TESSELLATION PLANNING

AND

HONEYCOMB HOUSING

Mazlin Ghazali and Mohd. Peter Davis

admin@tessellar.com

Copyright June 2003 - September 2004

TESSELLATION
PLANNING

Fly over the country and

you will see rows and
rows of houses. Is there
another way to lay out
buildings?

We present here a new

method of subdividing
land for housing that, we
believe, produces better
social, environmental and
aesthetic outcomes, but in
a way that uses land
more efficiently.

It was conceived as a
practical and economic
substitute to the terrace
house, but it can also be
seen to be an alternative Honeycomb housing: Creating communities in harmony with nature;
to row housing and the designing homes in a naturally efficient way
linear approach to
planning.
Conventional row housing
and the linear approach to
planning

Dwellings can be arranged

on individual plots of land as
detached units or linked to
each other. Detached or
linked they line up along
streets to form row housing.
In a row house, owners of
individual plots of landed
property maintain sole
occupancy rights.

Orthogonal grids have been

used as the fundamental tool
for subdividing land. Linear
roads provide roads to
individually owned plots of
land. Roads and gridlines
may be distorted by design
or necessity but retains
their linear nature.
Gridlines and the linear approach
Terrace housing

Terrace housing has been long been considered the

densest form of landed property development
possible. Not only in Malaysia but all over the world.
Here in Malaysia it is the terrace house that
predominates. 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 ubiquitous
terrace house plan has been designed and re-
designed many times but 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. 1
Current alternatives to
terrace housing
Trying to improve the
monotony of housing in rows,
planners have devised
various strategies:
Strata-title development
Groups of houses share
ownership of the communal
facilities allowing greater
freedom in designing the
access routes and common
facilities allowing high
densities.
The Desa Park Homes
development is an example
of this type of approach. It is
able to achieve as good
densities as a conventional
terrace house layout.
However, strata- titles are
not considered as valuable
as land titles.
Organic Layouts
Following the trend from more
developed countries, local
planners have
devised ”organic” layouts
where winding roads and
occasional cul-de-sacs break De sa Par k
the boredom of the iron grid,
but density is sacrificed. A
Guthrie development at Bukit
Jelutong is an example of this
trend. But the houses there
cost RM500,000 or more.
ClusteredLayouts
Similarly the cluster approach
can produce interesting
outcomes but, in most cases,
loses out on efficiency.
The circular clustering of
houses at Brondby near
Copenhagen in Denmark
shows a wide expanse of green
area between the clusters.
Honeycomb housing

Using the tessellation

method of planning, all the
houses are built around
small parks with large shade
trees in hexagonal cul-de-
sacs, which efficiently
interlock to form townships
similar to a bees’
honeycomb.
Tessellation

In mathematics, to tessellate means to

cover a plane with a pattern without
gaps or overlap. For centuries artists
and craftsmen have used tessellations
as a tool to create visual effects on
surfaces.
Tiling is the most common form of
tessellation. Regular tessellations occur
when the tiles are regular polygons and
they are the simplest form
The Muslim craftsmen in Spain in the
15th century created beautifully
complex visual effects by tessellating a
small simple basic tile pattern. Intricate
and complex designs can be built-up
from basic tile patterns in a simple way
by this process.
We apply this creative mathematical
technique to town–planning. In
Honeycomb housing, the creative
power of tessellation is applied to town
planning, where the colours are not
merely decorative but represent
functional space.
 Segments of the tile

A small triangular tile, the Conjoined house/garden tiles form the

mother-tile, is the basic building
block that creates the
honeycomb layout. It contains
three requisite elements of a
township layout:
• road
• House & garden
• Public area
basis of new house types. Linked
Honeycomb houses ideally join back
to back and are accessed from
different cul-de-sacs. This is the case
of the duplex and triplex. But they can
also link side to side at the same time,
as in the case of the quadruplex and
sextuplex.

We call these colored segments,

daughter-tiles. The mother-tiles
and close variations of it
tessellate according to simple
rules to form what seems a
complex and intricate pattern.
When tessellating, daughter-tiles
meet and link up with similar
ones in adjoining tiles. The same
colored daughter tiles form
conjoined-tiles. It is the complex
shapes of these interlocking
daughter tiles that we see: not
the simplicity of the triangular
grid.
Designing the courtyard tile
A courtyard tile containing the
planning elements necessary to
form a small community is
created by tessellating the
mother-tiles to form a hexagon.
Designing bigger
neighbourhoods
When the courtyard tile is
tessellated, the roads are linked to
create a bigger neighbourhood
without loss of efficiency.

Communal space is created in Opportunities to link dwelling units

the middle, surrounded by the into multi-unit blocks exist along
houses. The road accesses the the tile boundaries.
individual units internally and
creates an extremely efficient
circulation system.

Through design, we have created

a spatial boundary, a central area
that can become the communal
focus, and a sense of entry into
this place. The design is such that
there is a clear, common
perception of the cluster as a
‘homezone’, a UK term denoting
the smallest neighbourhood.
Social aspect of
Honeycomb housing
Using the tessellation
method of planning, houses
are built around a small park
with large shady trees in a
cul-de-sac: this communal
garden, easily accessible to
all, acts as a social focus for
a small, friendly
neighbourhood and is a
defensible space designed
to naturally reduce crime.
The short winding roads
reduce traffic speed so that
urban areas become safe
and pleasant for children and
pedestrians, encouraging
outdoor social interaction
and the development of a
community.
Cars versus pedestrians
Planners have long realized
the negative effect of fast
moving traffic to
neighbourhoods.
Radburn in New Jersey, built over
70 years ago in the US, is the
prototype for the separation of
pedestrians from traffic. Delft in the
Netherlands, built in the 1960’s, is
one of the first examples where the
roads are designed with traffic-
calming features to slow down
vehicles.2
In Honeycomb Housing the network
of roads comprises looping cul-de-
sacs and short connecting roads
leading to distributor roads.
This road pattern slows down traffic
naturally rendering it safe for
pedestrians.
The short connecting road with no
access to houses provides space
for visitors’ parking.e-sacs and short
connecting roads leading to
distributor roads
Defensible Space

The issue of public security in

residential areas is a hot current
topic. The concept of Defensible
Space3 with hierarchy of private
space, semi-private space and
public space, after 30 years, is
already widely accepted.
Residents must be allowed to
exercise influence over the
environment just outside their
homes: visitors should know
when they are entering a semi-
private domain.
Environmental design can assist
in providing natural surveillance
of the external spaces. The
Honeycomb layout can be seen
as a technique to design
townships where every house lies
in a cul-de-sac which naturally
produces defensible spaces.
Furthermore it completely
eliminates back-lanes from where
70% of break-ins in Malaysia
originate.4
Creating Communities

The outdoor space between In Honeycomb housing the

buildings is an important neighbourhood contains only 5 to
arena for social interaction. 40 units defined clearly by the
Social contact and single access road and the
spontaneous interaction are communal courtyards. It is easier
important building blocks to recognize each other, to get
towards creating a sense of acquainted, to form informal social
community. The creation of groups and to initiate collective
a safe, pleasant and shady action.
area of suitable size, just
outside the home, is a basic
feature of Honeycomb
housing. The central
courtyard becomes the
social focus of the
neighbourhood. In this
location it is accessible to
all to enjoy, the very young,
the old and the disabled.
Sociologists find that
individuals relate better to
small groups rather than
large
Play areas for small children

The growing up process of the When he is finally old enough

Play is an important arena for to go out unaccompanied by an
kampong childhood that Lat,s
learning. In the growing up process, adult it is too big a transition.
cartoons vividly describe is
the child becomes more and more
now just a memory for city
independent of the parent, The space outside the home,
dwellers.
exploring first the spaces around easily overseen by parents
The problem with the typical
the mother and progressing to other should be made conducive to
Malaysian situation is that the
rooms in the house, the front yard play and the growing up
process of exploring new
and so on. The opportunity for process. Play areas with
territory independent of the
exploring new environment is best football fields some minutes
parent stops at the front gate.
presented in small discreet steps so away from the home do not
Beyond that is not considered
that children can explore them at serve this function.
safe.
their own pace. 5
The Environmental aspect
of Honeycomb housing

Tessellation planning makes

undulating land suitable for
high-density landed property
development with less cut and
fill. Big trees in the cul-de-
sacs provide cooling shade;
they also serve as source of
food and habitat for small
birds and animals.

Sloping sites
To build long rows of terrace
houses cheaply require hills to
be cut and streams to be filled.
Honeycomb link units have
compact footprints that allow
more level changes to be
placed between the block. In
this respect their shape is very
much like big detached
houses, and it is evident from
existing that the typical
developer flattens large
expanses of land for his
terrace houses, but lets the
bungalows go up and down to
better suit the original
contours.
Bringing nature into
townships
The road shoulder with its
cables and pipes are not
suitable for trees: but big
shady species can thrive in
the small communal
gardens of fhoneycomb
Housing. The clearing of
trees to create concrete
jungles are the main
contribution to the heat-
island effect. Maximizing
the tree canopy area is the
strategy used in
Honeycomb housing to
minimise the heat island
effect.
Linking the small islands of
green via the footpath
landscaping and the private
gardens will encourage
biological diversity.
Wildlife technology to be
developed further by UPM
will introduce suitable
species of butterflies, birds
and small mammals to
make the Honeycomb
Township its home.6

With the profusion of big

trees, small trees and
shrubs, we can start
thinking of landscaping not
only in terms of beautifying
the environment but as a
source of food and habitat
for small animals.
Aesthetic Aspect

Tessellation planning allows

new townships to break free
from the mental grid-lock that
produces rigid rows of housing
without any cost penalty. To
most architects, designing yet
another terrace house is a
boring chore. Honeycomb DETACHED
housing with its novel house
types represents a new
refreshing challenge for
architects.
They lead to new house types
with wider, more articulated
frontages; where linked units
like the duplex and triplex give
the impression of being
detached units viewed from the
entrance of each house.
The quadruplex and sextuplex
give the impression of being
semi-detached units. These new
forms give architects more room
for creativity.

DUPLEX TRIPLEX
A strong sense of Make one wrong turn and it is Using the tessellation method,
location easy to compound this error we can adopt a strategy to make
with other mistakes which it easy for people to navigate the
The home is often the takes you further and further streets and not to have to worry
family’s biggest away from where we actually about getting lost.
investment: its resale want to go.
value is affected most
by its location. A home
in a private and
exclusive location, set in
mature and lush
landscape, and within a
nice friendly
neighbourhood will fetch
higher resale values.

Hierarchy of roads
It is very easy to get
totally lost when looking
for a house in the typical
Malaysian township.

SEXTUPLEX QUADRUPLEX
Hierarchy of roads

In the example shown, there is Miss a turning on the

one main entrance road which circular road, and we just
leads to a circular road which have to keep going until we
dominates the 50 acre site. get back to the junction
Jalan 1 leads to Lekok 2 and again. Errors are not
Lingkaran 3. compounded. The system
is self correcting.
These are the distribution
roads. The houses are in the
cul-de-sacs which are
accessed from these main
roads.

Along Lingkaran 3 branch out

Desa 1/3, Desa 2/3, Desa 3/3
and so on. From Lekok 2 we
can get to Lekok1/2.

The fact that the smaller roads

do not connect to other small
roads means that if we make a
wrong turn into one of them, we
go out the way we came.
Apartments
Tessellation planning can
also be applied to the layout
of apartments, where the
units cluster around the
central lobby of each block
and the blocks, in turn, are
arrayed around a central
courtyard which contains the
driveway, car parks and a
central garden.
The Economic Given a fixed area and
Aspect of number of houses to
Honeycomb housing access, the shorter the
cul-de-sac, the less the
The terrace house can area taken up by the road.
be seen as a row of A square cul-de-sac
houses surrounded by neighbourhood has less
roads. In contrast, road area than a long
Honeycomb houses rectangular one.
surround the road. It is The circular one by itself
easy to understand would be the most efficient.
intuitively that roads However, as we have
accessing internally seen from the example
are more efficient than from Brondby, Denmark,
roads accessing units the circle does not
from the external tessellate.
boundary. This The hexagonal
accounts for the neighbourhoods interlock
efficiency of cul-de- each other without gap or
sacs. overlap.
The second consideration is
the length of the distribution
roads that encircle a
precinct. The perimeter of
an hexagonal precinct is 7%
shorter than the perimeter of
a square one.

The third factor is the shape

of the individual lot and its
effect on the Buildable
footprint after taking into
setback requirements. In the
example shown, the
truncated triangle shape of
6000 square feet yields a
higher plinth area compared
to a typical 60 feet x 100
feet site.

Notice how the improvement

in plinth area accompanies
a considerable aesthetic
improvement.

From narrow frontage to wide

REDUCING ROADS AND IMPROVING
LAND-USE EFFICIENCY
The basic neighbourhood comprising 5 and
16 units of quadriplexes and duplexes is
compared with a terrace house arrangement
of an equivalent 5 and16 units of terrace
houses. It is demonstrated in the table below
that the honeycomb layout is more land-use
efficient.
A similar comparison between 2 and 8 units
of detached units of terrace and Honeycomb
layouts respectively comes to the same
conclusion.
Comparisons of private and public green
areas, and of potential tree canopy areas
also yielded interesting results.
 TERRACE HOUSING
Showing 288 houses
Low-medium cost d/s
1200sf, 18’ frontage
3 bedrooms

HONEYCOMB HOUSING
Showing 258 houses
Low-medium cost d/s
1200sf
3 Bedrooms
Proof of concept

Presenting our ideas to various They gave out questionnaires Another survey on attendees of a
people in the housing industry, we after a 15 minute explanation at seminar on ‘Lightweight Steel for
our booth,.
find that most warm to our ideas. From 116 respondents 79% Residential Construction’ yielded
However, doubts are often agreed that they similar results.
expressed as to whether others in ‘liked to live in a tessellation
the industry or consumers can housing scheme’. From 69
accept this radically new concept. members of the Housing
Furthermore, many also are Developers who responded to a
skeptical about our claims on the questionnaire given out after a
improvement in land-use efficiency, 60 minute presentation, 78%
and expect such ‘complicated’ agreed to the statement that
layouts to be more expensive. ‘tessellation layouts are
Certainly, we agree that our claims desirable’.
on the cost savings are counter
intuitive.
Consumer and industry surveys

Reaction to Honeycomb housing

has been tested through surveys.
UPM undertook a targeted
consumer survey at an exhibition of
houses for sale.
Mathematical model

Distances and areas of a

Tessellation Layout and an
equivalent Terrace Layout
were expressed in terms of
c
variables x, y, etc. a
Using formulae from the
Pythagoras Theorem and the
Solution to Quadratic
Equations, a mathematical
model of the two alternatives
was built up. We then track
b
how land-use efficiency and
density vary as a range of Quadratic
buildable footprint areas of the Equations:
two alternatives are input.
Ax2+Bx+C
We were able to prove that
Tessellation layouts reduce the Pythagoras
total area of roads, thereby Theorem:
resulting in more saleable land,
and lowering infrastructural
cost. We also showed that
C2=A2+B2
densities can be improved.
Land-use efficiency and
density

By varying the inputs we can

see the result on the outputs
and capture this on a graph.
We can show that within
practical limits, the sextuplex in
a honeycomb layout is always
more land-use efficient and
dense than the terrace house

Infrastructure

By going through the same

process with the length of
service mains we found big
reductions in the quantity of
roads and drains.

We found some increase in the

cost of sewerage but overall,
there is a substantial reduction
in Infrastructure costs.
IT aspect and prototype
software
The industry-standard method
of designing housing layout is
largely an intuitive process. The
design and drawing of a
housing layout is required
before a feasibility study can be
done and the first solution is
very unlikely to be satisfactory.
The search for an optimal
solution involves a lot of hard
work with multiple iterations
between layout drawings and
feasibility studies and is often
not fully done.
By contrast, the tessellation
method of planning involves
geometrical manipulation that
can be captured by
mathematical formulae and a
set of algorithms that can be
programmed.
Proposed systematic
computer-aided process
Thus, a key feature of the
tessellation method of planning
is the fact that it makes possible
an application software that can
rapidly produce a feasibility
model that can handle what-if
questions to reach an optimal
layout proposal.
A further capability is the
almost automatic production of
a drawing of that layout.
There is no similar software in
the market that provides these
capabilities based on the
conventional method of design.
The application software
described may become a
compelling alternative to the
current slow and laborious
intuitive method.
Using the mathematical model
and employing a set of
algorithms, and partly funded by
Malaysian Venture Capital Bhd,
we have produced:
• A prototype of software that can
rapidly produce a feasibility
model that is able to handle
what-if questions to reach an
optimal layout proposal without
drawing a layout plan first.
Density and percentage sellable
land are calculated based on the
mathematical model.
• AUTOCAD add-on tools that
simplify and speed-up the
drawing of tessellation layout.
Our near term objective is to be
able to produce a preliminary
feasibility study during an hour-
long consultation, followed by a
detailed tessellation housing
layout 6 hours later.
 PROJECTS

400 ACRE PLOT 9 PUNCAK ALAM

Projects Universiti Industri Selangor Grobina

From case studies and using the This is a prototype tessellation We are working on an 8 acre
feasibility planner, we are able to layout applied to student housing site in Durian Tunggal,
show developers that they are in Berjuntai Bestari, Selangor. Melaka for medium cost
able to improve their sales Five storey walk-up apartments housing.
revenue from the increase in for 5000 students are laid out on
sellable land and units, and a hexagonal and pentagonal grid
reduce their costs by cutting creating the cul-de-sac courtyards.
down the amount of roads and The construction work is already
drains to be constructed. We are 80% complete and CF is
already working as consultants expected by February 2005
on real sites to realize the first before the students move in.
tessellation developments.
.
Puncak Alam
We are working on the layout of
a 400 acre mixed development
site north of Shah Alam. The
proposal includes low and low
medium cost apartments,
medium to high medium cost
attached housing, industrial and
commercial properties and the
full range of amenities that make
up a township.
Research and Development
Tessellation Planning can be
seen to be an invention and
we have taken steps to apply
for patents in Malaysia and
Australia. The breakthrough
came over a year ago after
eight years of working on the
concept of generic designs for
housing. Since then, we have
not only worked hard on
rapidly commercializing the
invention, but have also spent
considerable resources in
exploring the more long term
possibilities. An important
feature is the collaboration
between UPM and Arkitek M.
Ghazali. Peter Davis, Visiting
Scientist at the Institute of
Advanced Technology is
working on finding solutions to
the problems of rapid
urbanization in developing
countries.
The successful urbanization of
the Malaysian population has
become an inspiration to other
developing countries. In just
two generations the rural
society has been transformed
into a predominantly urban
society providing vastly
improved incomes, health,
nutrition, housing and
education. However there
have been negative side
effects to rapid urbanization.
But these side effects are not
inevitable. Our current work
can help improve the
urbanization process in
Malaysia and other developing
countries.
Apart from R&D work in the
core field of tessellation
planning, further research in
complementary fields like
thermal comfort technology,
wild-life technology, and
building systems are already
under way.
The combination of these
mature and emerging
technologies have strong appeal
as evidenced by data from the
surveys mentioned above. The
response to the question on the
desirability of “thermal comfort
honeycomb housing” from all
three surveys have been almost
unanimous!
The next step
We believe that there are
commercially feasible
technological solutions that can
improve the homes and
townships we live in. We want
to spread our new ideas to as
many people as possible so that
these ideas can be put into
practice. We will be offering to
license our proprietary
knowledge to town-planners at
very low fees. When our
software becomes a reality, they
will be made available at
affordable prices.
 TESSELLATION PLANNING AND HONEYCOMB HOUSING
Mazlin Ghazali and Mohd. Peter Davis
Copyright June 2003 - September 2004

REFERENCES. INTELLECTUAL PROPERTY

1. Encyclopedia of Malaysia Vol 5 Architecture, Chen
Voon Fee ed.
2. Jan Gehl “Life Between Buildings” (1971)
3. Oscar Newman “Defensible Space” (1972).
4. M Y Abas & I N Sugianto “Break Ins Malaysian
Houses” Silpakorn Architectural Discourse 2004
5. John & Elizabeth Newson “Four Years Old in an
Urban Community (1968)
6. Thermal Comfort Honeycomb Housing for Hot
Climates by Mohd Peter Davis et al presented at
the Commonwealth Association of Planners
Conference, 7th July, 2004
All drawings and illustrations are the copyright of
Arkitek M. Ghazali except:
• Housing in Ireland, Mexico and Denmark from “The
Earth from the Air” by Yann Arthus- Bertrand 2003
• Illustrations on page 11 from “Defensible Space” by
Oscar Newman 1972
• Cartoons on page 13 from “Kampong Boy – Then and
Now” by Lat 2002
• TESSELLATION PLANNING is the subject of patent
applications lodged in Australia in January, 2004
and in Malaysia in July,2004
• “HONEYCOMB” and “TESSELLAR” are trademarks
• E-mail: admin@tessellar.com

Credits
Arkitek M. Ghazali
Tessellar Sdn Bhd
Mohd. Erwan Othman, Teo Ling Ling, How Peak Yen,
Michael James Durack,
Mohd. Hairi Jamaluddin, Erwan Sulaiman, Norhaslinda
Centre for Thermal Comfort Studies
Mohd. Nor, Ong Lay Poh
Nor Azian Nordin

We thank MALAYSIAN VENTURE CAPITAL BHD, BLUESCOPE MALAYSIA SDN BHD and ROXUL ASIA
SDN BHD for their financial support