A lot of the story happens in Malaysia, a middle income country where its population has come a long way from a mainly poor existence in the countryside to a modern urbanized one. A familiar trajectory (albeit compressed) to that experienced by developed countries in the West, and one that less developed countries might want to follow. They shouldn’t have to; they can copy its best parts, avoid the mistakes, and perhaps even leapfrog to the best and most advanced solutions.
So on to the next topic and the question of how to overcome the problem of providing housing for the poor:
A Low cost architect
Research
My starting point in research
was in low cost housing. I had always been interested in ways to make it
possible for the poor to own their own home. Research meant experimenting with
designing new layouts, even when there was no client.
Most walk-up
apartments in Malaysia can be described as slab blocks. In a paper written in
2000 I argued that the point block low rise apartment is not only more
aesthetically pleasing and socially functional, it is also an economically
viable alternative.
In the previous
six years, I had attempted to design low
cost and low-medium cost housing that met the strict cost limits required by
developers, the rules set by government authorities, and the same time achieve
the aesthetic and social aims of my practice.
My firm approached
this problem by designing and refining generic designs capable of being applied
across the various sites, requirements and parameters of different projects.
Slab versus Point
Blocks
In particular, we
promoted the point-block low-rise apartment as a generic design which is
superior to the ubiquitous slab block low rise apartment.
Against to the
point-block, the slab block certainly looks cheaper. And therefore it is
cheaper goes the implicit commonsense logic. I challenged that common sense
conclusion.
I worked with the concept of
compact point blocks that have only 4 to eight units that shave only a single
staircase and access lobby on every floor, resulting in a minimal amount of
circulation space.
Figure 3: Perspective of a point
block
Figure 4: Floor and site plans of point block apartments
The point block
walk-up apartment comprises a single staircase in the core and four or more
units around that central staircase. Every unit is a corner unit. The point
blocks that we’ve designed certainly do not look cheap but there are specific
and verifiable reasons why point blocks are cost-effective:
Figure 5: Site plan of an octagonal point block
Density (units/acre)
Land is an
important cost factor in housing. Commonly it is 10% - 20% of the total
development cost of a mixed housing project. The accepted density for low-cost
low rise apartments (in most States in Malaysia )is 60 units/acre. lt is not
easy to achieve this density in an aesthetically pleasing and socially
acceptable manner. You can maximise units for any given plot of land by using
bigger blocks. Right? Well, not always
true.
It you have two
similar round vessels of say 1 cubic meter capacity each and fill one vessel
with large stones and the other vessel with small pebbles which vessel would
contain more material? The vessel with the small pebbles will have more
material. There would be less spaces between the pebbles compared with the
bigger stones. In a similar manner, small blocks can fill up a site better than
standard slab blocks. This tends to be true for big sites, especially sites
with irregular shape. In the case of small sites, blocks designed to the shape
of the land do better.
Space efficiency (net sellable area / gross area):
Small point blocks
are more efficient compared to slab blocks. In particular the corridor is
eliminated and the staircase and landing area is minimal. It is usual for point
blocks to have 60% or less of corridor and staircase space per unit. It is not
in typical for slab block with double loading corridors' to have 76sf (7sm)
external circulation space per unit. Slab block with single loading corridors
can have external circulation space 96sf (9sm) or more per unit. Architects
sometimes think that the more units share staircases, the more cost effective
the design, but the corridors that lead to the staircases also add cost.
Figure 6: Floor plan of an octagonal point block
Internal layout efficiency
This is about
maximising space usage in units. In the point block generic design, every unit
is a corner unit. There is a cost penalty tor this - there is less shared walls
between units and there is less shared beams and columns. However there is a
benefit - less shared walls means more external walls, and with more external
walls for light and ventilation it is easier to design efficient and functional
rooms. In our point block designs we try to maximise usable space and minimise
circulation space. In intermediate units of slab blocks, external wall is at a
premium. Voids have to be cut out in the interior of the block to provide
windows to receive what little light and ventilation these air wells can
provide. Or else, the exterior elevations require deep indents to bring in
light and ventilation to the middle areas.
Figure 7: The floor plans of a slab block versus a point block apartment
The depth of the
units, often long in relation to the width, results in long circulation spaces
required to access the outer rooms. This layout also involves other substantial
compromises in functional design. Firstly, entrances are invariably at the
dining area near the kitchen. This is not functional but seems to be the
accepted standard even for medium to high cost apartments. Secondly, there will
be some bedrooms, the kitchen, drying yard and some toilets which will have to
make do with light and ventilation from air wells. Thirdly, entering the
apartment from where the kitchen and drying yard is situated creates the
impression of entering a home from its backyard. Fourthly, bedrooms are
difficult to cluster together in a private zone separate from the semiprivate
living and dining areas.
We have found that
with point -blocks that have square plan-forms and ample external walls, the
abovementioned compromises can be overcome circulation space can be minimised.
In fact corridors can be eliminated.
Block footprint
One of the reasons
why the point block is able match the density of the slab block is its
efficient footprint, There are no internal voids, and the generally we aim for
shapes that fit well in a circle. But a small footprint has its own rewards.
This has to do with earthworks and the building foundation. Blocks with small
footprints require small earth platforms. Blocks with big footprints require
larger earth, platforms. A series of small earth platforms generally involve
less volume then a series of larger platforms cut out from the same original
slope profile. From the same illustration it is also intuitively clear that
easier to arrange point blocks to sit on cut ground than it is to arrange slab
blocks to meet this same requirement. Having original ground to sit on rather
than fill ground can save a lot in foundation costs. Of course slab blocks can
be arranged along contours to minimise earthworks, though this limits the
flexibility of the layout and is not effective where the land slope in two
directions. Another possibility is to stagger the slab block down the slope,
this requires retaining walls or stilts which again adds cost, and reduces
standardisation.
Figure 8: Point block versus a slab block on a slope
Therefore it can
be said that generally point blocks with smaller footprints than slab blocks
provide greater flexibility in external layout design, requiring less
earthworks and lower foundation costs.
Figure 9: Bird's eye view of an apartment complex for 5000 students
Many variants of this house
type got built including a student apartment complex in Batang Berjuntai, in
Selangor, Malaysia. I should add that in the end, only a small percentage of
the apartments that I got built were actually in the low cost category, which,
I will explain later is no bad thing.
In the 1990's I had my first
big break the Malaysian government embarked on an attempt to rekindle the low
cost housing program which had stalled somewhat. I received a few large
commissions, and this gave me my first research budget, and the prospect of
having tens of thousands of these units built in the period of a few years.
However, the East Asian financial crisis in 1998 resulted in many of these
projects being shelved. This for me was a blessing in disguise. I now think
that many of these schemes would have ended as slums.
I apologize of course for the
inadequacy of my work, but I can say that it was all not my fault: I can share
the blame with the social housing policy and the widely held views and common
practice amongst architects and town planners.
3 comments:
Brilliant! :-)
Your blog is an inspiration to those of us who still care about designing solutions for housing the majority population. Thank you, and please keep it up!
Louise
http://icehk.com/
Your blog is an inspiration to those of us who still care about designing solutions for housing the majority population. Thank you, and please keep it up!
Louise
http://icehk.com/
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