Adapting Traditional Malay House for Low Energy Buildings

Iranica Journal of Energy & Environment 3 (Special Issue on Environmental Technology): 19-23, 2012 ISSN 2079-2115 IJEE an Official Peer Reviewed Journal of Babol Noshirvani University of Technology DOI: 10.5829/idosi.ijee.2012.03.05.04 BUT

Re-adaptation of Malay House Thermal Comfort Design Elements into Modern Building Elements – Case Study of Selangor Traditional Malay House & Low Energy Building in Malaysia Nur Hidayahtuljamilah Ramli

Postgraduate Studies, Faculty of Architecture, Planning & Surveying, Universiti Teknologi MARA (UiTM), 40450 Shah Alam, Selangor, Malaysia Abstract: The traditional Malay house is one of the richest components of Malay’s cultural heritage in Malaysia.

Generally, the traditional Malay house is a reflection of the Malay community’s way of living. With greater global awareness of the environment and a renewed perspective on contemporary Malaysian architecture, architects and designers are once again looking for tropical solutions in building design. One of the main characteristics of traditional Malay house is that they are designed with a deep understanding and respect for nature, but this designwith-nature approach is no longer found in the modern buildings.

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The purpose is therefore to study the thermal comfort design elements such as building orientation, interior layout space, natural ventilation and lighting, window designs, and stack effect on the roof design.

The investigation was carried out through observations, interviews and some research visits. A comprehensive research was accomplished on the adaptation of Malay house architecture elements with selected the Selangor traditional Malay house as the key study and one modern building which is the Ministry of Energy, Green Technology & Water (MEGTW) building, Putrajaya.

This study attempts to have recorded information for those who are interested and for the future generation because the traditional Malay house was evolved by the Malays over generations, adapting to their needs, culture and environment. This study is crucial to revive the awareness in the understanding and appreciation of the technique of thermal comfort design elements of traditional Malay house adapted into modern building design. Key words: Design elements; Green building; Thermal comfort; Traditional Malay house.

INTRODUCTION

The purpose of this study is to investigate the readaptation of Malay house on thermal comfort design elements in Selangor traditional Malay house into low energy buildings in Malaysia which is the MEGTW building in Putrajaya. The elements such as building orientation, interior layout space, natural ventilation and lighting, window designs, and stack effect on the roof design will be discussed in this paper. This process of identifying the thermal comfort design elements is crucial to understand how the vernacular architecture was built in deep understanding of Malaysian equatorial climate and how Malaysian designers and architects nowadays re-adapted the thermal comfort design elements into new modern building in order to maintain the thermal comfort of the building occupants. Traditional Malay House: The traditional Malay house is one of the richest components of Malaysia’s cultural heritage. A house was designed and built by the users themselves – the Malays in Malaysia – Corresponding Author:

according to their own needs and with a good understanding of nature and environment, incorporating and reflecting their way of life and culture [1, 2]. Furthermore, the design and the construction process in terms of energy efficiency, the indoor environmental qualities, sustainable site planning, the materials and resources used have always been essential aspects related to traditional Malay architectural practice. The Malay house is a perfect vernacular architecture in the past that is environmentally sustainable [2]. Traditional Malay houses have thermal comfort elements such as the use of local materials, the house orientation, high pitch roof-as stack effect function also as solar shading devices, raise on stilts-to capture high-velocity of air movement, and plenty of windows and openings-to allow more natural lighting and natural ventilation. The successful designs of the traditional Malay house in relation to the environmental aspects have made one wonder that Malay people in the past seemed to understand bioclimatic design more compared to the recent building development [3].

Low Energy Building: On October 18, 2005 the Prime Minister of Malaysia has stated on the strategy to counter oil prices spiraling with some efforts to be undertaken to encourage more buildings to use the low Therefore, the Ministry of Energy, Green Technology and Water (MEGTW) building was designed and built by the government with technical input on Energy Efficiency from DANIDA (Danish International Development Assistance) starting in March 2002 and was completed in September 2004. This building is a National Demonstration project and it’s aimed to promoting energy efficiency (EE) in buildings, and the project is part of a wider program aimed at developing the capacity of the Malaysian building industry in EE building design [6]. After the construction was completed, the MEGTW has demonstrated integration of the best energy efficiency measures towards achieving the overall best cost-effective building. Malaysian Climate: Malaysia is situated in the equatorial region, the climate characteristics are uniform temperature, high humidity and copious rainfall. Winds are generally light.

Proximity to the sea and an equatorial location generate a warm and humid climate, which is constant throughout the year [4]. The Malaysian climate can be classified as warmhumid equatorial, characterized by high temperatures and humidity. Air temperature averages between 22 and 32 degree Celsius with small annual and diurnal ranges [1]. Today, the Malaysian Meteorological Department (MMD) under the Ministry of Science, Technology and Innovation (MOSTI) has claimed that the average air temperature in most cities in Malaysia has increased. In two decades, the average air temperature has increased from the minimum of 22 degree to 24 degree and the maximum of the air temperature had reached 34 degree Celsius [5]. This result shows that Malaysian climate has been changing starting from 1990 until 2010.

Therefore, architects and designers in this country should learn from ancestors and re-adapt the thermal comfort design elements from traditional Malay house as an important element that should be considered in designing modern building in Malaysia. METHOD Site Observation: Site observation provides the primary data for the study since it is first hand information gained through this analysis. This research first observed the Selangor traditional Malay house to study about the thermal comfort design element of the house. For example the house orientation, how the Malays arrange the interior layout space, how they design the fenestration to gain more natural ventilation and lighting, the windows design, and stack effect on the roof design.