• Journal of East-Asian Urban History
• /
• v.3 no.1
• /
• pp.139-160
• /
• 2021

The verandah was a common feature of Chinese multi-storeyed houses in Southeast Asia and China. This paper argues that while an earlier version of a narrow walkway might have had its origin in Singapore, the building of an extension on the upper floors encroaching the airspace over the road skirting the building was an arrangement allowed by the colonial Hong Kong government in compensation to landlords for space devoted to ventilation. As the introduction of reinforced concrete allowed buildings to become taller, the more attractive it was to developers to incorporate the verandah design.

• Korean Institute of Interior Design Journal
• /
• no.17
• /
• pp.173-180
• /
• 1998

The aim of the study was to grasp the current trends and to predict the future trends of space composition characteristics by analyzing floorplans drawn by housewives as their ideal apartments. The content analysis method was used for this study. This research used data from a competition held in 1993 by a housing construction company. Among 3,102 floorplans collected 12,232 were selected by Proportional Stratified Sampling Method. The major findings are as follows; 1) Some major features were interpreted as current trends; respondents wanted new rooms that could accomodate various functions separated the private spaces from public trends; they wanted to expand the verandah both visually and actually put importance on the number of bathrooms and have the space for outdoor living and leisure activities.

• International Journal of High-Rise Buildings
• /
• v.4 no.2
• /
• pp.117-125
• /
• 2015

A vertical city with multifunctional land use turns out to be the most viable solution for an urban condition characterized by increasing density due to population expansion, topographical limitation of buildable land, economic development and the pursuit for collective sustainable living, such as in Hong Kong. This paper presents initial research results from a study on the chronological and typological evolution of tall buildings in the city, from the climate-responsive verandah typology to the mixed-use hyper-commercial podium and residential tower typologies that predominate today, to the ultimate formation of a vertical city. Case studies and surveys have focused on the development of this building typology throughout the decades since the 1920s, substantiating a discussion on the subjective and objective factors contributing to a genesis of the vertical city phenomenon in Hong Kong. The discussion will engage, under the notion of the vertical city, on how residents and visitors adapt to the growing density of the city, and how they accustom themselves to the changing urban morphology over time. Advantages such as high efficiency, spaces savings, time convenience, etc.; and disadvantages such as deficiency in livability, incompatibility of uses, environmental health deficiencies, etc.; serve as a reference for other cities in need of high-density planning due to population and economic growth.

• Journal of architectural history
• /
• v.7 no.4 s.17
• /
• pp.175-190
• /
• 1998

The formation of Chinese Town in Malacca of Malaysia and Singapore would explain that Chinese gradually played an important role of commerce and urban service according to the Western European advance to southeast Asia and the construction of colonial cities from the 16th century to 19th and massed residence in many cites of southeast Asia. Chinese was usually separated from the Western European by western colonial policy and city planning. Common architectural characteristics in Chinese towns of Malaysia can refer to the transmission of the Chinese architectural material, the combination of dwelling and commerce in a house and the space organization centered on a court or an air well in the narrow and long site, lying adjacent to street etc. The Chinese dwellings in Malaysia rooted with Chinese settlement in southeast Asia. The Chinese dwellings was not always a shop on 1th floor and a dwelling on 2nd floor before the 19th century. But as Chinese immigration and commercial activity progressed in earnest in the early of 19th century, the row house of Chinese for dwelling was autonomously changed to two functional shophouse for dwelling and commerce. Chinese row house can refer to the use of Malay regional material, change of symmetrical Chinese traditional housing type by the narrow and long site and the tendency of the eclectic elevation of Western and China. Another architectural characteristics of the shophouse is an appearance of the continuous verandah with a cover regulated by Stamford Raffles in Singapore. This regulation was applied to architecture in Chinese Town as Stamford Raffles constructed Singapore. It was spread to South China reversely and became the regulation of streetscape for the modern city. Shophouse of Chinese towns in Southeast Asia and south China can be understood by context of Chinese immigration, colonialism, housing type of commerce and dwelling and the Western European city planning.

• Journal of architectural history
• /
• v.9 no.2 s.23
• /
• pp.65-84
• /
• 2000

The region of Southeast Asia had already experienced rapid urbanization and cultural change before the East Asia region did. None the less, nowadays shophouses and rowhouses still form the major portion of streets in Chinese town in Southeast Asia countries. The purpose of this study is to examine the adaptation process of shophouse and rowhouse in the Southeast Asia region and the architectural characteristics between the middle of 18th and the early of 20th, which Chinese people of the region inherit and develop, for more thorough understanding of cultural adaptability and regionalism of Chinese architecture in Southeast Asia. The common fact found in the Southeast Asia region is that Chinese people in countries of this region gradually started to live densely as a group in a certain zone in city area since they got to play important roles in commerce, trade and service works related with cities, due to European countries' advance into Southeast Asia and their construction of colonial cities in the region. Chinese people in the region utilized residential rowhouse and special shophouse, which is a kind of shop adapted from rowhouses' sitting room or storage, for their commercial and industrial activities in urban areas, which had problems of limited space. They also realized high densities through vertical expansion of space in order to adjust to changing urban structure under execution of urban planning in cities of colonial area and rapid urbanization. Even though residence of Chinese in Southeast Asia was influenced by new political, social, economic and cultural rules of European colonies in Southeast Asia, it has continuously succeeded to the cultural tradition of China, their home country, in terms of planning principle which puts air well in the middle and hierarchial spacial construction method. Appearance of the open connected verandah, designed by Stamford Raffles, the founder of Singapore, can be regarded as one of the architectural characters. Hence, Chinese residence in cities of Southeast Asia can be understood as a new regional architectural culture in the context of European countries' urban planning and urbanization of colonial areas, Immigrants from southern China and their role, their adjustment to urban areas by utilizing mixed type houses of residence and business, cultural tradition of Chinese home country.