Typology and functions of courtyard in Malaysian terrace house

Abstract

Housing is a microcosm of a civilization where human are nurtured under a specific environment. In Malaysia, due to the urbanization phenomena, terrace housing scheme adopted from Great Britain were introduced. The need of the space becomes a major consideration in utilizing the limited land plot for housing development. Through the evolution of the houses design over more than 56 years, several issues were highlighted such as poor ventilation, low indoor quality and poor day lighting. Design intervention by re-introducing the courtyard into the terrace housing scheme seems to be partly unsuccessful attempt. The core problem lies on generalization of courtyard design in Malaysian terrace house which lead to the failure in courtyard function. This study infers that the function of courtyard might be influenced either by design typology or by the users. In identifying the said factors the research uses two approaches by investigating the tangible factor through the observation process and the intangible factors through the feedback from the user’s perception. Adoption of three methods of analysis which are the space syntax analysis, semantic differential analysis and statistical analysis are aimed to investigate the factors influencing courtyard function. Traditionally, Malaysian terrace courtyard houses have more than one courtyard within a house. In the analysis of the present terraces courtyard house, the finding found 3 distinctive typology of courtyard house; front, middle and rear courtyard. The study also shows relationship between courtyard type and courtyard function. As far as Malaysian terrace courtyard house is concern, the front courtyard is used for public space while the middle courtyard is for family gathering space and the rear courtyard serve as service courtyard.