Vernacular Architecture: January 2012

Thursday, 5 January 2012

Malay House Poster

Floor Plan

Elevation

Section

Wednesday, 4 January 2012

Building Plans and Layout Design

Interior Layout

Floor Plan

Elevation

Section

Ttraditional houses in Pahang have more common with those of the west coast states, because the Bugis, a seafaring people from Sulawesi built many of the earliest houses. The traditional Malay house in Pahang is known as ‘Rumah Serambi Pahang’. This particular type is increasingly becoming extinct. However, it can still be found in several villages in Pahang. The houses are typically lower to the ground, use smaller timbers and are less elaborately carved but it has a long roof where the gable ends are edged with carvings. It is composed of the main house and kitchen and in between is a passage. The kitchen was design with a jack roof to allow smoke to escape while cooking. It is also includes several other sections. At the front is the verandah followed by the main house, which includes 2 other sections, a raised platform and a living area. The different in terms of section for this house is at the back of the house has a back verandah known as ‘ruang kelek anak’. The kitchen comprises the main kitchen area and a landing for cooking and used as a waiting room for women respectively.

Introduction Of Malay House

Malay houses are traditional dwellings, originating before the arrival of foreign or modern influences, and constructed by the indigenous ethnic Malay and Orang Asli peoples of the Malay Peninsula and their related Bumiputra tribes of East Malaysia.The architectural design of traditional Malay house is very unique. The malay houses look alike but the styles is vary from one another. The different design of the houseis the History and cultural factors influenced. In the early years, most of the traditional Malay house was build near streams and along the coast. Besides as a shelter, it is to fulfill the needs of life such as drawing water for drinking, bathing and washing. The location of the house makes the people aware for flash floods and high tides. Most of the house were raised off the ground on tree trunk or bamboo post which known as stilts because of the reason. Building on stilts was not only dictated by the need to protect against floods but it also afforded protection from ants, snakes and wild animals. Beside that it is used as utility area, serving as storage and ‘workshop space’ for the family. The traditional Malay house belongs to the Malays.

Construction techniques and functional designs

HDB has been proactive in promoting and implementing environmental best practices and measures in its planning, building and development process. Board shifted its concentration in building construction to paying more attention on qualitative improvement on the housing estate. They improved on the quality of design, workmanship and standards of the facilities, and also introduced the concept of Towns, Neighbourhoods and Precincts in its attempt to create better community living. In addition, facilities such as supermarkets, emporiums, sport complexes, indoor stadiums, swimming pools, parks and gardens, and children's playground were also introduced in provision to the concept of self-sufficient new towns. It also includes other Functions such as daily maintenance and upkeeping services, administrative and social services, and community development roles.

HDB Building Plan

HDB will be building blocks with different sizes, lengths, heights, and shapes Block designs are often arranged and provided with common corridors, lifts and staircases. There are mainly 2 common physical forms of block designs used by the HDB. They are the slab block and the point block. Currently, most buildings are straight and simple slab blocks of 10 to 13 storey high, and are served by a single corridor and lift/s. Point blocks are straight, 20 to 25 storey blocks and contain only 5-room flats. They have a central core with lifts and staircase that serve 4 units in each floor and are often arranged in clusters of twos and threes to be identified as landmarks on the site. Today, most 5-room and executive flats are constructed in 10 to 13 storey slab blocks of different shapes and sizes with segmented corridors that serve only a few family units.

There are 3 common features in a residential block. They are the corridors along each floor, the lift lobbies and void decks at the ground level or the first storey.

Evolution and Development of HDB flat design

First generation – Basic design (1960-1966)
The houses were simple slab blocks with exterior corridors. With only one layer of flats being lined along the corridor, each flat was designed to allow cross-ventilation. The principle façade usually faces north-south but the rule was not strictly followed.

Second Generation – Introduction of built form variety (1967-1976)

Height variations were introduced in order to provide more space on the ground level therefore enabling recreational facilities and maintaining the high density of public housing.

In relation to the building and open space, the blocks were aligned in terms of their shapes, heights and positions to create a right enclosure to ground space and also to control the natural lightings.

In addition, void decks were introduced to free dwelling units in 1969. Hence, these ‘void decks’ can be used for other purposes such as shops.

Third Generation – Built form as a means for holistic urban design (1977-1981)

At the level of the precinct, clusters of buildings focus on an activity centre including a children’s playground, games courts and play areas. This gen also emphasized on intermixing the low and high buildings which allows more varied spacing between buildings and the creation of a variety of interesting space.‘Built form’ was also used in the purpose of noise reduction. Lastly from this gen, to create functional and easily identifiable precincts, the site plan of HDB housing was laid out in a checkerboard pattern.

Fourth Generation – First Intensification of land use (1982-1990)

Layouts of residential precincts were made more compact by adopting closer spacing between buildings. The buildings in cellular layouts in smaller clusters of 3 to 4 blocks of buildings comprising a total of 400 to 500 dwelling units instead of 600 to 1000 units applied in the previous generation.

Layout plans in this generation were more rigid and orthogonal, thus tightening of spacing between buildings to increase development intensity and to achieve the new “cell” concept.

This generation end with the adoption of a system of classifying high-rise buildings based on location and urban design principles. The first category consists of special designs for building in good locality and with an excellent view such as those facing the sea or reservoir and those situated at the entrances to new towns, at town centres and at neighbourhood centres. The second category consists of designs for buildings with distinctive forms and located along the perimeters of expressways, major roads and vista points. The third category consists of buildings with basic prototype designs.

Fifth Generation – Diversification of design and designers (1991-now)

The Design-and-Built Scheme in 1991 and the Design Plus scheme in 1995 were introduced. HDB was no longer the sole planning and architectural designers of HDB housing. In 1991/92 under the Design-and-Built Scheme, HDB sets aside land within its new towns for private architects, engineers and contractors to design and build public housing in order to give home buyers a wider choice.

Design diversity was further enhanced in 1997/98 when housing construction under the Punggol 21 plan commenced. One-third of all public housing would be Design-and-Build flats, another one-third would be Design Plus flats, and the rest would be standard HDB flats.

Sixth generation – Further increase in building height and density (1999-now)

This generation is demarcated by further increase in development intensity and building height. To further optimise land use, a feasibility study was carried out to investigate the possibility of building taller HDB apartment blocks. The first 40-storey apartment block was tendered in Toa Payoh in December 2000. The higher plot ratio was achieved through efficient site layout and compact block configuration built to the permitted storey height. Urban Design Framework for new and old towns was formulated to provide directions for the design of the built environment (HDB AR 2005/06). With the Urban Design Framework, it was hoped that consultants would be guided to develop schemes that fit the overall urban design intentions of the town.

History of HDB

The Housing & Development Board was constructed on 1st February 1960 as a statutory body responsible for Singapore's public housing programme. At that time, Singapore faced housing crisis, majority of Singaporeans were living in unhygienic slums and crowded squatter settlements. Therefore, low-cost housing was built for low-income Singaporeans to tackle the massive housing shortage. Since then, HDB has played an important role in the development of Singapore.

By 1965, it had built 54,000 flats. Moving into the seventies, it concentrated on improving housing standards and encouraging home ownership. In the eighties, it set out to build, not just homes, but communities in self-contained towns. In the nineties and beyond, the challenge is for HDB to respond to aspirations for a better quality lifestyle, one that will continue to remain affordable and innovative. Today, about 84 percent of Singaporeans live in HDB flats.