Theoretical reflection on High-rise Dwelling in Sentul

1. School of Architecture, Building & Design
Master of Science (Honours) (Architecture)
Module: Culture and Community Design Studio (CCDS )
Theory component
Name: (Claire) Zhuang Zhi Jie
ID: 0314224

2. Sentul Community Housing
Design intention: Transparency of spaces
Issue: 1. Privatisation of High rise living in Malaysia
2. Lack of Ecodesign of High rise in context of Malaysia
Residential high-rises in Sentul create an image for the city but failing to create an
engaging community realm across the capital. It is due to the privatisation of high-rise
livings by the businessmen, hence creating unwanted thresholds for each building
dwelling: each condominium having an estate and realm of their own. The phenomenon
does not constitute to social benefit - the paradigms of private, semi-private and public
realm should be studied and manoeuvred to suit the lifestyle as well as behaviour of
users. Private living units, connecting/ transitory spaces, shared spaces with facilities and
the public domain connected to the high-rise residential design are studied to plan for
spatial qualities of communal spaces within the building. Oldenburg (1997, p.16) has
argued the importance of providing urban residents with “third planes” that “host the
regular, voluntary, informal and happily anticipated gatherings of individuals beyond the
realms of home and work”. Other than that, the dreaded spatial homogeneity and design
facileness in many skyscrapers built today suggest the need for reconsideration of
approaches to design of tall buildings.
The design of high rise architecture especially vertical housing constitutes to the issue of
generic design, and is mentioned by Yeang (2002) that skyscraper Architecture has
remained it’s essentials since the invention of it. Albeit the transformation in engineering
and technology of Architecture, the constructed high rise has remained the same in terms
of building configuration; spaces and rooms are stacked and piled homogeneously on top
of another in forms of concrete and steel. Net-to-gross areal efficiencies are then resolved
and planned out later. With such inhumane design of Architecture, the consequence is a
demeaning form of high-rise existence for their in habitants. Other than that, the generic
designs of high rise will alienate habitants of high rise living from the environment. As
mentioned before, the unwanted thresholds of Architecture is an indication of real estate
developer’s financial returns on his investments.

3. Urban context
The planning of the ground of Sentul Community Housing is such that there is ease of
movement by creating places that are easy to get to and move through (Yeang, 2002).
Public realms such as cafe, the Green Walk, and lobby are placed along the sides of the
site to blur the boundaries, hence creating ease of movement to and from adjacent sites.
Urban landscape design is also taken into consideration to create easy and pleasant
transition from one site to another, hence the openings at the side of site with use of
plants and trees as a vague boundary indication of site. Yeang has mentioned how Urban
Design can influence the design of new high rise, where it determines how much daylight,
landscape and aesthetics that people can enjoy. Designers tend to ignore urban context
of site and put effort on planning for internal of building and determining building cores,
which will cause limited variations on the ground plane as well as constituting typical bulk
look of the Architecture. Hence, when the urban design context and ground plane are
prioritised, it will contribute to quality of life and vitality that will make high rise living
desirable and humane. (Yeang, 2002).
ChiMan
Primary School
Abandoned
Buildings
Sentul
Depot

4. The Ground plane
One of the strategy planned for the Sentul Community Housing is to reconnect high rise
living habitants to the ground. In order to achieve that, the design intends to break
through this stringent concept of the “privatised and luxurious” living, hence the
placement of facilities and programs on the ground plane and is accessible by
neighbouring site. This is supported by Yeang, in which he mentioned that environments
with diversity, multiplicity and less regimented realms on the ground shall be emphasised
and applied to the high rise living urban environment. Another reason to recreating life at
ground level is that the ground zero is where people tend to feel that the spaces are not
so compartmentalised. The ground plane planning will be in such that there will be visual
continuity of space from one area to another and multi-directionally free. Orderly
progression of program spaces with consideration of pedestrian flow and circulation on
the ground plane will be attempted.
The Verticality
While vertical development is inevitable in this period of time of rapid urbanisation, Yeang
mentioned the need for a new skyline, due to the repetitive high rise Architecture in our
cities’ Central Business Districts today. Hence, to attempt the basis of vertical theory
(Yeang, 2002) where ideal habitable urban conditions found at ground level is brought up
to the sky as recreations, another strategy for the Sentul Community Housing is to create
distinct community realms at different levels to spread out social activities vertically at
particular levels instead of planning for a “facility floor” where activities occur horizontally
on an inaccessible, elevated platform. The community realms will be shall be perceived as
a “Precinct in the sky”. The strategy to spread community realm vertically Is further
supported by Yeang in which he mentioned how skyscrapers’ internal and transitional
spaces shall be similar to urban spaces found in our cities.
Another issue with the verticality of high rise Architecture is the non existence of
openness in multilinkages and choices in accessibility. The main lobby access to
residential units of Sentul Community Housing is planned in such that the fire escape
staircase is open with view to the outside, with greeneries as shade to enhance
pleasurable experience of vertical journey through the building. It is an attempt to break

5. the norm of using compartmentalised staircases as means of vertical transportation,
which are normally limited and noncontiguous. Another strategy to liven up high rise
Architecture to create internal environment similar to that of low and medium rise
buildings is to blur the boundaries of spaces above ground, the attempt is applied in
Sentul Community Housing in which the connecting spaces (corridors) and lift lobbies of
spaces above ground are de-compartmentalised, to create pleasurable crossings across
less-confining spaces.
Ecology of the site
In order to integrate Ecodesign into Architecture designs, the ecology and nature of site
must be understood before imposing any human activity upon it. The planning of units
and spaces of the Sentul Community Housing are in such that the living units are shaded
by the neighbouring high rise buildings on the East and West side. The individual units
allow and capture natural cross ventilation across the corridor, as the wind from the West
is the strongest.
Ecology linkages
The Ecological linkage between high rise Architecture and surrounding landscape should
be improved, both horizontally and vertically. The linkage is crucial for verticality of a
skyscraper, by means of organic connectivity stretching upwards within the built form to
its roofs cape, also known as vertical landscaping. One ecological linkage is implemented
in form of vertical landscape on the facade of the Sentul Community Housing; a green
envelope with steel grating maintenance access for plant maintenance is proposed for the
Community Housing design to shield open ventilated corridors. Green wire cables is
supported by steel structure to allow growth of plants on the facade of the high rise. The
frame as roof is installed with fins to allow natural light and wind into the building where it
needs. As for the shaded spaces of the building, Sika Sarnafil PVC membrane (grey
colour) is placed over the insulation to ensure a perfect waterproofing solution around the
many windows incorporated for an optimum natural lighting, will can bring down the
usage of electricity of the building.

7. In order to achieve Ecodesign, green materials and components that facilitate reuse,
recycling and reintegration for temporal integration with the ecological systems are
integration into the Sentul Community Housing. Urban farming with its composite site are
proposed not only to reproduce food, also as an educational aspect of the Sentul
Community Housing. It is especially efficient to be proposed for the Sentul Community
Housing because there are opportunities to promote awareness of Ecodesign around the
schooling area.
Conclusion
All in all, “Transparency of spaces” should be viewed not only in terms of implementing
the idea of promoting social realm among one another of different culture and class,
planning of spaces of a topical high rise, promotion and placement of community realm
throughout the high rise living, it should also take into consideration the most basic needs
of human as well as the environmental impact. While building vertically on scarce land
nowadays cannot be prevented due to capitalism, it is only fair to conform to evolution
and form a built milieu that is more physically and socially comprehensive; a high-rise
built environments that is more humane and more habitable, in such to reduce destructive
environmental impact. Hence, it is important to design high rise Architecture with human-
made ecological system. The ecological principles are applicable to the wider role of
redesigning our human built environment and its eco-social as well as eco-economic to
enable the survival of our human species.
Reference and theory reflection from
1. Yeang, Ken. Reinventing the Skyscraper: A vertical theory of Urban Design, Wiley
Academy, 2002
2. Yeang, Ken., Yeang Llwelyn Davies. Ecoskyscrapers and Ecomimesis: New tall
building typologies, CTBUH 2008 8th World Congress, Dubai, 2008