Front view of the M$30,000 timber house at Kepong.
STUDENTS DESIGN AND CARRY
HOUSE AT KEPONG. M
THE three-bedroom house built
in Malayan timber for the Forest Research Institute of the Federal Government at Kepong, out- side Kuala Lumpur. is the first building in the Federation designed by students of architecture. In 1958. Peter Morley. then State Architect P.W.D. for Negri Sembilan. sug gested that our students might design a Class D Quarter. He thought it good experience for students to try their hand at a design for life.
The Forest Department agreed. We were shown the site in the In- stitute's grounds at Kepong; a nar row slope in densely wooded hills. looking west. It had two advantages. It was suggestive of the shape of the house which could hardly be any- thing other than that finally realised: a succession of rooms accessible from an outer passage to the west, providing sun protection for the rooms behind; a house raised on stilts, with the carport placed under- neath.
The second advantage was the beauty of the site which commands fine views to the west and south. a fact, incidentally, which we could fully realise only after the artificial level of the house had been created. The finished building seems to fit the site perfectly.
60
BY-
JULIUS POSSNER, HEAD OF THE DEPARTMENT OF ARCHITECTURE, KUALA LUMPUR TECHNICAL COLLEGE
A competition was held within the second
of our year
course of architecture, and the winning design, by Tang Chow Pui, is essentially the one carried out. Working drawings were prepared under the guidance of Carl Voltz. who had come from Western Germany under a technical assistance scheme, with the year working as a team. When these were ready, building had to be post- poned indefinitely; only two years later, in May. 1960. the funds were made available.
It was then found that the work- ing drawings prepared two years earlier had to be thoroughly over- hauled, and Mr. Norman Lehey. senior lecturer. prepared a new set together with a student of the present second year. Tan Beng Hoe.
Finally, the present third year, under Norman Lehey, produced a set of details indicating fittings, built-in furniture. finishes, colours, electrical and water installations. The house was completed by the end
of 1960. During the preparation and the building of the house, the College staff was working closely together with the Forest Engineer. Mr. Patrick Campbell,
The house is built up of units measuring 12 feet x 18 feet. The panels forming walls between the posts spaced twelve feet consist in each unit of four parts which are filled either with timber louvres and Naco louvres for window panels, or with flush plywood doors or, in the living room, are treated as sliding- folding doors. with timber louvres above the transome. The standardisa- tion facilitates the use of the house as a prototype for larger production with pre-cut timbers. and it also gives the design unity.
Instead of a roof truss, a shaped double beam was used, measuring 6 inches at the eaves and 12 inches at ridge. The roof skin consists of a deck of T and G boarding covered witth a rooding felt and. finally. concrete slabs. The roof is insulated underneath the timber deck, and the ceiling is made of soft board. This accounts for the high fascia, which crowns the house.
The type of roof appears to be current in the U.S.A., but it is open to question if it is equally suitable for Malaya, where carpenters are less used to building it. It partly
THE HONG KONG & FAR EAST BUILDER — VOLUME 16, NUMBER 3
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