World Housing Congress 2007

on Affordable Quality Housing

Proceedings

1st - 5th July 2007

Primula Beach Resort Hotel Kuala Terengganu
Terengganu MALAYSIA

Jointly Organised by :

Federation of Engineering Institutions of Islamic Countries (FEIIC)

Saudi Council of Engineers (SCE)
Terengganu State Government
Construction Industry Development Board Malaysia (CIDB)
Housing Research Centre (HRC), Universiti Putra Malaysia
Published by The Federation of Engineering Institutions of Islamic Countries.

Copyright and Reprint Permission: Abstracting is permitted with credit to the source. Libraries
are permitted to photocopy for private use of patrons those articles in this volume that carry a
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reprint or republication permission, write to Federation of Engineering Institutions of Islamic
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Copyright © 2007 by the Federation of Engineering Institutions of Islamic Countries.

Perpustakaan Negara Malaysia Catalouging-in-Publication Data

……

World Housing Congress 2007 on Affordable Quality Housing (WHC2007) – PROCEEDINGS

ISBN 978-983-41705-5-4 @2007 FEIIC

i
World Housing Congress 2007 on Affordable Quality Housing
(WHC2007)

Proceedings

July 1 – 5, 2007
Terengganu, MALAYSIA

Global Challenges and Issues in the Provision of Shelter for All

Jointly Organised by :

Federation of Engineering Institutions of Islamic Countries (FEIIC)

Saudi Council of Engineers (SCE)
Terengganu State Government
Construction Industry Development Board Malaysia (CIDB)
Housing Research Centre (HRC), Universiti Putra Malaysia

ii
World Housing Congress 2007 on Affordable Quality Housing
(WHC2007)
July 1 – 5, 2007

Housing Research Centre (HRC) together with CIDB has successfully organized the first
National Workshop on AQH in Bangi, Selangor in 2002. Two years later, HRC together with the
Institution of Engineers, Malaysia (Miri Branch) organized the National Congress on AQH in
Miri, Sarawak in 2004. Both workshop and congress has been well attended and received
encouraging feedback from participants and industry.

To mark the 10 years of the establishment of HRC (1996-2006), we would like to organize the
World Housing Congress on AQH. This congress is jointly organized by Housing Research
Centre (HRC), Universiti Putra Malaysia with the Federation of Engineering Institutions of
Islamic Countries (FEIIC), Saudi Council Engineers (SCE), Terengganu State Government and
Construction Industry Development Board (CIDB).

The objective of the Congress is to provide a platform for sharing of knowledge and expertise as
well as interaction amongst experts, researchers, designers, builders, developers and policy
makers from all over the world in the area of affordable quality housing.

During the three days congress, there shall be substantial time for presentations and discussions.
In addition, exhibitions offer sample opportunity for information exchange among delegates and
participants, especially for those looking for new business opportunities in FEIIC member
countries. Attendees will find the various activities useful in bringing together a diverse group of
engineers from across disciplines for the generation of new ideas, collaboration potential and
business opportunities.

Chairman
WHC2007

iii
 World Housing Congress, Terengganu, Malaysia, 1-5 July 2007

AU1.4
A CONSUMER PREFERENCE SURVEY COMPARING HONEYCOMB HOUSING
WITH CONVENTIONAL TERRACE HOUSING IN KUANTAN
1 2 3 4
Bukryman Sabri , Nurizan Yahaya , Mohd Peter Davis and Mazlin Ghazali
1,2,3
Faculty of Human Ecology, Universiti Putra Malaysia, Serdang Malaysia
4
Arkitek M.Ghazali, 19-1, Jalan 1/7B Desa Pandan, 55100 Kuala Lumpur
Email: bukryman @putra.upm.edu.my

ABSTRACT
Honeycomb housing is a new Malaysian innovation and offers an affordable and environmentally friendly
alternative to terrace house. In conventional schemes, houses are laid out in rows in the familiar, ubiquitous
terraces, but in the Honeycomb layout the houses are placed in circular fashion around a central space to form
a small neighbourhood of between 5 to 16 houses. The central spaces are linked to each other and to the main
distribution roads by short connecting service roads. The central space – a kind of open courtyard – consists of
a cul-de-sac looping around a communal garden. It is gaining wide support from potential house buyers in
exhibitions, amongst housing professionals at seminars and conferences. The objectives of the research are to
determine the preferences and number of potential buyers of honeycomb house and terrace house in Kuantan,
Pahang. The data were selected based on convenient sampling, which included two types of house, namely
terrace house and honeycomb house. A total of 513 respondents were involved in this study and they were
interviewed using questionnaire. Respondents were asked to select an affordable house from one of the five
house prices on display, namely RM120,000, RM150,000, RM180,000, RM200,000 and RM240,000 and were
shown site plans and drawing of the appropriate Honeycomb houses and the terrace houses of the same price.
Data were analyzed using the SPSS program. The result of the study revealed that the 513 of respondents fell
into two groups, Government servants (73.3%) and Non-government servants (26.7%). Of particular interest
was extremely high level of satisfaction with their job (96%) and with living in Kuantan (94%). The data showed
that 482 (94%) respondents got to work in less than 30 minutes and 287 (56%) considered the public transport
in Kuantan to be good. The 489 (95%) of respondents showed an overwhelming preference for Honeycomb
houses compared to the equivalent terrace houses. The data also indicated that the 322 (60%) of respondents
wanted to buy a house within the next one to four years and were deemed potential house buyers. Whilst 308 of
potential house buyers preferred Honeycomb houses, only 14 of them preferred terrace houses. The simple and
economic survey techniques described in this study can greatly reduce the commercial risk to developers and
town planners in government and private sector. By measuring consumer preferences at a very early stage of
housing project, the affordability, cultural acceptability and many other factors of new houses and their
surroundings can be forecast amongst different sections of the house buying public.

Keywords: honeycomb housing, housing, affordability, preferences

INTRODUCTION

“A house, regardless of its pricing, is a home. It is not just a structure for dwelling. It has to be
felt and treated as a home where each family may live for generations to come. It is where a
family grows to create a healthier community society and living environment and eventually
evolving into a better nation.”
YB Dato Sri Abang Haji Abdul Rahman Zohari bin Tun Abang Haji Openg, Sarawak Minister
of Housing.

The United Nations’ 2003 report on Human Settlements found that almost half the world’s urban population
lives in slum (characterized by lack of basic services or clean water, poorly built housing and overcrowding).
However, this serious social problem was largely avoided in Malaysia. The Malaysian housing industry since
Independence has been outstandingly successful. The construction of reasonable quality urban housing, built to
government regulations, kept pace with the large population increase and the mass migration from the rural
areas. Malaysia’s housing success has become a role model for developing countries and high on the agenda of
visiting dignitaries, such as South Africa’s Nelson Mandela.

ISBN 978-983-41705-5-4 @2007 FEIIC 98

 World Housing Congress, Terengganu, Malaysia, 1-5 July 2007

AU1.5
TESSELLATION PLANNING APPROACH:
LEARNING FROM THE HIROSHIMA EXPERIENCE
1 2
Anniz Fazli Ibrahim Bajunid , Norhati Ibrahim ,
1.2
Department of Architecture, Faculty of Architecture, Planning and Surveying,
Universiti Teknologi Mara (UiTM), 40450 Shah Alam, Selangor, Malaysia
1 2
Email: toanniz@gmail.com, norhati920@salam.uitm.edu.my

ABSTRACT

Disasters, natural or man-made, provide constructive opportunities to rethink and rebuild devastated sites and
cities into areas of high quality environments. The catastrophic devastation caused by the Atomic Bomb on
Hiroshima City challenged city-builders and architects to redefine the notion of city building with positive
imagination. From this incident it was learnt that instead of just adequately repairing and rebuilding the old, a
bold new approach was needed to garner the spirit of the inhabitants towards an exemplary new beginning.
Sixty years later, the spirit resonates in Malaysia and begins to capture the imagination of city-builders. A novel
Malaysian ‘Tessellation Planning’, fundamentally different from rectilinear planning which has dominated
architectural landscape throughout history, redefines itself. The creative approach is a way of subdividing land
into triangles and interlocking hexagons. Reminiscent of Islamic art, it is similar in concept to
covering/tessellating a surface with different types of patterned tiles to create complex and unique patterns. This
tile pattern is translated into buildings, gardens, parks and roads. Six tiles combine into a hexagon shaped
neighbourhood cul-de-sac, containing cluster houses surrounding a park. These ‘tessellation’ hexagons
efficiently interlock to produce a semi-pedestrian Township or City in synergistic harmony and symbiosis with
nature. It provides a framework which improves and raises the quality of life not just in destroyed cities but
also in the reconstruction of slum cities in under developed countries as well as the expansion of existing towns
into modern, affordable and livable cities. This paper aims at redefining the thought processes of rectilinear
planning in quality affordable housing and critically assesses the tessellation approach as an alternative.

Keywords: Hiroshima, tessellation, planning, housing, Malaysia

INTRODUCTION

The march of civilization offers many lessons regarding mankind’s efforts to improve the quality of life through
building of cities and livable housing. City and civilization building is about the cumulative and scientific
experiences of mankind. History has recorded the destruction and rebuilding of ancient cities like the legendary
metaphor of the phoenix which rises again from the ashes as in the case with Hiroshima. The paper attempts to
integrate deep understanding from the Hiroshima experience and the tessellation conceptualization within the
framework of the courage of human spirit in Hiroshima and the human imagination of the tessellation drawn
from nature. It also locates the city building effort within the bold initiative of the Dubai experiment. Thus the
paper invites continuing conversations and initiatives regarding the architectural and development possibilities
to improve the social order and community efficiency and the quality of human life.

MATERIALS AND METHODS

Historical Timeline

As the processes of historical events take place leading to the rebirth of Hiroshima City, a timeline of important
sequential development of the city is explained to better understand the human endeavours and optimism that
lies within to the realisation of its conceptual framework. This was synonymously adhered to with the
preliminary findings of Tessellation Planning. Its precedents have just only been identified, making coherency
with the undertakings of Mazlin Ghazali in his endeavours in challenging the norm of terrace layout
arrangements in mass housing.

ISBN 978-983-41705-5-4 @2007 FEIIC 105