A Critical Review of User Fit-out in Habitable Rooms in High-Rise Residential Apartments in Malaysia

Abstract

Nowadays, high-rise residential apartments (HRRA) are developing very fast in major urban areas in Malaysia. However, the layouts of these apartment units seem to be too typical and lacking certain contextual socio-environmental considerations. A residential unit accommodates more than just rooms. There are distinct spaces with various Use-Territories (UTs) inside every room created by furniture layout. During the design stage, usually less importance is given to UTs. In search of their impact, the objectives of this study were firstly to identify the most popular furniture with their approximate dimensions, secondly to find their location in terms of distance from window, and thirdly, to identify typologies of furniture layouts in terms of UTs. Based on a questionnaire survey distributed among 98 HRRA residents in the city of Johor Bahru, the conceptual furnished plans of studied rooms were drawn. That was followed by a qualitative categorization carried out to extract the typologies of mostly-used UTs. Four typologies for living room and six of that for bedroom were identified through comparative analysis. The study showed that the social behavior of occupants in terms of arranging UT may be against their indoor environmental condition of daylighting. The significance of the study lies in the fact that in a tropical country like Malaysia with abundance of daylight but associated with glare, thermal heat gain, and low air movement, social needs can bend the users' decisions to arrange pre-conceived convention of UTs in habitable rooms. Therefore, designing layouts or orienting habitable rooms should need more investigation.

Impact of Furniture Layout on Indoor Daylighting Performance in Existing Residential Buildings in Malaysia

“…Based on the solar angle and furniture position, furniture may reflect direct sunlight further in buildings or shade it from the rest. While the occupants of residential buildings in the context of Malaysia have more tendencies for choosing type A to furnish their residential working rooms [5], in this paper, type B represented better indoor daylight performance than the other furnished conditions. This indicates that the social needs of people had a higher priority over the environmental needs, especially daylight utilization, when furnishing their residential working rooms.…”

“…Accordingly, surface reflectance values of 70%, 50%, and 20% were assigned to the ceiling, walls, and floor, respectively. Furniture specifications in terms of type, material and colour were determined based on a social survey conducted in residential buildings in Johor Bahru [5]. However, the reflectance values of furniture surfaces were determined based on the adjusted colour for the selected furniture [52], as shown in Table 3.…”

“…Home-based office has been recently focused by the government in Malaysia to encourage the citizens to work from their residential units [4]. A recent survey in several residential buildings in Malaysia [5] shows that most of the occupants (approximately 70%) carried out computer-related tasks in addition to other household tasks in their residential units during the daytime (9 am to 5 pm). Overall, desk-related tasks (reading, writing, and computing) are frequently done by workers in their residential working rooms during the daytime.…”

“…A questionnaire survey on furniture arrangements in working rooms was conducted by Mousavi, Khan [5] in 11 residential buildings in Johor Bahru, Malaysia. As desk-related tasks had the highest usage among home workers and the focus of this research is on such activities in a working room, typologies of MUFL were determined based on different locations of a desk in a typical working room (Fig.…”

Impact of Internal Shading Controls on Efficient Daylighting in Home-Office Workspaces in Tropical Climates

“…Home offices have considerably increased worldwide. A survey in several high-rise residential buildings in Malaysia showed that most occupants carried out at least a type of desk-related tasks in their residential units during the daytime [7]. The current outbreak of coronavirus disease (COVID-19) all over the world has obliged people to work from their homes, especially those people who are performing any type of deskrelated tasks.…”