Thermal Comfort Honeycomb Housing:The Affordable Alternative to TerraceHousingby Mohd Peter Davis, Mazlin Ghazali, NorAzian NordinKuala Lumpur, Malaysia: Universiti PutraMalaysia, 2006Hardcover, 187 pp., $50.00 (postpaid fromMalaysia)*

This book is an inspiring example ofhow human creativity and determi-

nation can solve a problem that willchange the lives of many people for thebetter. As the authors’ “honeycombhousing” becomes a reality in Malaysia(where the government and housingdevelopers are awarding honeycombprojects), the idea should catch on, tobuild comfortable housing around theworld—and to tackle other very solvabledevelopment challenges.

In the first chapter, author Mohd PeterDavis explains how when he moved toMalaysia from Australia, he found hiswife’s house in Kuala Lumpur lovely, buttoo hot. It was a typical terraced row-house, but so hot during the day that hecouldn’t think and so hot at night that hecouldn’t sleep. Malaysia has 2 million ofthese grossly overheated houses, bothlow cost and luxury versions, he says,and the capital, Kuala Lumpur, is now aserious “urban heat island.”

The older, traditional wooden kam-pong houses in the rural areas were coolat night, but unbearably hot “torturechambers” during the day. So, highlymotivated by heat stress, Peter Davisdecided to design and build a new kindof house that would be comfortably coolwithout air conditioning. He succeeded,and has been living with his family intheir dream house for 14 years.

As he writes, “Our dream bungalow,designed to suit our family needs, hasserved a wider purpose; it is the first sci-entific demonstration that energy effi-cient thermally comfortable houses canbe built in Malaysia without using air-conditioning.” Davis calculated that hisdecision not to use air-conditioning will

save him the entire cost ofbuilding the house in another 9years. (Note that he is notagainst air-conditioning, how-ever, and recommends that forbad heat waves or large gather-ings, people could have oneunit for their living area.)

Thermal ComfortDavis then took on the project

of improving Malaysia’s existingurban housing and developingan attractive, comfortable, cooldesign for new housing thatcould be easily and inexpensively mass-produced. He and his colleagues scientif-ically studied, first of all, individual ther-mal comfort—what a tolerable tempera-ture was for most people in Malaysia’shot, humid, climate—and then measuredthe temperatures night and day of variouskinds of existing housing. For most peo-ple, the thermal comfort zone is between24° and 28°C (75.2°-82.4°F).

They charted the Malaysian climatefor every day in a year, and studied howhouses heat up, and cool down.Although Kuala Lumpur’s humid out-door temperature didn’t get above 35°C(95°F), the indoor temperature reached49°C under the roof.

Then Davis and co-authors worked onthe science of the architecture and thebuilding materials. First, they developed a“cool roof,” which reduced indoor tem-perature by 3.5°C (6.6°F). They foundthat the common Malaysian practice ofusing natural ventilation—doors and win-dows open—during the day made thehouse hotter, because it brought in thehottest air of the day from outside.

Conversly, opening the doors andwindows at night—the opposite of usualMalaysian practice—cooled down thehouse and stored the coolness, keepingthe house cooler the next day. Amechanical ventilation system at night(such as an exhaust fan) helped thisprocess. They found that between 14 to28 air changes per hour were most effec-

tive. Roof wind turbines, they discov-ered, had no cooling effect.

By combining the cooling features,the improved house was 5.6°C (10°F)cooler than conventional houses. Thekey was keeping the roof from heat gainfrom the Sun. They accomplished this,working with industry, by finding awhite metal that would stay clean, notleak, and not store as much heat as theusual red concrete tile Malaysian roof.They tested both glass wool and rockwool insulation, which both worked, allin all reducing thermal discomfort in atwo-story house by 80 percent and in aone-story house by 70 percent.

To keep the walls from heat gain, theydesigned wrap-around verandas. Thisenabled the concrete building materialsto store the coolness from night ventila-tion, instead of the heat from the Sun.

The authors proposed that the govern-ment replace the current urban roofswith the new “cool roof,” which wouldcut the thermal discomfort factor by 80percent. But no one wanted to pay forthe renovation. And so, they decided toconcentrate on building new housingthat was thermally comfortable—at noadditional cost to the builder or buyer.

It should be noted that in the past,Malaysia has been a housing successstory, constructing “reasonable qualityurban housing,” Davis says, to keeppace with the population increase andthe migration from the rural areas. The

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How to Build Comfortable,Cool, and Attractive Housingby Marjorie Mazel Hecht

problem is today that the price ofbuying a row house is too high formost working families, who liveinstead in high-rise “pigeon-hole”apartment buildings.

The Honeycomb DesignArchitect Mazlin Ghazali’s hon-

eycomb design addresses the costquestion, and also two other com-plaints by residents of current low-cost housing: thermal discomfortand too-small kitchens. He alsoconsidered the lack of communityspaces and the unfriendliness ofconventional urban designs.

The Ghazali design revamps thetraditional urban row house designby placing housing units around acentral space in hexagonal forma-tions. This gives the group of hous-es an inner courtyard. Instead of“monotonous terrace houses withsmall front yards,” Ghazali says,there are “semi-detached houseswith generous gardens . . . at noextra cost to the buyers.”

The Ghazali tessellating designis not only attractive, but is moreefficient than the usual row housedesign, accommodating morehousing units per acre, usingduplexes, triplexes, and quadru-plexes. He has designed wholeneighborhoods in a hexagonalgrid, and all types of housing,including honeycomb four- andfive-story apartment buildings. Thedesign allows for mature trees tohave the room to grow in the innercourtyards, unimpeded by sewerand utility lines.

A basic consideration was howto provide safe play areas for chil-dren, and community recreationalspaces in an urban setting, and how tomake quality homes available for everyMalaysian family. Toward this end, forthe last four years, the authors have beentalking about thermal honeycomb hous-ing with consumers, developers, and thegovernment. In one market survey, theirscale model of “My First Home” had 80percent approval among respondents.When you look at the housing layouts,and the sketches of the honeycombcommunity, it is easy to see why theywould be preferred to the usual rowhouse.

The authors note that the world needs

“about 500 million new houses, mainlyin developing countries.” They see theirdesign as a counterpole to the greenswho advocate going back to nature andthe Stone Age. Instead, they write, wehave to go “back to the optimism ofthe great Biosphere scientist VladimirVernardsky and his concept of theNoösphere. . . .”

We need 1,000 new cities in thedeveloping world, the authors state, andMalaysia is positioned to play a leadingrole as a city builder. Where will thesecities be located? The authors cite theEurasian Land-Bridge, as pioneered byLyndon and Helga LaRouche, as the

location for these new cities.The book concludes: “We can only

agree with Vernadsky: ‘The future is inour hands. We will not let it go.’ ”

The first honeycomb cities, to befunded by the Malaysian government,are on the drawing board (see figure).

If Malaysia can do it, why not NewOrleans?Notes ____________________________________* The book can be obtained directly from the

authors in Malaysia. Send a bank draft forU.S.$50.00 (which includes postage), payableto Peter Davis, and mail to him at Institute ofAdvanced Technology, Universiti PutraMalaysia, UPM 43400 Serdang, Selangor,MALAYSIA. For more information, contact PeterDavis at e-mail: mohd_peter@hotmail.com.

BOOKS 21st CENTURY Fall-Winter 2006 101

An early concept proposal for a satellite city envisioned to house 100,000 residents in2,000 acres.