THE SHOPHOUSE BUILDING TYPE

There are a few key design steps that can be taken that I believe will improve the quality of low-income housing:

First, avoid the creation of a ghetto. This automatically happens when people with low income are segregated exclusively into one location. It can be expected that people with low income are subject to more social and family stresses compared to other income groups, therefore concentrating them can worsen the situation. It is somehow considered normal to design low-cost flats seperated from low-medium cost and medium-cost flats. Some degree of income segregation is inevitable, but placing RM42,000, RM60,000 and RM80,000 flats in one building should be considered acceptable. It also makes economic sense, where the units on the lower floors should cost more than the units on the upper floors.

A survey undertaken among civil servants in Bukit Timbalan in Johor Baru, found (albeit indirectly) that respondents who could afford RM 80,000 flats on the first floor didn’t find the idea of having RM42,000 units on the 4th floor so objectionable. Also in Taman Sutera, Kajang the mix of low-medium and medium-cost flats sold well: the ground floor units were almost RM80,000, the top floor units, just over RM60,000.

Secondly, place the low-cost houses near the commercial section of the new development. This would normally be in a strategic location, near to existing main roads, with easy access to social amenities, public transport and, of course, shops. Shops like to have a concentration of residential population nearby: it provides both customers and workers. For the low income, the cost of transport - to work and to school – take up a high precentage of their monthly expenditure. Therefore being close to social amenities and public transport is important.

We suggest that the way that Developers can be influenced to take these two steps is by developing a new version of a building type that is endemic to Southeast Asia, and that is the ‘shophouse’.


THE SHOPHOUSE

According to Wikipedia(2007) the term ‘shophouse’ is an architectural building type that is both native and unique to urban Southeast Asia. This hybrid building form characterises the historical centres of most towns and cities in the region. Shophouses typically display the following features:

Mutifunctional, combining residential and commercial use. The ground floor of shophouses were used for business and trading, and the proprietors lived on the upper floor.

Low-rise, typically two to three storeys high.

Terraced urban buildings, standing next to each other along a street, with no gap or space in between buildings, with a single party wall separating the shophouses on either side of it.

Narrow street frontages, but may extend backwards to great depths, extending all the way to the rear street.

Historian, Jon S.H. Lim, adds another important feature, and that is the ’five-foot ways’, and he traces this to the Raffles ‘Ordinances’ (1822) which stipulated “ all houses constructed of brick or tiles have a common type of front each having a verandah of a certain depth,open to all sidesas a continuous and open passage on each side of the street”.

This building type evolved according to changing needs from the late 18th century during the colonial era, into the post independence era, until today. Shophouses inhabited by a single proprietor and his extended family, became tenanted buildings; double storey became three storey and higher; the upper floors gained direct staircase access from the ground floor verandah; the single proprietor building became a subdivided building with separate strata title ownership. The traditional shophouse building evolved to create new categories: the shop/apartment and the shop/office.

Despite these changes, the “shophouse pedigree” retained the features mentioned above.

In our new proposed building design, we attempt to take the evolution process a step further.

THE ‘KOTAPURI’

The “Kotapuri” apartment is a new alternative to the shop/apartment building type. It was designed to overcome the functional conflict between residential housing (especially for the low-income category) and commercial use. In particular it seeks to solve the following problems found in existing shophouse and low-cost schemes.

Shophouse problems

The commercial zone is not an obvious place to place housing. There are bound to be conflicts between residential and commercial use. The shophouse building-type evolved from an earlier period when merchants lived above their shops. The towns, at that time, were small and could be said to be have been safer than they are today. There was less traffic and, perhaps, not so many strangers. For the typical family today, the typical shop/apartment layout is hardly ideal. The shortcomings include:

• Lack of suitable play area for pre-school and primary school children
  
• Safety from traffic
  
• Lack of soft landscape
  
• Safety from crime
  
• Lack of cleanliness
  
• Inadequate system for disposal of solid waste
  
• Insufficient car park

Yet, having housing near shops, does have advantages. Shop/apartment developments almost always ‘boom’ before shop/office schemes. That is, the shops below apartments start to become occupied, and commercial activities begin to thrive, much earlier. In projects wherthere are shop/apartmentsand shop/offices, the apartments get fully occupied before the shops. In turn, the shops get occupied before the offices. This reflects the differing nature of demand for commercial and residential products. Households are quite indifferent to a new location, at least when compared to shops. Retail and other commercial activities need a population to cater to. The residents living above the shops contribute to this population. Offices come later because they look for a ready infrastructure of services - places to eat, to buy essential things and services that they need in the course of their business. They also want a good already well-known address. They certainly prefer not to move to a new, half-deserted area. Proximity to a labour pool and good housing also helps.

Low Cost Housing

In addition to the above, existing low-cost apartment designs are also beset by problems that the “Kotapuri” seeks to overcome

• Isolated location far away from shops and amenities.
  
• Difficulty of collecting maintenance fees
  
• Insufficient money for proper maintenance
  
• A loss making proposition that needs to be cross subsidized by medium and high cost housing.
  
• No appreciation in value for buyers