T TIMBER
AYA
KEY SCALE:
MASTER'S
BED RM.
SHOWER
RM.
DAPORI
SVT'S
PLAN =o"
BED
口
RM.
BATH!
CHILDREN'S
KITCHEN
LIVING RM.
BED RM. BED RM.
DINING
BATH
RM.
1.7
VERANDA H
SUN DECK
accounts for the high cost of the house, M$30,000. But the house must be considered as experimental.
If it can be produced in large numbers, with certain improvements, the cost can be very considerably reduced. At present, two types based on the house at Kepong are being designed for other Government de partments in the country.
The house is built throughout of pressure-impregnated Malayan tim- ber: keruang for the frame, kempas for the floors and meranti for the louvres and other parts of the cladding.
The Forest Department obviously considers it a success and has com- missioned the Technical College to design two smaller types, a class E (three bedrooms) and a Class G (two bedrooms) quarters and a number of these houses are to be built at Kepong later in the year.
They have been designed by stu dents of the present second year under the guidance of Guenther Naleppa who has succeeded Carl Voltz as a lecturer from Germany, and again by way of a competition within the year; and the two types selected by the Forest Department are at present detailed by two teams of students. A third team is busy detailing a type corresponding to the Class E house which has been selected by a private promoter from the competition designs.
These small and simple houses may yet be seen as a valuable ad- vance in two directions:
SECTION
1. Their success may help to overcome the still prevailing prejudice against timber as a building material in the Federation. Even in Class D house is considerably cheaper than a brick or concrete house of the same size could be; and
THE HONG KONG & FAR EAST BUILDER — VOLUME 16. NUMBER 3
there is no reason to doubt that a timber house will stand up for at least 60 years. In this fight for timber, we are the allies of the Forest Depart- ment and, incidentally, the Deputy Prime Minister who has frequently pronounced himself in favour of timber as a building material for Malaya. 2. They introduce an element of reality into the training of young architects whose value it is to overate. The student who is given the opportunity to design for life, to meet a client, to see the building taking shape and to compare it will his drawings enjoys an experience which no study scheme can provide. Even the mistakes made in designing- what design can be called faultless
convey to him a
lesson.
We have been fortunate, in fact, that the first house took so long to design. because in this way students of different years have shared in the work. This, of course, applies only to our first, experimental house.
Success creates opportunity, and we are reasonably certain that from now on the students of architecture at the Technical College will always have one or the other small building to design which will be carried out.
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