Residential Buildings In Malaysia Research Articles

Semakan Garis Panduan Berkaitan Reka Bentuk Rintangan Banjir untuk Seni Bina Kediaman di Malaysia dan UK

Flooding is a crucial issue for structures all around the globe. The classification and evaluation of damage methods and the design of strategies to optimize flood resilience are thus critical components of flood risk management. The paper presents an in-depth analysis of the guideline for flood resistance design for residential architecture in Malaysia and the UK. Both Malaysia and the UK are at risk of flooding because of rainfall and rising sea levels surrounding their coastal cities due to climate change. Qualitative research methodology is adopted for this research by analysing the contents of guidelines of Malaysia and the UK. Therefore, it has implemented content analysis from secondary sources, including documents, briefing papers, studies, and print and online sources of building and planning guidelines. The output from this paper is that there are measures of flood resistance design in Malaysia. Measures include design strategies such as using floodproof materials, avoiding floodplain zones for residential properties, etc. However, those measures are insufficient and need to be more comprehensive on flood-resistant residential buildings in Malaysia. The output from this paper also compares the guidelines on flood resistance design for residential architecture and the different approaches incorporated between Malaysia and the UK. It needs further exploration of why there is an inadequate effort to develop guidelines for residential architecture despite considerable residential property damages occurring yearly due to flooding in Malaysia.

The Improvisation Strategy of Escape Route Design in High Rise Residential Buildings in Malaysia

The Improvisation Strategy of Escape Route Design in High Rise Residential Buildings in Malaysia

Framework in Developing Model of Interfloor Leakage in High-Rise Residential Buildings in Malaysia

Interfloor leakage is amongst the highest claims reported to the Strata Management Tribunal. This defect affects strata communities directly and indirectly in cost of repair, occupant safety, health and disputes. Regulation 55 of the Strata Management (Management and Maintenance) Regulation 2015 under Strata Management Act 2013 defines interfloor leakage as any evidence of dampness, moisture or water penetration, and has underlined the work process of interfloor inspection. However, issues are investigating the cause of leakage and repair costs, and determining who is responsible for the repair. Conducting defect assessment by standards is the collection of systematic information to evaluate building performance, investigate defect elements and recommend appropriate repairs. The research concept framework examines the effect or influence of each construct on another construct. Constructs are three, namely, interfloor leakage management, legislation and owner satisfaction. Based on the literature review, the conceptual framework is produced, and each of these constructs is developed with several dimensions to be tested. The sequential exploratory design method is used with a combined approach of qualitative interviews and discussions with experts in the field of property management and building pathology to form a questionnaire for distribution to the management. This research is essential to decide how to reduce disputes, discuss the costs of repair and select a party to execute repairs that create quality strata management that benefits the owners, management and stakeholders.

INVESTIGATING THE AWARENESS AMONG POTENTIAL HOMEBUYERS TOWARDS ELEMENTS OF GREEN RESIDENTIAL BUILDING

The number of green residential buildings in Malaysia is on the rise trend. However, there is an imbalance in the amount of green residential buildings available in main cities. Why do things like this happen? Is there a lower demand for green residential buildings in Malaysia's other main cities? Are potential homebuyers aware of the elements of green residential buildings? Therefore, this research was conducted to identify the demand for green residential building and to investigate potential homebuyers' awareness towards the elements of green residential building. The city of Ipoh, Perak, was chosen as the study's focal point, and Ipoh residents with good professions were chosen as respondents. This is because Ipoh has less green residential buildings than some other cities in Malaysia. A quantitative approach was adopted. A total of 384 responses were accepted for analysis. The collected data were analyzed using frequency analysis and the relative importance index (RII). According to the data, the majority of potential homebuyers in Ipoh, Perak, are aware on the elements of green residential building and are willing to purchase it in the future. This indicates that this residential concept is in high demand in the Ipoh market. Ipoh residents are also well aware of the elements of a green residential building. Hence, developers and the state authority would be able to increase the number of green residential developments in Ipoh.

Green-Building-Index-Assessment-Criteria-Based Comparative Evaluation of Interlocking Blocks as an Alternative to Conventional Masonry for Residential Buildings in Malaysia

Major residential construction projects adopt clay bricks as masonry, which can contribute to high carbon emission, primarily due to their high embodied carbon. Furthermore, the adoption of conventional masonry, including clay bricks, may lead to the use of high amounts of mortar and contribute to a lot of wastage. Therefore, an alternative system that can potentially replace conventional masonry is required to reduce the wastage as well as carbon emission. Interlocking blocks, which adopt a lock and key system has the potential to replace conventional masonry as they employ locally available materials, save construction time, use less mortar and are less dependent on highly skilled masons. In view of their potential, the adoption of interlocking blocks in residential buildings were evaluated comparatively to conventional masonry, namely clay and cement sand bricks, based on the Green Building Index Assessment Criteria for Residential New Construction (GBI-RNC) tool. Overall Thermal Transfer Values of test models that employed conventional masonry and interlocking blocks were calculated. Approximately, based on the GBI-RNC tool, with an increase of 17-18 points achieved from the EE, MR and IN criteria, a Silver rating can be achieved with the adoption of interlocking blocks.

Life cycle sustainability assessment analysis of different concrete construction techniques for residential building in Malaysia

Life cycle sustainability assessment analysis of different concrete construction techniques for residential building in Malaysia

Analysis on electricity use and indoor thermal environment for typical air-conditioning residential buildings in Malaysia

In residential buildings, accurate forecast of time-varying electricity demands is important for the estimation and prediction of electricity consumption. Information of the end user's electricity consumption patterns is necessary as it has a significant impact on the load curve in the utility grid. Thus, this study aims to provide detailed information on the electricity use and indoor thermal environment for typical residential buildings. Field measurements were conducted in 19 selected dwellings in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia to specifically measure the total and the air conditioner (AC) electricity usage along with the indoor thermal environment. There were significant differences in the total electricity consumption among low-, middle-, and high-income dwellings. However, for the AC electricity consumption, the different income groups do not display notable differences. This might be due to the occupant behaviour of using the air conditioner mostly during sleeping hours. The measurement results of all targeted dwellings showed that the daily averages of the total and the AC electricity consumption are 14.5 kWh/day and 3.9 kWh/day, respectively. The daily averages of the AC electricity usage in the living room and the bedroom are 2.7 kWh and 4.4 kWh, respectively. The fraction of the daily peak demand from all targeted dwellings shows that the peak at the nighttime is due to the use of the air conditioner. Moreover, the patterns of hourly indoor thermal environment showed an average of 30.1 °C (living room) and 29.3 °C (bedroom). Generally, the comfort level for the indoor temperature lies between 23 °C and 26 °C, while for relative humidity, the comfortable range is between 40% and 70%. These findings provide preliminary understanding of the detailed characteristics of residential electricity use and indoor environment in Malaysian dwellings and can be used to predict the electricity demand in the future.

Applying three pillar indicator assessments on alternative floor systems: life cycle study

A comprehensive sustainable research requires investigation on all the relevant environmental, financial and social impacts. The objective of this research is to evaluate the sustainability performance of different flooring systems using a multi-criteria method. Included flooring systems are ceramic tile, laminate, concrete and wood, and criteria consist of carbon dioxide emission, ozone layer depletion, cost and social impacts. The method of this study entails four stages. In the first stage, the life cycle assessment (LCA) is conducted to rank the flooring systems based on carbon dioxide emission (CO2) and ozone layer depletion (OLD). The second stage entails the life cycle cost assessment (LCCA) which focuses on alternatives based on their related cost. The LCA and LCCA cover the four phases of production and construction, transportation, maintenance and end of life. In the third stage, the social life cycle assessment (SLCA) is performed involving four main social indicators namely workers, local community, society and consumers. The final stage entails the implementation of the multi-criteria decision-making (MCDM) approach to evaluate the different options resulting from the LCA, LCCA and SLCA to propose the most sustainable flooring system by taking into consideration the combination of all the stated criteria. The result of the LCA indicates that wood flooring is the least environmental impact per functional unit as it causes fewer carbon dioxide (CO2) emissions (17%) than the second least environmental impact per functional unit (laminated flooring). However, the result of the LCCA suggests that concrete flooring is the lowest costing system, i.e. 30% less than the second best option (wood flooring). On the other hand, the SLCA result indicates that laminated flooring is the least negative social impact with a 28% better score than concrete flooring. The results of the MCDM show that wood is the most sustainable floor system with a utility degree of 100%, higher than laminated flooring at 78%. However, in equal weighting scenario, laminated flooring is shown to be the best choice. The presented approach in this research has been successfully applied on a case study. It provides valuable insight on the assessment of flooring systems so as to assist decision-makers and architects in prioritising and selecting the most sustainable flooring systems to be used in residential buildings in Malaysia. This methodology can be applied in other countries with a similar climate and cultural preferences.

Evaluation of Escape Route Design in Public Multi-Storey Housing in Malaysia for Elderly Occupants

Public multi-storey residential buildings in Malaysia are dependent on the passive design approach to ensure maximum safety during an emergency. Elements of escape route design include corridors, exits and staircases. This paper evaluates the escape route distance and duration for the elderly to evacuate the building to safety using Pathfinder simulations. The results show that the staircase has a significant contribution towards providing fast evacuation. Meanwhile, varying the width of the exit doors and corridors had minimal impact on evacuation. On average, the elderlies took longer to evacuate due to their slow speed of movement and limited physical capability. Keywords: Multi-Storey, Escape Route Design, Evacuation, Simulation eISSN: 2398-4287 © 2020. The Authors. Published for AMER ABRA cE-Bs by e-International Publishing House, Ltd., UK. This is an open access article under the CC BYNC-ND license (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/). Peer–review under responsibility of AMER (Association of Malaysian Environment-Behaviour Researchers), ABRA (Association of Behavioural Researchers on Asians) and cE-Bs (Centre for Environment-Behaviour Studies), Faculty of Architecture, Planning & Surveying, Universiti Teknologi MARA, Malaysia. DOI: https://doi.org/110.21834/ebpj.v5iSI2.2521.

Applying multi-criteria decision-making on alternatives for earth-retaining walls: LCA, LCC, and S-LCA

The aim of this research is to assess the sustainability performance of different concrete and stone walls being used in residential buildings in Malaysia in terms of environmental issues, economic concerns, and social aspects. The concrete walls consist of crib wall (CW), cantilever reinforced concrete wall (CRCW), and keystone wall (KW), while stone walls include gabion wall (GW) and rubble masonry wall (RMW). Four different assessment criteria such as global warming potential (GWP), ozone layer depletion (OLD), cost present value (CPV), and social impacts (SI) were considered. In this study, life cycle assessment (LCA) was conducted to evaluate the considered walls based on individual criteria of GWP and OLD, while life cycle cost (LCC) and social life cycle assessment (S-LCA) were performed based on CPV and SI, respectively. In S-LCA, three main social indicators such as workers, local community, and society were taken into account. Then, a multi-criteria decision-analysis (MCDA) approach is implemented to assess and prioritize alternative walls, which is resulted from LCA, LCC, and S-LCA, by considering combination of abovementioned criteria. The primary results of LCA for GWP criterion shows that the GW and RMW are the best options with respective emissions of 12784 KG CO2eq and 20020 KG CO2eq. On the other hand, the result for OLD indicates that the best alternatives are GW and RMW with respective emissions of 178.99 CFC-11 eq and 224.88 CFC-11 eq. The results of LCC declare that RCW is the best option by 595600 MYR which is 14% less than the second-best option (RMW). The S-LCA results show that the CW is the best option with 10% better than the second option (KW). The MCDA results revealed that the sustainability performance of the GW was the highest among alternatives followed by RWW, RCW, KW, and CW. The presented approach in this research has been successfully applied on a case study. It provides valuable insight on the assessment of earth-retaining systems assisting decision makers in prioritizing and selecting the most sustainable retaining walls to be used in residential buildings in Malaysia and other countries with similar climate conditions.

Carbon Footprint Assessment in the Life-Cycle Design of Concrete Structures in the Tropics: A Case Study of Residential Buildings in Malaysia

With the exponential growth in development of cities and increasing demand for construction, which is one of the factors in environmental degradation, the need for CO2 emissions control is essential. In order to balance carbon emissions along the life-cycle of concrete structures; in this paper, we have analysed the carbon emissions and assessed the carbon footprint of selected concrete structures in a tropical city. For this purpose, the carbon footprint has been evaluated using Life-Cycle Sustainability Assessment (LCSA) approach at different stages concrete structures’ life-cycle, which are production, construction, operation, and demolition stages, where the CO2 footprint of two residential buildings in Malaysia have been analysed as case studies. The findings indicated that the energy consumption, and the production phase in the life-cycle of a concrete structure are the main contributors of CO2 emission. In addition, detailed analysis of the carbon cycle in structures and their interaction with other components involved in the regional eco-system can lead to a significant reduction in CO2 emission, and thus to the improvement in reducing environmental deterioration and its consequences. Moreover, optimised design and customisation to the constituents of concrete, as well as improving citizens’ consumption agenda can significantly reduce the carbon emission of concrete structures.

Affordable retrofitting methods to achieve thermal comfort for a terrace house in Malaysia with a hot–humid climate

Although various cooling approaches have been proposed to overcome the thermal discomfort in residential buildings, tropical developing countries still lack affordable and effective retrofitting methods. The objective of this study was to evaluate the effectiveness of an affordable retrofitting method with high-density polyethylene (HDPE) nets as roof covers for shading over the roof, supported by full day free-running ventilation, and heat insulation above the ceiling of residential buildings in hot–humid climate regions to overcome the thermal discomfort. Field measurements were carried out in a corner terrace house in Malaysia, from September to December 2018. The roof cover with HDPE nets maintained a consistent surface temperature at the roof tiles and reduced the convective heat flux by approximately 70–80% in the attic and 88% in the room. Further, it improved the compliance (acceptability: 80%) of the whole-day mean operative temperature in the room (hot–humid climate) by 10%. The roof cover can effectively provide thermal comfort in residential buildings in Malaysia, which has a hot–humid climate. Alongside active cooling with the ceiling fan, required comfortable indoor temperature can be reached under the hot–humid climate, particularly during the night-time. Furthermore, the zero-energy-consuming, low-cost low-technology roof cover method is very suitable for low-cost houses with roof tile in hot–humid climate regions.

Awareness of Building Information Modeling Implementation in Retrofitting the Existing Residential Building in Malaysia

Building Information Modeling (BIM) is a new paradigm in the architecture, engineering, and construction industry in Malaysia. In the literature, there are numerous reviews of BIM implementation on new buildings, while the BIM application in retrofitting existing buildings is rather disregarded yet. Only limited research has investigated the use of the potential of BIM in residential retrofit projects. This study seeks to investigate the current status of implementation of BIM for retrofitting residential buildings practicality. The research used the questionnaire as a quantitative method to collect data in the current study. One hundred twelve professionals were chosen for this study, and the response rate was 49 percent (55 respondents). The sample of the questionnaire survey consists of the academic experts and construction engineers and architects, BIM software designers, and construction organizations in Malaysia. The data collected through the respondents are analyzed using the Statistical Package for the Social Sciences software (SPSS Version 22). The results revealed that most of the respondents (47.3%) have a low level of awareness about BIM, and the majority of the respondents (29.1%) do not use BIM in their projects. Based on the investigation, the adoption of BIM residential buildings is timely. The most common obstacles to the BIM adoption for residential retrofit are the lack of customer demand, high initial investments, and lack of standards. In conclusion, this research provides information about the feasibility of BIM adoption for retrofitting the existing residential building. It is expected that this knowledge could be useful for BIM development and tackle barriers regarding BIM adoption in the Malaysia construction sector.

Tenants' Satisfaction in High Residential Building

High residential living in Malaysia has not been widely given a significant emphasises in literature despite its increasing scale and significance in the real estate market. The significance of high rise is mainly due the increasing rate of migration from rural to urban. It is estimated a total of 77.2 percent of the Malaysian population lived in urban areas in 2020. Approximately, 30 percent of this urban population lives in strata housing. These percentages are predicted to continue to increase in the future. The emergence of high residential building has been argued as confronting various problems which has considerable impact on this life style. Satisfaction is an important outcome of living in one’s dwelling, although it is not the only consideration. High residential building in Malaysia encountered numerous problems in term of management aspects, legislation aspects, and residents’ satisfaction. The purpose of this paper is to investigate the tenants’ satisfaction living in high residential buildings in Klang Valley. The questionnaires survey is conducted amongst 276 tenants at low cost and medium cost HRB using random sampling in HRB located at areas under jurisdiction Dewan Bandaraya Kuala Lumpur (DBKL), Majlis Bandaraya Subang Jaya (MBSJ), Majlis Bandaraya Shah Alam (MBSA), Majlis Bandaraya Subang Jaya (MBSJ), Majlis Perbandaran Selayang (MPS) and Majlis Perbandaran Ampang Jaya (MPAJ). The result from this study shows that tenant in medium cost residential building are more satisfied in term of facilities and management as compared to tenants in low cost residential building. Tenants also not disclosed to the existing act and procedure related to high residential building. In conclusion, this study suggested the Local Authority to emphasise the role of tenant. These recommendation hopefully will increase the level of satisfaction amongst the residents in HRB.

Assessment of the building components in the energy efficient design of tropical residential buildings: An application of BIM and statistical Taguchi method

With the growing energy and economic crises, the need for optimization of energy consumption in the design and construction of buildings has recently become even more significant. This study aimed to determine the best combinations of building-envelope materials with the consideration of influential and uncontrollable factors for energy-efficient design in Malaysia. Residential buildings in Malaysia consume a significant amount of electrical energy for air-conditioning purposes. A typical one-storey terrace house was selected as a case study, and building information modeling (BIM) applications were used to simulate its energy performance. The selected case study was modeled using the Autodesk Revit Software and exported to the EnergyPlus software for energy analysis. In order to optimize the number of examinations in the simulation software, the effect of noise factors was assessed using the Taguchi method. The current energy-consumption patterns were identified and converted into the optimized options in component types. The results of this novel approach provide appropriate information about the performance of the modified energy-efficient material in building components with consideration of noise factors to achieve more reliable outcomes. It was concluded that the appropriate selection of ceiling, window, wall, roof, and floor components could greatly increase energy efficiency in descending order.

COMPARISON ON ENERGY SAVING: GREEN ROOF AND GREEN WALL

Green building conveys undeniably numerous benefits to the environment, social and economic aspects. The most substantial benefit of green building is energy conservation. Green roofs and green walls are amongst the green components that are synonymous with green building. These green components are similar in nature as both are based on the concept of vegetation coverage on buildings. Vegetation is a well-known natural medium that performs the photosynthesis process where it releases molecular oxygen and removes carbon dioxide from the atmosphere. Many studies have proved that these two green components are efficient in reducing energy consumption of a building. Therefore, this study aims to examine and compare the annual energy savings conveyed by green roofs and green walls on residential buildings in Malaysia. The findings indicated that green walls provide greater annual energy savings than green roofs. The result shows that green walls are able to provide higher annual electricity savings for residential buildings at RM166 compared to green roofs, which provide savings of only RM139.

COMPARISON ON ENERGY SAVING: GREEN ROOF AND GREEN WALL

Green building conveys undeniably numerous benefits to the environment, social and economic aspects. The most substantial benefit of green building is energy conservation. Green roofs and green walls are amongst the green components that are synonymous with green building. These green components are similar in nature as both are based on the concept of vegetation coverage on buildings. Vegetation is a well-known natural medium that performs the photosynthesis process where it releases molecular oxygen and removes carbon dioxide from the atmosphere. Many studies have proved that these two green components are efficient in reducing energy consumption of a building. Therefore, this study aims to examine and compare the annual energy savings conveyed by green roofs and green walls on residential buildings in Malaysia. The findings indicated that green walls provide greater annual energy savings than green roofs. The result shows that green walls are able to provide higher annual electricity savings for residential buildings at RM166 compared to green roofs, which provide savings of only RM139.

Assessing Practice and Criteria for Green Roof Maintenance on High-rise Residential Building in Malaysia

Urbanisation inevitably shows a positive sign in increasing the economic reputation of a country. Nevertheless, it has led to several problems including the deficit in green spaces and destruction of the natural environment, therefore green building is introduced as an alternative to overcome crucial environmental issues. Numerous approaches were also adopted to reduce other environmental issues such as urban heat island, air pollution and lack of green spaces. One of the sustainable approaches that help to minimise the environmental problems is by using the means of vegetation or plant material on rooftops or also known as the green roof. The implementation of the green roof on top of buildings is becoming a trend in the urban cities as it provides numerous benefits to the green development. The green roof is also part of criteria in green building and among the benefits, implementing green roofs will reduce heat flux, optimise energy efficiency and improve stormwater management. However, despite the benefits, enhancement on the green roof installation and maintenance consideration are two factors which are still largely unexplored as the main significant factor in the viability of the green roof installation. Hence, this paper is aimed to determine the vital criteria of maintenance and its ranking towards the establishment of best practice maintenance for the green roof, by focusing on high-rise residential. Questionnaires were distributed by email and through an online survey to 30 maintenance managers of green roof of high-rise residential in Kuala Lumpur and the samples are drawn by using purposive sampling technique. The results showed that the most significant maintenance criteria of the green roof are drainage, followed by waterproofing, irrigation, water retention, and roof slab. The outcome of this study has provided a significant contribution to the current maintenance practice of green roof by prioritising the criteria of maintenance and key address of green roof, where it may help to standardise the maintenance practice of the green roof in the tropical climate of Malaysia.

Subjective assessment of thermal comfort for residents in naturally ventilated residential building in Malaysia

Thermal comfort is a mean of being satisfied with the thermal environment. A study was conducted in the field to assess thermal comfort perception for the residents in a naturally ventilated residential building in Malaysia. The objective of this study was to find out whether the residents are thermally comfortable in buildings without the use of air-conditionings. The result showed that the residents are generally satisfied (i.e. comfortable) with the thermal environment, even though their thermal sensation was outside the central three categories of ASHRAE standard, which reflects their acclimatization to the local hot and humid climate.

Impact of Furniture Layout on Indoor Daylighting Performance in Existing Residential Buildings in Malaysia

Currently, home-based computing workspaces have developed substantially all over the world, especially in Malaysia. This growing trend attracts computer workers to run a business from their residential units. Hence, visual comfort needs to be considered in addition to thermal comfort for home workers in their residential working rooms. While such rooms are always occupied with furniture, the layout of the furniture may influence the indoor daylighting distribution. Several various furniture layouts can be arranged in a residential working room. However, to have better generalisation, this study focused on the impacts of mostly-used-furniture-layouts (MUFLs) on indoor daylighting performance in residential working rooms. The field measurement was conducted in a typically furnished room under a tropical sky to validate the results of the simulation software under different sky conditions. Then, daylight ratio (DR), as a quantitative daylighting variable, and the illuminance uniformity ratio (IUR), CIE glare index (CGI), and Guth visual comfort probability (GVCP), as qualitative daylighting variables, were analysed through simulation experiments. In conclusion, by changing the furniture layout, daylight uniformity recorded the highest fluctuations in the case room among all variables. While various furniture layouts, in a residential working room in the tropics, may even slightly reduce the extreme indoor daylight quantity, they can worsen the indoor daylight quality compared to an unfurnished space. The paper shows that furniture as an interior design parameter cannot help to improve tropical daylighting performance in a building.