ARCHITECTURE INSIDE OUT
By MOHAMAD TAJUDDIN MOHAMAD RASDI | Sep 13, 2009

Take care of the basics

Continuing his focus on how design policy can help achieve 1Malaysia, our columnist discusses universal needs that must be provided for in our housing estates.

I WILL now touch on the provision of basic human needs. These are needs that transcend race, politics and religion.

For instance, any human being would worry about children’s safety and crime; we would all certainly need to stay cool in this tropical climate of ours; and we all need room to store things, to dry things; and we want to be able to continue living comfortably when we are sick, or disabled.

Keeping them safe

There are three particular dangers I would like to point out that our children face in local housing developments: death from falling from windows or corridors of high rise flats; traffic fatalities while walking to school or to the playground; the danger – so often realised of late! – of being kidnapped off the streets in broad daylight.

To address these dangers, housing policies should require:

·That all high rise housing incorporate safety design features to prevent children from falling; some simple solutions would be to extend floor slabs (beyond the balcony or corridor) by a minimum of 1m or have a trellis that could also act as a sun shade and means of drying clothes.

·That children can access schools and playgrounds by foot and without having to cross roads. The developer must be required to demonstrate that a child of 12 years and less can walk to the area’s school and playground without crossing a road. If there are roads, the developer must demonstrate there are adequate bridges, crossing lights, humps, and other safety features.

·That the paths children normally take to schools, playgrounds, shops and other community facilities are not hidden. This can be done by ensuring there are structures and facilities – that would be in use in the daytime and not remain empty, as most houses would – overlooking the street. Houses should be clustered and schools re-scaled so that there is one within 15 minutes’ walk from most houses in the area. It would also help if all house designs incorporate a usable serambi (verandah) – not a car porch – in front allowing anyone seated in it to have full view of the street.

When walking is difficult

Both high rises and landed property give very little consideration to the old and infirm. With a growing “grey” population as well as the increasingly early onset of ailments such as stroke or knee problems, many residents end up virtually trapped in their homes.

The following are some of the housing policies that would take these concerns into consideration:

·Walk-up flats must have at least one two-person lift set aside for the old and disabled and whose use is governed by smart cards issued only to the needy.

·The design of landed property that is more than a single storey high must allow for at least one bedroom and bathroom on the ground floor, and must include space for a personal lift to be installed if the owner so decides.

The simple things in life

It’s amazing how even some of the most basic and common sense needs are not taken into consideration in modern housing developments. These include:

·Gender space – The two-bedroom apartment is not practical for families, as it would not cater to the need to separate male and female children. Not being able to do so would disrupt our cultural values.

·Drying – Most apartments have inadequate drying space, if there’s any provided at all nowadays. A back serambi of at least 2.5 sq m should be considered. Front corridors can also be made into drying areas with the proper balustrade designs and extended floor slabs to catch drips. The kolong, or open ground floor, would be an option for first- and second-floor occupants. For third- and fourth-floor occupants of low-rise apartments, the roof could provide extra drying space.

·Storage – Storage space in today’s flats and high rises is seriously inadequate, especially compared with the excellently designed Jabatan Kerja Raya-built police barracks of old where each apartment came with an almost 2m by 2.5m storage space on the ground floor.

·Thermal comfort – Structures with all-masonry walls with few fenestrations absorb heat and do not allow air to circulate. Instead of sticking to concrete boxes, housing designs should emulate those old JKR barracks with their timber walls over a reinforced concrete structural frame, generous fenestration in their louvred walls, and ribbon fins as well as gaps between walls of rooms to maximise air flow.

Killing crime

Crime occurs in housing estates that have the following features: A centralised community area; isolated streets with terrace housing of middle income to high income grouping; a smooth escape route of grid-iron streets; isolated back alleys; commercial and residential areas that are isolated from one another; few community or public amenities and furniture; non-pedestrianised streets; fenced-up community building designs.

Such features mean that the community presence on the streets would be scarce – and remember: quiet, unobserved streets practically invite crime.

The simple objective of safety planning is to increase street surveillance, by creating houses that have “eyes on the street” and by creating facilities that would encourage people to come out of their houses and mix and mingle with others.

Thus the policies with respect to crime should be as follows:

·Houses should be designed with a front serambi that would allow residents to view the street in front.

·Fences of community facilities should not be too visually closed up.

·Streets should be pedestrianised with paving and residents should be encouraged to linger under shady trees and on public seating.

·Instead of rows of terrace houses, they should be designed in a U shape with no more than 30 houses per cluster so residents can keep an eye on each other’s houses.

·There should be many community buildings such as mosques, hawker stalls, kindergartens, branch libraries, badminton courts, basketball courts, kiosks, newsstands, and others – spread out, not centralised in one area.

·House owners should be given permission to operate small businesses on their premises, such as barber or sundry shops, food stalls, launderettes, and similar commercial businesses that do not intrude too much on the acoustic and visual privacy of other residents. This would encourage mingling.

I think that housing estates that do not consider all these basic needs should be deemed unfit for modern and democratic Malaysians. Surely it is a fundamental human right to be able to live with basic needs catered to?

Universiti Teknologi Malaysia lecturer Prof Dr Mohamad Tajuddin passionately believes that architectural design that respects cultural values, religious sensitivities and the ideals of democracy is vital to nation-building and harmony.