arc 2224 architecture theories and urbanism

8/10/2019 ARC 2224 ARCHITECTURE THEORIES AND URBANISM

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Theories of Architecture and Urbanism [ARC 2224]

PROJECT 1: THEORIZING ARCHITECTURE

Analytical Study on Harrison House, Janda Baik, Pahang

by Ar. Laurent A. G. Lim - In Harmony of the Great Outdoors

NAME : David Koo Mei Da

STUDENT ID : 0311181

LECTURER : Ms. Ida Marlina

SUBMISSION DATE : 24th November 2014


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Table of Contents Page

1.0 Introduction 2

2.0 Analysis - In Harmony of the Great Outdoors 4

2.1 Climatic 4

2.2 Architecture Theory 10

2.3 Client and Users 15

3.0 Discussion and Conclusion 19

4.0 References 20

5.0 Appendix 21


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1.0 INTRODUCTION

Born in 1960s, Ar. Laurent A. G. Lim comes from a well-being family, which

consists of family members of two parents and two siblings. He started his journey in

architecture since 1983 in Liverpool John Moores University, Liverpool and in 1995,

he owns an architecture firm named "LLArchitect" at Ampang, Selangor. Before

starting his own business, Laurent worked at Kenzie Lovell Architect, London straight

after his graduation from Diploma in Architecture with Honours at the University of

North London, London. After studying and working aboard for years, Laurent came

back to Malaysia in 1991 and worked as chief architect under T. R. Hamzah &

Yeang Sdn Bhd Kuala Lumpur before becoming a project director under Plaza

Phoenix in 1994.

Being a Penanglite, Laurent studied in his hometown for his primary and

secondary education before he continued his studies at Singapore and United

Kingdom. Having his first trip to Kuala Lumpur at the age of 5, he was inspired by the

high-rise buildings and from this vacation, he made up his mind to become an

architect and what mattered the most is that he has never thought of giving up

throughout the decades. Born during post-independent period, where the

government had just implemented the First Malaysia Plan, the welfare of all citizens

and living conditions in rural area, especially the low-income groups are expected to

be improved under this economic development plan. The first economic

development plan reflects on Laurent's hometown and Laurent feels the life in a city

and village is different because togetherness, warmth and enthusiasm are the key

elements to remain his hometown the same. Thus, he is always grateful to every

single things he has. At the same time, the experiences that Laurent gained in

studies and workings, as well as the principles taught by his mentors and familymembers are embedded vividly in his mind, which these has somehow affected his

design principles and are being applied in all of his projects.

One of the Laurent's selected project during the interview is Harrison House,

Janda Baik, Pahang, as shown in Figure 1. The Harrison house is situated in a 5000

acres of natural ecological park. The main purpose of the house is to provide a

natural retreat for Harrisons Holdings' staff and guests in a natural forest resort. Thus,

Laurent has emphasized simplicity and sustainability in the throughout the designs


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and constructions so that the Harrison House would be blended together with the

forestry outdoors.

Figure 1 : Harrison House at Janda Baik, Pahang. (Lim, 2009)

The content below is to explain the analysis of an architect with his project

based on his design styles, design principles and also the external contributing

factors that affect the architecture of the building. It emphasizes architecture is

similar to language with vocabulary, grammatical structure; both intellectual and

physical. Through the spatial arrangement of the spaces, the building itself carries

messages and communicates meanings to the users.


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2.0 ANALYSIS - IN HARMONY OF THE GREAT OUTDOORS

2.1 Climatic

Based on the data shown in World Weather Online, the average temperature

for Janda Baik ranged from 23 C to 33 C with a total of 2688.3 mm of rainfall

annually. The data collected by the online resource can be strongly supported by

Figure 2 as the sun path diagram for Janda Baik is shown to be superimposed

directly on top of Harrison House. To build a retreat house at such a hot and humid

country, the house is therefore advised to undergo critical design in order to reach

the optimum thermal comfort for the users.

Figure 2 : Sun path diagram superimposed on site plan

Firstly, the retreat house has its entrances at both east and west direction.

The reason behind the two facades with entrances are due to the arrangement of

interior spaces which can be seen from the Ground Floor Plan (see Appendix). As

highlighted in Figure 3, the guests rooms are arranged to face either north or south,

after entering from the porch and drop off area at the west side in Figure 4. Facing

the guest rooms in these two directions can prevent the penetration of the sunlight

into the room space but at the same time allow natural light to brighten the interior

spaces and thus reducing the carbon usage. The allocation for the pool and pool

deck at the east is due to the nice panoramic view from higher contour without


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obstructions. Besides, having a pool near the lodge can indirectly lower down the

surrounding temperature under evaporation cooling effect by the water (Figure 5).

Moreover, these areas are shaded during afternoon, which encourage more

activities around the area and also engaging the users to nature. Similarly to the

porch and drop off area, these areas are fully shaded during morning and indirectly

inviting the users upon their arrival to the lodge.

Figure 3 : Spatial arrangement of the guest rooms


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Figure 4 : Spatial arrangement of the drop off area and pool

Figure 5 : Evaporative cooling by water features (pool)

In terms of wind analysis, Malaysia Weather Online states the wind comes

mainly from southeast, south and north direction, as shown in Figure 6. Hence,openings facing either north or south are available in each guest rooms so that the

new movement of sustainable architecture can be emphasized. Moreover, it is

clearly seen that from Figure 7, Figure 8 and Figure 9, the openings actually allow

the warm and cool air to circulate inside the lodge, and this is basically how cross

ventilation occurs.


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Figure 6 : Windrose diagram superimposed on site plan

Figure 7 : Cross ventilation on ground floor plan


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Figure 8 : Cross ventilation on first floor plan

Figure 9 : Cross ventilation on symmetrical section

In terms of the design of the lodge, the reinforced concrete flat roof is

overhang in order to control the number of sunlight entering into the spaces

(Figure10). Besides, the openings at each facades allows a very small amount of

sunlight to enter into the spaces so that the spaces can be brighten by the reflection

of the solar ray at the finishing floor layers (Figure 11).


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Figure 10 : Cross section with natural sunlight

Figure 11 : Cross section with reflected solar ray at finishing floor layer


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2.2 Architecture Theory

Once being the holder for Palladian Awards during his study life in the

Liverpool John Mores University, the design of the house is somehow affected by

the Palladian House design principles which was a movement started by Andrea

Palladio (1508-1580). In Palladio's book The Four Books on Architecture or I Quattro

Libri dell'Architettura (1570), he shared his theories and designs dealt with geometry,

style and proportion (Essley, n.d.).

Compared the Harrison's House to the Palladian style, Harrison's House do

follow some of the Palladian design principles. One of the features of Palladian style

that can be found in Harrison's House is the five-part layout. According to Essley, the

ground floor plan which follows the Palladian style can be simply divided into 5

sections with some parts of the buildings are forward of the main house. In Figure 12,

the colonnade joins the buildings on the same line as the house, but it also serves as

a covered porch on the out building.

Figure 12 : Ground floor plan divided into 5 sections

Besides, the drop off area of Harrison's House shown in Figure 13 indicates

one of the early features of the Palladian house and is published in The Four Books.

According to Palladio, this front porch or drop off area is a loggia, which it is intended


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into the main structure. However, the single porch is replaced later with a two-tiered

porch so to emphasize more on the human scale (Figure 14).

Figure 13 : Cross Section with single-tiered drop off area

Figure 14 : Cross Section with human scale

Whereas in terms of spatial planning, Harrison's House shows the layout of

rooms which is symmetrical about an axis running from the front to the back (Figure

15). Similar to the Palladian theory, there is always an axis of symmetry to be found

in the floor plan. In addition, the central core of the ground floor is on a perfect scale

compared to other spaces. Related back to Palladio's fundamental premise : the

parts must relate to the whole and to each other (Gable, n.d. ). To this matter,Laurent had the ground floor designed in such a way that the drop off point and the

pool is separated with the dining area at the middle and also, the two wings on north

and south, which are having the same sizes of rooms are divided by centre core as

well (Figure 16). Hence , the spaces at the ground floor plan designed by Laurent

blends well among each other.


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Figure 15 : Ground floor plan with axis of symmetry

Figure 16 : Ground floor plan with centre core

Next, Palladio had another philosophy which he emphasized on classical

elements but built on the cheap (Essley, n.d. ). For the Harrison's House project,

Laurent had estimated RM 2,000,000 as the project value and the value he stated is

considered still reasonable for the outcomes of the project (LLArchitect, 2006).


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As in for the interior, Laurent designed the house in such a way that the

interior spaces must be harmony and balance, which this is the most evanescent

elements of Palladio's solution. In this case, Laurent has designed the guest rooms

(Figure 17) and the public area (Figure 18) with warm light luminaires.

Figure 17 : Guest room (Lim, 2009)

Figure 18 : Public area (Lim, 2009)

For exterior, the house would radiate with three huge linen-clad lamp lights

through the window planes and has a view of the double volume of space at the

main entrance and reception area (Figure 19).


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Figure 19 : Double volume of space at the main entrance and reception area (Lim, 2009)


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2.3 Client and Users

Based on the client's brief, the Harrison Holdings wants a timeless and simple

retreat house to be built at the site. The retreat house shall not based on any

architectural trends but a timeless elegant retreat for their staffs and guests. Besides,

the Harrison House would be a honest and simple retreat with modern features and

the house shall be in total harmony with the forestry outdoors. All in all, the clients

seeks for privacy and yet entertaining atmosphere within the house and these were

the issues to be concerned by Laurent during the designing process.

Thus, the spatial requirements have been arranged and treated carefully with

two wings of guest rooms and a master suite on upper level. A powder room,

caretaker's flat, open plan dry kitchen and wet kitchen, formal dining hall, cigar and

wine area landscaped bamboo courtyards have been planned and integrated in the

house plan (See Appendix). The client wanted different areas for both indoor and

outdoor entertainments. Therefore, the house plans were designed into a horse-shoe

shape and wrapping the infinity pool for strategic geomancy reasons. The infinity

pool also captured the beautiful reflections of the tall tree and surrounding forest.

Besides, the house is divided loosely into few areas such as open area, publicarea and private area and all these include lobby, living space, dry kitchen, dining

room, guest rooms and master room (Figure 20 and Figure 21). Moreover, an open

courtyard is located in the centre, housing an infinity pool which bisecting the two

wings of bedrooms as shown at the ground floor plan. The terrace with an infinity

pool takes on the role of front row seat to the deeper landscape. Fronting the pool, a

tall and elegant tree at 38m creates mysterious reflections onto the infinity pool.

For Figure 20 and Figure 21, the red area indicates the public area for theusers, where as the purple area indicates open spaces and privates spaces such as

guest rooms and master room are highlighted in blue.


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Figure 20 : Ground floor plan with spaces definition

Figure 21 : First floor plan with spaces definition

Besides, based on Figure 22 and Figure 23, each rooms are attached with

their own balcony so that the user can enjoy the framed scenery and at the same

time having an individual outdoor space right near to their rooms.


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Figure 22 : Balcony at ground floor plan

Figure 23 : Balcony at first floor plan

As for the landscape, a series of ingenious forest trees and plants have been

planted into the garden. In addition, different herbal plants and ingenious spices

have been cultivated in the garden. The gardens have planted the local flora and

fauna around the resort. Last but not least, a series of water feature and pool have


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been provided for rest, reflection and nature appreciation. Therefore, with all of the

features mentioned above, the house was conceived and built as a sustainable

green housing with the aim of providing recreational convenience as well as living

experience of nature and green living. To date, many environmentalist,, NGOs and

academics have stayed at the guest house.


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3.0 DISCUSSION AND CONCLUSSON

Overall, the final design of the house is based on the three external as

mentioned in 2.1 climatic, 2.2 architecture theory and 2.3 client and users needs.

Being an architect who practices both modern movement and also classical

architecture theory, Laurent does find the balance between the two elements. Taking

Harrison House as example, Palladio's Theory can be determined from its plan,

section and also elevation. However at the same time, the incorporation of the

modern movement such as functionality and regionalism are practiced and being

shown in the plans and sections. Thus, it is no doubt to say that Laurent is an expert

in harmonizing both extreme elements into a whole. Besides, it is clear that Laurent

does take in the site context into his design consideration as it is shown that thespaces arrangement, windows and door openings and the volume of spaces are all

arranged according to the sunpath and wind direction. Also, the white colour of the

buildings also greatly reflects the sunlight and preventing the heat from radiating into

the house.

Lastly, Laurent, who emphasizes on humanitarian architecture, is always

willing to give back to the community with all the knowledge that he conceived. From

the interview, he mentioned that he is ready to return himself to the community as he

has always involved himself in much of the voluntary works. Besides, he also stands

firm with his own principle and also has a clear mind on the aims he has targeted

and which in my own opinion, his strong and unshaken faith in architecture and

himself shall become a reference and example to us. This is because architecture is

not an easy profession, it requires attitude, discipline and faith in order to walk until

the end.


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4.0 REFERENCES

Kampung Janda Baik Monthly Climate Average, Malaysia (2014). World Weather

Online. Retrieved on November 24th 2014, from

http://www.worldweatheronline.com/Kampung-Janda-Baik-weather-

averages/Pahang/MY.aspx

Kampung Janda Baik Weather, Malaysia (2014). Malaysia Weather Online.

Retrieved on November 24th 2014, from

http://www.malaysiaweatheronline.com/kampung-janda-baik-

weather/pahang/malaysia.aspx

Essley J. (n.d. ). House Design Coffee : Palladian House. Retrieved on November

24th 2014, from

http://www.house-design-coffee.com/palladian-house.html

Laurent Lim Architect (2006). Projects : Harrison Lodge . Retrieved on November

24th 2014, from

http://www.llarchitect.com.my/projectsHL.html

Bogle Wood Corporation (2010). Palladio's Italian Villas. Retrieved on November

24th 2014, from

http://www.boglewood.com/palladio/analysis.html


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