An invention of "build-then-sell" in Malaysia via the housing law

For years Malaysia has been practicing "sell-then-build" in the housing development and for years also the concept has contributed to various types of problems, mainly to house purchasers. The urge from several quarters especially the National Housebuyers Association, has be part of the cause for the government to initiate few steps in implementing the "build-then-sell" in stages. Besides several incentives in terms of policy, the first step under the law to promote the "build-then-sell" is by introducing schedule I and J in the Housing Development (Control and Licensing) Regulations 1989 (Amendment 2007). It is the aim of this paper to look into the so called "build-then-sell" according to Malaysian style which actually does not reflect the "build-then-sell" in toto. The paper then will analyze both schedule I and J above and also will consider other points that may be relevant to the issue of "build-then-sell"

Air velocity behavior at courtyards in the tropical climate : case studies of courtyards at IIUM Campus

The paper presents the air velocity measurement at eight courtyards in International Islamic University Malaysia (IIUM).At IIUM, the courtyards can be categorized into two different courtyard geometry. The typologies of courtyards analyzed in this paper are the enclosed courtyard and the 'U' shape courtyard. Utilizing the data from this study, the effects of the typologies on the air velocity measurements are studied. The data collected indicated that wind flow at the courtyard could contribute in lowering the temperature and humidity, thus making the courtyard more comfortable. this factor will indirectly contribute to the saving of energy through providing comfortable naturally ventilated spaces

Natural ventilation around open round floors with pilotis in high-rise residential buildings in tropical areas: harmonization of modern and traditional housing in tropical areas

In this paper, we propose using pilotis in tropical urban areas to harmonize the benefits of modern and traditional housing. The thermal and airflow conditions of a building that has pilotis are compared with those of a building that does not have pilotis, and we examine how the thermal and airflow conditions near the ground floor of the high-rise building can be improved by constructing the pilotis. Furthermore, the notion that natural ventilation on the upper floors is not seriously worsened by constructing pilotis is also examined by computational fluid dynamics CFD)analysis

Thermal comfort investigation in traditional and modern urban canyons in Bandar Abbas, Iran

Urban design plays an important role in a city’s daily life. Therefore, accessibility to thermal comfort spaces for citizens engaged in urban outdoor activities could be one of the main goals of urban designers. Urban forms and canyons have important roles in microclimate and thermal comfort situation in outdoor spaces. The hot humid climate of Bandar Abbas, especially in long summers, causes thermal stress for urban activities. In this study, two different urban fabrics were investigated using thermal comfort and Computational Fluid Dynamics (CFD) methods. Eight provisional measuring points in the selected prevailing canyons were used to obtain the data. The results correlated with the effects of the urban canyon orientation to variation of the microclimate factors, and consequently, the thermal comfort situation in the hottest period of the year. In addition, the results also indicated that the traditional urban fabric is more thermally comfortable than the new residential urban fabric. According to field measurements, thermal comfort calculation and wind simulations, the canyons with the north-south direction present a better orientation for air circulation benefiting from the sea breezes as compared to the other canyon orientations. Hence, this study provides insights for urban designers and policy makers residing in the hot and humid climate in the Middle East

Green approaches and barriers of green hotels and resorts in Peninsular Malaysia

Tourism is one of the biggest industries in the world. It is growing faster than other notable industries in the world such as manufacturing, retail and financial industry. Tourism industry provides direct contribution to the world economy. Even though this industry does not directly pollute the environment, its cumulative negative impacts on the environment are notable. This industry is a resource consumptive industry. It consumes water and energy and produce various waste such as solid and liquid waste. The negative impacts of this industry are numerous. The impacts are directly and indirectly on the environment. This study is focusing on the direct negative caused by tourism industry on the natural environment. Resorts and hotels are some example of the tourism accommodation component. Hotels and resort operation consumes a lot of resources and produce a lot of waste and emission. Consequently, it is vital for the resorts and hotel operator to adopt some green approaches in their operation in order to reduce their operational negative impacts. Currently there are only 12 green resorts and hotels, which are recognized in Malaysia. Studies have shown that there are limited numbers of studies are conducted regarding the green approaches of green hotels and resorts in Malaysia. Therefore, this study is conducted to fulfill the gap in the literature. The main aim of this research is to identify the green approaches and barriers of green resorts and hotels in Malaysia. There are two objectives of this research. The first objective is to determine the area of green approaches and the rate of participation of Malaysia green operators. The second objective is to determine the barriers faced by Malaysian green operators. The research techniques adopted for this study are in-depth interviews, structure observations and document analysis. Five resorts and hotels were selected as case studies. ASEAN Tourism Standard (ATS) awarded all the case studies as green hotels and resorts in 2012 until 2014. The finding shows that the areas with the greenest participation are in the area of energy, waste and water because these areas reduce operational cost. The areas of less participation are in the indoor air quality and sustainable site management because these of the areas have less impact on the operational costs. Participation in new technology areas such as renewable energy (solar panel) and a rainwater harvesting system is also less due to the higher cost and system availability. The findings also show that different operators have adopted different green approaches in the operations. The reasons are the management policy, cost, availability, surrounding context and land size. Three types of barriers were identified in this study. The barriers were identified are significant barriers, less-significant barriers and non-significant barriers. The non-significant barriers are the barriers that did not affect to become green operators. Where else significant barriers mean that the barriers that affect to become green operators. The example of significant barriers is a lack of green experts, lack of resources in-term of manpower, green equipment and difficulty in balancing the quality of service with environmental performance. Whereas, the example of less-significant barriers is high implementation cost, high maintenance cost and lack of government support. The example of non-significant barriers is lack of green information and knowledge, uncertainty of green outcome, lack of support from the owner and management, lack of consumer supports and lack of green supplier networking. Finally, the study has shown that the green operators only need to confront several barriers to become a green operator in Malaysia. This is due to the good support from the parent company and guests, no uncertainty of green business, have adequate green knowledge and have good supplier contact. This study also has identified the several common green approaches of the green operators in Malaysia. The findings of this study, add a knowledge or gap in the existing field of green approaches to literature. The limitation of the study is small numbers of case studies, which required further studies to be conducted in future. In conclusion, this study did answer the research questions and had achieved the objectives

A review of sustainable design in the automotive industry

To support environmental issues, the automotive industry focuses on certain aspects such as life cycle and green products in their development and manufacturing process. To date, much research on the sustainability of the automotive industry has been published. The classification analysis method has been used to describe the relationship between sustainable design categories and the automotive industry. More than 50 articles related to sustainability towards the automotive industry were found from a search through a database on sustainability and automotive published between 2000 and 2018. This paper attempts to direct attention towards the user and responding to his needs when designing automobiles to help avoid overconsumption. This study could benefit from making early decisions during the automotive design and development process to avoid the costs and time used through later redesign, especially in Malaysia. The findings show that the past articles discussed 1) improvement and actions taken; 2) the impact of fulfilling the users’ aesthetic and emotional needs; and 3) categories in sustainable products related to the automotive industry including green initiatives to sustainability, Malaysian industry and green initiatives, environmental aspects, sustainability in product life cycle, sustainable consumption, aesthetics and sustainability, end-life-remanufacturing, and product aesthetics, longevity, and user interaction. The study also found that sustainable design is considered less in meeting consumer’s emotional and aesthetic needs. This paper is limited by the analysis of articles from an online database during the time period of 2000 to 2018. As a whole, this paper contributes to encouraging manufacturers to adopt new thinking to support the environment by considering the influence of satisfying the user’s aesthetic and emotional needs upon sustainable design application to improve the quality of the automotive industry. Thus, future studies might consider focusing on the main topic of how meeting the emotional and aesthetic needs of users in the automotive design may lead to changing the current unsustainable behaviours to support the environment

Hospital design in tropical Malaysia - towards a green agenda

‘Sustainability’ as a terminology, is a broad concept and a requirement in building designs with a tendency of being abuse through trendy and over commercialisation. In the arena of hospital design, new is usually associated to being modern and therefore, green. In the quest of getting to know the “tree” from “the forest” from among the hundreds of existing hospitals, ranged from colonial, early independence to the new hospital designs, a yardstick, to measure those that is actually “green” and “sustainable” need to be set. This study intends to provide a qualitative definition and provide recommended criteria of a green hospital designs in the context of tropical climate of Malaysia and its people. A qualitative method of approach through case studies of hospital designs from pre-colonial to the present were made. Aspects studied include the physical architecture that significantly affect health i.e. the building configuration, form, space quality, material use and culture. Findings indicated that there is a variety of degree and factors to the implementation of the green qualities in all the designs. The range includes intuitive and regulatory approach to green considerations in the design. Conditions of the site, cost, construction time, planning time, expertise, experience and procurement methods are among the constraints where compromises had to be made as a priority. Significance of the findings will contribute to the qualitative criteria for healthcare building Green requirement especially for tropical climate of Malaysia

The effects of void on natural ventilation performance in multi-storey housing

Enhancing natural ventilation performance in multi-storey housing is very important for the living environment in terms of health and thermal comfort purposes. One of the most important design strategies to enhance natural ventilation in multi-storey housing is through the provision of voids. A void is a passive architectural feature, which is located in the middle of deep plan buildings. It is very crucial to consider the configurations of voids in the buildings for enhancing natural ventilation, especially for multi-storey housing. In this study, Malaysian Medium Cost Multi-Storey Housing (MMCMSH), which is an example of multi-storey housing located in a suburban area,has been selected in this study. This study aims to investigate the potential of void for enhancing natural ventilation performance in multi-storey housing by the comparison of two different void configurations. Field measurement of MMCMSH has been conducted to validate Computational Fluid Dynamic (CFD) model and Atmospheric Boundary Layer (ABL) is an important parameter for setting up the CFD Model’s domain. Ventilation rate (Q), which is necessary for comfort and health reasons, is an important parameter for the comparison of the different void configurations. This study revealed that the provision of void can enhance natural ventilation performance in multi-storey housing with an increase in the value of Q, from 3.44% to 40.07%, by enlarging the void’s width by 50% compared to the existing void

Thermal comfort investigation in traditional and modern urban canyons in Bandar Abbas, Iran

Urban design plays an important role in a city’s daily life. Therefore, accessibility to thermal comfort spaces for citizens engaged in urban outdoor activities could be one of the main goals of urban designers. Urban forms and canyons have important roles in microclimate and thermal comfort situation in outdoor spaces. The hot humid climate of Bandar Abbas, especially in long summers, causes thermal stress for urban activities. In this study, two different urban fabrics were investigated using thermal comfort and Computational Fluid Dynamics (CFD) methods. Eight provisional measuring points in the selected prevailing canyons were used to obtain the data. The results correlated with the effects of the urban canyon orientation to variation of the microclimate factors, and consequently, the thermal comfort situation in the hottest period of the year. In addition, the results also indicated that the traditional urban fabric is more thermally comfortable than the new residential urban fabric. According to field measurements, thermal comfort calculation and wind simulations, the canyons with the north-south direction present a better orientation for air circulation benefiting from the sea breezes as compared to the other canyon orientations. Hence, this study provides insights for urban designers and policy makers residing in the hot and humid climate in the Middle East

Project brief for IIUM Hospital (Phase 1), International Islamic University Malaysia (Medical Campus)Kuantan, Pahang Darul Makmur

A project brief on medical requirements for the planning and design of IIUM teaching hospital in IIUM Kuantan Campus. There are two versions of the brief, i.e. the 2009 version and the 2010 version. The march 2010 version was revised after the site visit was made to Kuantan by the bidders and as an outcome of the dialogue