Passive Ventilation of Modern and Traditional Malay Houses

Passive Ventilation of Modern and Traditional Malay Houses Comparing the Passive Ventilation Style of Modern Malay House in Belum Rainforest Resort With the Common Traditional Malay House in Malaysia. ABSTRACT The objectives of the research is to compare the passive ventilation style of Modern Malay  House in Belum Rainforest Resort with the common Traditional Malay House in Malaysia. The  research questions are what are the comparison of passive ventilation in Modern Malay House  in Belum with the common Traditional Malay House. Secondly. how does the orientation of  building affect the passive ventilation. Finally. How does the the passive ventilation system  works for Modern Malay House in Belum Rainforest Resort and Common Traditional Malay  House in Malaysia. These are the list of methodology that being used to help my research. Site  observation at Belum Rainforest Resort. internet research. articles and books. My analysis of  methodology is by studying and comparing the details of these two houses that are related to  the passive ventilation. The result is i found that Modern Malay House in Belum is lack of  details that contribute to passive ventilation system. Common Traditional Malay house is still  the best since it gives spotlight more on the passive ventilation. In a nutshell. house that focus  more on the passive ventilation are much better since it reduce the humidity and produces a  good thermal comfort in a building. In future. i hope that people will design buildings that  concentrate more on the passive ventilation rather than design. 1.0 INTRODUCTION What is Architecture ? The definition of Architecture is the art or practice of designing and  constructing buildings. Architects are the one who runs the world. They create an enjoyment  story in every building that they design so that the world would not be as boring as it is. When it  comes to architecture world it is super wide and it consist of many different styles and  techniques. Every country have their own styles of designing to express their country ‘s  uniqueness. One of the best design in the world is the building that meet the need and pretty  much response to the climate. Also. It needs to know about the microclimates and the climate  zone. know the basic physiology of human thermal comfort. reduce the loads and enhance  visual comfort by controlling the sun. Thermal mass are used to improved the comfort efficiency  and to pick a space-conditioning strategies that are climatic responsive. Vernacular architecture  is one of the architecture sty le that take seriously on all of this criteria when designing a building. Vernacular Architecture is being refer as a traditional buildings that are designed to meet  the local climate and culture. They design with using a deep understanding together with a  respect towards the nature. Vernacular architecture can be called as a sustainable architecture  as well since it are also built to sustain the environment without destroying it. Vernacular  architecture tends to evolve time after time to reflect the technological. reflect the historical  context in which it exist. reflect the cultural and also reflect the environment. This style of  architecture used the local resources and available energy and materials. so it can refer  accordingly to the climate. site and culture. The most common basic function in vernacular  architecture is to shield and protect from the weather conditions. Passive cooling system can not be separate from the vernacular architecture as they are  greatly related together. Passive cooling is a building design approach that targets on the heat  gain control and heat dissipation in a building in order to improve the indoor thermal comfort  with lower or zero energy usage. A good orientation of a building. proper design layout and  system used in a building will allow the passive ventilation system be in the building. Ventilation  is the main criteria in passive cooling system as it is the one that move the air from outside  building to the inside so that it can improve the thermal comfort of a building. And my case  study is to compare the passive ventilation of Modern Malay House in Belum Rainforest Resort ,  Perak with a common Traditional Malay House in Malaysia. 2.0 An Overview of the Modern Malay House in Belum Rainforest Resort. Perak. Malaysia As stated on Malaysia’s online website. Malaysia is a country that being classified as  a country that have a hot climate and humid tropical climate with all months above 18 degree  Celcius. Belum Rainforest Resort is the place which I picked for my case study. Belum  Rainforest Resort is located on the northern part of Malaysia and just below the boundary of the  other country which is Thailand. Belum Rainforest Resort is located in the middle of  jungle which is surrounded by the water element from the Lake of Banding or Tasik Banding. This make the place a great become as a great place for the passive cooling design. Extracted from http://lensahijau.blogspot.com/2012/10/the-establishment-of-air-house-standard_18.html The Malay House in Belum was design to be modern but yet still maintaining the basic  element of Traditional Malay House. The photo below is one of the Modern Malay House in  Belum Rainforest Resort. Extracted from http://www.maplandia.com/malaysia/perak/gerik/hotels/belum-rainforest-resort/ The similarity of this modern malay house with the traditional malay house in Malaysia is they  used completely 100 per cent wood as the main material for construction. 3.0– What are the Comparison of Passive Ventilation on the Modern Malay House in Belum Rainforest Resort with Common Traditional Malay House in Malaysia ? A traditional Malay House produce the ventilation by applying many of full length  windows and doors at the body level. ( Yuan, 1987: 76 ). Hassan and Ramli ( 2010 )  conclude that Huge openings on Malay house walls produce high air intakes outside to  lowering the performance of stack effect. The below diagram stated clearly that. most of the  outdoor and indoor temperatures were higher than 28 degree Celcius with the humidity level  in the house is higher than 60 per cent and the wind speed in Malay house flow in about 0.3  m / s to 3.4 m / s. Extracted from http://lensahijau.blogspot.com/2012/10/the-establishment-of-air-house- standard_18.html There are several comparison that can be found in Modern Malay House in Belum  Rainforest Resort. The Modern Malay House in Belum were design using a timber  construction. Most of the timber construction are not solid if to compare to a concrete  construction due to being build piece by piece. Since it is build piece by piece so it will  have a small gaps between a piece and a piece of wood. This small gaps is one of the  strategy in passive cooling system. The function of the small gaps is to allow the movement  of air into the house so that it could ventilate and automatically improve the indoor  environmental quality. Most of the traditional malay house have this thing but if to compare  to the modern side of malay house in Belum Rainforest Resort. it does not have this thing. It  does not have small gaps on the wall and floor. the small gaps only can be seen on the  outside of the house which is on the balcony’s floor. This is not good since it blocks t he air  from entering into the house. The unique thing about the Malay house is that it is built on  stilts. This approach in many ways has several benefits from a thermal, functional and safety  point of view. The raised floor, which is built higher than the ground, can catch winds of a  higher velocity ( Yuan. 1987 : 71 ). and the use of timber planks for the floor, which have  gaps between them, can bring the air into the inner space. The Balcony area that contain small gaps for air ventilation purpose. The inner side of the building which does not contain any floor gaps and wall gaps. Other than that. during my site observation I found that there is no ventilation through  roof joint that can be found in the house. This ventilation through roof joint also contribute  in Passive Cooling Design. It makes the house produce a large movement of air into the  building through the roof joint. Traditional Malay House really focus on the opening so that  they can have a good thermal comfort without producing energy that we do not need such as  electricity. Also. without opening through the roof joint the stack ventilation system will  obviously not happen. Extracted from http://lensahijau.blogspot.com/2012/10/the-establishment-of-air-house-standard_18.html How does the Passive   Ventilation   System Works for Modern Malay   house in Malaysia and Common  Traditional Malay House in   Malaysia ? Extracted from http://www.belumresort.com/acco_kampung_house.html The floor plan above shows the floor plan of the Modern Malay House in Belum Rainforest  Resort. Common Traditional Malay House Floor Plan Extracted from https://www.academia.edu/2377416/Chapter_2_Malaysian_Vernacular_Architecture_and_Its_Relationship_to_Climate Both Modern Malay House and Traditional Malay House are randomly arranged. This is  to ensure that the wind velocity in the houses in the latter path of the wind will not  substantially being reduced. Stack ventilation is the flow of air from outside which enter into the  building and goes out from the upper side of a the building. Stack ventilation use different  temperature to move the air. Hot air increases due to the lower pressure occur. It is sometimes  being called as a buoyancy ventilation. The below diagram shows how the stack ventilation  basically works. Extracted from http://sustainabilityworkshop.autodesk.com/buildings/stack-ventilation-and-bernoullis-principle Stack ventilation is one of the unique ventilation system that happen in a traditional malay  house. Based on my observation on the modern malay house in Belum Rainforest Resort. I  found that there is no stack ventilation happens on this house since there is no opening through  the roof joint for the air to go out. The other problem is this house does lifted up a bit by the  stilt but the other problem is that there is no floor gaps for the air to come in from below. This  modern malay house in Belum Rainforest Resort does not have the stack ventilation effect   compare to the original traditional malay house. The traditional malay house use the stack  ventilation effect to cool the inner side of the house. Stack ventilation makes the movement of  the air flow and enter from the opening on the downside and the side of the house. Then the air  slowly transfer to the upper side of the house and goes out through the openings on the roof  joint. Extracted from http://malay101.blogspot.com/2012/08/malay-architecture.html Even the modern malay house in Belum Rainforest Resort does not use the stack  ventilation system. they use the other system of ventilation which is the cross ventilation system  . Cross ventilation system is obtain when there is windows on the both sides of the room. This  caused the air to flow across the space. Since the wind comes the most on the side of the  building. Openings on the sideway really helps the modern malay house in Belum Rainforest  Resort to give a better thermal comfort. The cross ventilation system is good since it reducing  the energy consumption in a building. The below diagram shows the cross ventilation system  that happens on modern malay house in Belum Rainforest Resort. The arrows on the diagram above shows the air movement that flows into the house. Other than that ,the unplanned arrangement of the Traditional Malay House is really  important as it gives contribution in reducing the risk of the strong winds. ( Hanafi. 1994 ). Settlements that are along the coastal areas experience great wind speed than the inland  religions. ( Hanafi. 1994 ) Traditional Malay House are usually detached and it dispersed the  units with ample external space. This is to allow the fresh air circulation occurs in the building. (Hanafi. 1994 ). Extracted from https://www.academia.edu/2377416/Chapter_2_Malaysian_Vernacular_Architecture_and_Its_Relationship_to_Climate Extracted from https://www.google.com.my/maps/@5.5428286,101.341145,187m/data=!3m1!1e3 Photo above is the rough arrangement of modern malay house in Belum Rainforest  Resort. The arrangement are based on the linear concept and which it is applying the same  concept as the traditional malay house in Malaysia. How does the orientation of the  building affect the passive  ventilation? Building orientation are really important in malay traditional house. For religious  reasons. most traditional Malay houses are oriented to face Mecca(east west direction) ,  which indirectly minimizes the area of exposed walls to direct solar radiation during theday  (Yuan. 2011). The building orientation also does help in providing good sun shading. and  also a good ventilation system. Normally. the Malay Kampong House will be orientate  according to the east – west orientation. This orientation function as letting you to harness  the daylight and take control of the glare along the long faà §ade of the building. It will reduce  the glare from the setting sun or even from the rising sun. One more reason on why east –  west orientation is the best orientation is because of it ensures the building to get a better  thermal comfort. The photo below show that the not so accurate wind diagram that being  taken from the windfinder.com. Extracted from http://www.windfinder.com/windstatistics/butterworth Based on my research study I found that most of the wind comes from the Northwest and  Northeast side. There is least air comes from the northern and the southern side. This  orientation system works pretty well since the modern malay house in Belum Rainforest Resort  are orientated using the east west orientation. The window on the modern malay house in  Belum Rainforest Resort that located on the side of the house is openable so this can make the  wind to flow into the building and circulate in good way. The below photo shows the orientation  of the modern malay house in Belum Rainforest Resort. Extracted from https://www.google.com.my/maps/@5.5428286,101.341145,187m/data=!3m1!1e3 Building that are surrounded by the water element are good for passive cooling design. What I found is Belum Rainforest Resort is surrounded by a big lake which is the Tasik Banding  . This Tasik banding contribute pretty well in making the house cooler and achieve the correct  standard of thermal comfort. The wind which flow from the Northwest side brings the cool air  from the lake and directly enter the building. – Conclusion In a nutshell. Malaysia is a country that are meant to be as a hot climate  country with a high humidity level. Houses in Malaysia that will be design or already  been designed by people need to follow the Malaysia ‘ s climate to achieve a good  thermal comfort. Modern Malay House in Belum Rainforest Resort are lack of the  original features that suppose to have in every Traditional Malay House. People that  design the malay house in Belum are not concentrating on the features anymore. in  fact they are more in terms of creating a new building with using a different way to  achieve the thermal comfort. The house might look like a malay traditional house  when you look it from the farthest distance. but it is totally different when you come  closer and study about the details of the house. Modern Malay House in Belum are  lack in terms of passive ventilation contribution. The house pretty much does not  apply the basic elements of a traditional malay house which is to have the wall gaps  and small gaps between the timber for the air to move into the building. This is such  a waste since this small features is actually really make the building to achieve a very  good environmental indoor quality. The ventilation through the roof joint also is a  good thing when it comes to express the stack ventilation system. Since traditional  malay house don’t use the electricity more often than a normal building. this stack  ventilation really works in every traditional malay house because it reduce the energy  consumption and automatically reduce the living cost. Also. stack ventilation  makes the traditional malay house to get a maximum ventilation from almost every  side of the house which the wind are basically come from the bottom. middle and  even from the upper side of the house. Other than that. the layout arrangement in  malay house will contribute in making the place become more comfortable. Layout  arrangem ent is one of the criteria in vernacular architecture. this layout arrangement  will contribute on the flow of the wind. Last but not least it is important as well to  orientate the building in a proper direction. The proper building orientation will make  the building to receive a good sun shading device. better air ventilation system so  that the building would not be hotter on the inside.