanes still persist as if it was still something we cannot do without. You know In the UK there is no tradition or compulsory requirement for backlanes. And, closer to home, there are also non in the Brunei. Why? Well because they are just simply not practically necessary and just waste space. And, of course, they didn't have a "night soil" disposal system.

So in Malaysia, backlanes are an anachronism. Well, at least that's what I think.

Friday, November 4, 2011

Confessions of a Low Cost Architect

I think it was Mark Twain who said something like: "...confession may be good for the soul, but it does hell to your reputation."

So it is with some trepidation that I'm preparing for a talk that I'm to give in another 8 days. This is the flyer for it:



If you're in Kuala Lumpur Saturday 12th and you're free, please come...

Download the Registration Form