Tuesday, July 17, 2012

Squares Housing in Hulu Selangor - Type C Quadruplex

I am surprised that it's been ten days since the last post! I've been busy again.
But good news - all 46 units of the first phase of the Bernam Jaya Squares project have sold out...
This is more information about this scheme:

TYPE C QUADRUPLEX 

In this development are quadruplex and duplex units. Below is one of the quadruplex housetypes.



The proposed quadruplexes have large front yards. Each lot is 42’x 42’ such that the house can be 32’ wide.and 22’ deep



Unlike terrace houses, the 'Squares' house is not confined by their neighbours on each side. Every unit is a corner unit with more visible external walls for windows to provide light and ventilation.





The 'Square' layout is based on a patent pending concept of a cluster layout design which creates a neighbourhood that is:
  • safe
  • friendly, and
  • green


This is the layout for the following Phase 4B



This is the area breakdown for this housetype:




Wednesday, July 4, 2012

Squares Housing in Hulu Selangor

I'm interrupting my series of posts on Terrace Housing with some relevant breaking news...

This weekend will see the launching of a new housing scheme in Hulu Bernam in the north of Selangor, just across the border from Tanjung Malim in neighbouring state of Perak. This is my first opportunity to showcase a rectilinear version of my original Honeycomb layout.



This idea came about in response objections from builders who would only be comfortable with rectangular shapes and 90 degree angles. But it is also an attempt to find an acceptable form of the Honeycomb cul-de-sac layout that is acceptable to the conservative section of the the Chinese community worried about "feng shui".. Here,
  • there are no dead-ends
  • all houses and rooms are rectangular
  • the overall lot sizes are square
  • the houses have a wide frontage
The 'Squares' housing concept aims to improve the external environment of a housing neighbourhood and at the same time increase green area by reducing the area of surfaced roads whilst reducing traffic to ensure a safer residential area for children, cyclists and pedestrians.






The houses would face a small community park with small birds and large shady rainforest trees, providing a safe playground for young children and encourage sociable neighbourhoods.

This housing concept has been recently adopted by PKNS (Selagor State Economic Development Corpration). This project will offer a variety of affordable alternatives to terrace houses normally available to Malaysians -  from RM260,000 (USD85,000) to RM360,000 (USD120,000).





8 to 22 houses are arranged around a courtyard, essentially like friends sitting around a table, forming a “Village Square”. There are numerous places for children to play. A place friendly to children is friendly to all. The residents would know their neighbours and strangers stand out. Cars automatically slow down in the cul-de-sacs and through traffic is eliminated.







Each house faces a park planted with giant, wide canopy trees that cools the external environment and provides food and habitat for birds and small animals.






The courtyards are linked by footpaths that encourage residents to walk. The proximity of such a pleasant social space to every resident – young, old or disabled – is conducive in fostering a sense of community in this housing scheme.

 Have a look at the layout. You will find quadruplex and duplex units mainly arranged around courtyards:

Tuesday, July 3, 2012

The Terrace House, continued...


The terrace house also lends itself to batch construction methods to build large numbers of housing more cheaply. It has also proved itself to be a desirable upgrade from traditional kampong houses. These advantages have made the terrace houses the most common form of housing in Malaysia.

However, the ubiquitous terrace house plan has been designed and re-designed many times, always within the same restrictive framework without much scope for innovation. The layout also has become stereotyped. In the typical housing estate, the terrace houses are lined up along grid-lines with 40’ service roads in front with much smaller back lanes and side lanes. Communal areas for schools, civic and religions building as well as open areas for children playgrounds and parks are also provided. Despite the infrastructure provided, the design of many housing estates does really meet the practical needs of the average resident. Apart from the aesthetic boredom of rows and rows of houses, among the drawbacks of the terrace house layout is the lack of public security and a genuine sense of community. However, terrace house neighbourhoods have been criticised as being monotonous and hot concrete jungle, lacking a real sense of community.


Figure 2: Terrace house from another British colony - Ireland


 Having previously looked at how to design better walk up low cost flats, I started thinking about how to design a better version of what had become the most common type of house in Malaysia.

Sunday, July 1, 2012

Terrace Housing in Malaysia


In the National Property Information Centre’s (NAPIC) 2007 Residential Property Stock Report, produced quarterly, the residential units available in Malaysia have been listed as the following types :single storey terraced house, double/triple storey terrace house, single storey semi-detached house, double/triple storey semi-detached house, detached house, town house, cluster, low cost house, low cost flat, flat, serviced apartment and condominium or apartment . Figure clearly illustrates that the terrace house is the dominant form of housing in Malaysia.

Figure 1: Summary of Supply of Residential Units by Type in Malaysia – Existing Stock. Source : Residential Property Stock Report – Second Quarter 2007, published by NAPIC.


It was perhaps the most suitable type of house in social and economic terms during the period in Malaysian history, in the 70’s through the 90’s when she experienced an extended housing boom. This happened in many other countries too, like Britain, Ireland, and perhaps, more recently, in Mexico too. This house-type has the advantages of being considered the densest form of landed property development (10 to 16 units an acre). The typical lot varies from 16’ x 50’ to 24’ x 100’, but the most common lots now are between 20’ x 65’ and 22’ x 70’. The terrace house type has proved itself sufficiently flexible as to be able to cater for low end, medium cost as well as high priced housing.