Design Team
Tay
Kheng Soon
Chung Meng Ker
Design Data
Site
Area: 47,964 sq m (4.79 ha)
Site Coverage: 36.20 %
Plot Ratio: 1: 0.68
Building type: 2-storey terrace houses, 676 units
676 experimental two-storey houses, each with a small garden of 13 square metres, were completed in 1976. It was the result of a critical morphological study into alternatives to high-rise and walk-up apartments at densities of up to plot ratio of 2:1. What Cheras showed is that a plot ratio of 0.68:1 is possible at a cost significantly lower than for medium and high-rise solutions. High-density low-rise can even be attractive given its ground-hugging typology. To date, after nearly 20 years and with minimum maintenance, the project still looks reasonably well-maintained. With its tree-lined roads and paths, and little sign of vandalism, it has matured. It also shows that 144 ground-based dwellings, each with a private garden, can be accommodated for each hectare of land.
In terms of units, it compares favourably with Le Corbusier's 33 units
of dwellings per hectare at a plot ratio of 0.5:1. The unit sizes are
different - Cheras dwellings being 48.31 square metres each and Le Corbusier's
cellular dwellings being 150 square metres each. But there are many possible
permutations between these two typologies, trading off density numbers
against unit sizes and balanced against plot ratio. This is the power
of morphology as a tool. It is possible to systematically study alternatives
in an unprejudiced manner.
This project came about when the President of the Housing Developers Association
(HDA) of Malaysia, Datuk Tan Chin Nam met the then Prime Minister Tun
Abdul Razak in 1975. During their conversation, the Prime Minster said
that it was the Government's objective to build houses for the lower income
group in urban areas costing not more than M$ 5,000 per dwelling. The
budget must include all professional fees, foundations, site works and
all infrastructure works. Land cost was not to be included. Datuk Tan
promised the Prime Minster that his Association would deliver the houses
to the
Government. A Working Committee was established by the HDA. Various designs
and layouts were studied.
Tay Kheng Soon had been working on studies of high-density low-rise housing
whilst with Design Partnership and when that partnership dissolved, he
spent some months travelling in Malaysia pondering his future. By chance,
he met Low Keng Huat who had been the contractor for the People's Park
Complex in Singapore (1967-70). Low, who was a close friend of Datuk Tan,
became enthusiastic about Tay's low-rise, high-density housing solutions
and arranged for him to meet the HDA Technical Committee in the presence
of Datuk Tan. Datuk Tan Chin Nam was convinced that the cluster link house
form where all the dwelling units had private gardens and where the density
was 144 dwellings per hectare could be built at a low cost. Each dwelling
has 2 bedrooms, a kitchen, a living room, a dining room and a toilet/bath/wash
room.
Low Keng Huat did his costing studies and offered to provide a turnkey
contract to build the 676 dwelling units on 4.8 ha of land, made available
by City Hall for a fixed price of M$5,000.00 per dwelling. The Mayor of
Kuala Lumpur, Tan Sri Yacob Hitam, together with his Technical Committee,
reviewed the proposal. Tay prepared detailed plans and Tan Sri Yacob Hitam,
who was aware of building regulation departures which Tay Kheng Soon's
proposal entailed, called a meeting with all the relevant technical officers
who were involved in the granting of building permission. That meeting
approved, with minor amendments, the building plans prepared and soon
after that, construction began. Although the building cost was very low
compared to any housing that was being built at that time, the contractor/developer
made a profit which later justified his optimism that the cluster-link
house could be a viable economic proposition for private sector development.
The housing layout was influenced by the built-form studies of Lionel
March and Leslie Martin and others at the Centre for Land Use and Built
Form Studies in Cambridge (UK), published in the book 'Urban Space and
Structures' in 1972. Arranged in straight lines and orientated to catch
the prevailing wind, the houses are in back-to-back clusters of four units
around a 2.5 metre wide 'breezeway'. This connects the front and the rear
of the cluster and draws air through. The scheme illustrates Tay's rational
approach to architecture with a social agenda befitting his Modernist
intentions. Not at all nostalgic, the design nevertheless captures the
community spirit of the traditional kampong. The mesh of pathways was
influenced by an intensive study of life in the village and involved a
transformation of the observed patterns to create the 'Modern Kampong'.
The simple straightforward designs were built within the cost target of
M$5000.
A study undertaken by the Department of Sociology and Anthropology, University
of Malaya, has shown that sociability is extremely high. Vandalism is
low and most households leave their front door open - indicating a sense
of security and a high degree of sociability. The positive feelings of
neighbourliness are expressed as optimism about forming a community association.
89.6% express confidence in this. Whilst the reactions to the project
are generally positive, there were also some negative ones.
These were related mainly to the smallness of the dwelling and in particular,
the toilet and kitchen. The Housing Development Authority recommended
the low-cost cluster-link houses as constructed in Cheras to be one solution
to Malaysia's housing requirements.
