This chapter will discuss the issues that caused wooden architecture in Malaysia to be unpopular.
3.1Environmental factors
n Malaysia's weather has long led to the unstable wood construction
n The quality and quantity of Malaysian timber are not sufficient for development and use.
n Case study: abandon wooden resort in Lang Tengah Island
3.2Economy Factor
n Durability: People think that woodenly building is perishable and unsuitable for long-term residence
n Timber production cost: The amount of wood that can be used is small, causing the price to be pushed higher than other material so that people are refusing the use of wood as a building material.
n Survey Data collected from public
3.3Social & Cultural Factor
n Environmental awareness: Most people think that cutting down trees as building materials are destroying nature.
n The pursuit of progress, ideological & aesthetic differences: It is generally believed that simple concrete, tiles, steel, and glass are suitable for modern living conditions than wood, and are more in line with the aesthetic of young people.
n Survey data collected from public
ECONOMY FACTOR
Although Malaysia has a very high percentage of forests, and Malaysia established the largest forest park as early as 1939. Of course, at that time, the wood industry also needed a large-scale forest farm and related development system，it lead the Malaysia's largest state-owned forests in Sabah and Sarawak has started to establish a large-scale industrial forest. However, due to the steep terrain in some areas, it caused to Increasing the cost of logging and developing forests and in the end resulting in an increase in the cost of forestry. In addition to this, coupled with the long-term large-scale and high-density reclamation, not only has the rapidly disappearing original extremely precious tree species but also lead the economic values have been reduced, so that caused of the wood industry and its downstream industries (furniture, industrial plates and woodworking tools, etc.) that once directly or indirectly contributed to Malaysia's past economic boom were gradually declining from Malaysia. In recent years, although the development of wood structure has begun to be taken seriously by the public and private sectors, the wood in Malaysia has been gradually cut down and most of the wood for construction is shipped and exported to others country. Said by Mr.Chua Chun Chai the president of Malaysian furniture council(Anon,16/6/2017), between January and June 2017, the volume of timber exports in Malaysia exceeded 50% of the annual quota for timber exports, causing the local timber industry to face a serious shortage of timber and the price of timber soaring by 50%.
ENVIRONMENTAL FACTORS
Does the wet and humid climate suitable for wood structure? This is a question asking people every time when they refer to wooden buildings.All types of buildings have to face the constraints or challenges of various climatic and environmental conditions. Because of the progress of materials and equipment, modern buildings have begun to challenge (overcome) the climate and environment, giving people the advantages of being independent of geographical and climatic conditions, It is also a growing energy problem, a morbid building problem and even a global warming problem. However, dominated by the postmodernism construction in this era, the architecture changes according to conditions, such as topography, climate, resources and culture. The diversified and highly-identifiable buildings are chosen according to different tectonic systems, different spatial forms and different materials building. However, it is generally believed that the hot and humid climatic conditions in Malaysia are not conducive to the development of wooden houses and that the wooden buildings belong to the exclusive architectural patterns of dry and high latitude countries. However, it is not true! Discussion and analysis of the relevant research tell us that different work methods or housing systems can meet the design and owner requirements in Malaysia and it is suitable for wooden housing development.However, if we can develop more tailor-made wooden housing designs and detailed structural methods for the microclimatic conditions in various regions of Malaysia, it will inevitably enable wooden residential buildings to move towards a higher realm in Malaysia and develop eco-residential projects that truly meet the needs of a low-carbon era.
In addition to the weather, termites and durability preservation also become a problem that can not be ignored. Termite decay is indeed a major hazard to wood construction, especially in hot and humid Malaysia, where the growth of termites is substantially increased.However, the prevention and treatment of termites in recent years has been by leaps and bounds. Apart from abandoning the highly toxic chemicals that may have endangered the safety of soil and human and livestock in the base area, the erosion of wood materials and behavior patterns of termites are gradually being observation and research clearly by scientist.Therefore, both biological and environmental control strategies have been effective in controlling termites. In addition, after knowing the termite's dampness characteristics, the appropriate housing design and usage habits are also the best way to control termites, if committed to the building itself, good ventilation and effective maintenance of wood low humidity rate (less than 20 %), You can greatly reduce the probability of termite erosion.In terms of durability, the durability of wood buildings lies not in the "eternity" of the material, but in the material's resilience (because it is a renewable resource) and in the case of buildings of historical interest, the preservation and construction of architectural forms The inheritance of craftsmanship and the trajectory of the historical evolution of civilization are truly immortal.In addition to the material properties of the material itself (such as tree species and grade), the durability of the wood material, the material itself in which the environmental conditions have a more decisive impact. In general, the long-term moisture or long-term dry conditions of the wood itself cannot be stable in the rapid rapid changes in environmental humidity (directly affect the moisture content of wood), to maintain the stability of the physical properties, thus affecting its structural function .Everyone knows that the durability of RC materials(Reinforced concrete) is extremely limited. Because of problems such as neutralization of concrete and corrosion of reinforcing steel bars, problems such as water leakage are caused, if serious will affected the strength of the structure. There are numerous cases in Malaysia in just a few decades.If wood-based buildings are to be constructed, they must accept the qualities of the wood. The notion of immortality is not based on immortality, but adaptive renew in a renewable way. This is why wood is entrusted with the task of building an immortal building.Timber can be exposed and can also be covered. Exposed wood must be highly durable and highly substitutable. However, in architectural design, it is necessary to protect important parts (such as structures and joints). In fact, native wood species (such as juniper wood and red sandalwood) of high quality and high resistance to termites, as well as the correct design and construction details (such as convective ventilation and elevated floor design) Materials and architectural wisdom in response to the conditions of Malaysia's terroir.There are traditional buildings with enough eaves to protect the body structure of the house and overhang arch structure, but also with great scale or durability of the wood, directly withstand the test of the environment and climate. The architecture is also the same in the Western country. The wood in the cold zone is characterized by a thick scale of material. The traditional residential houses have large eaves and raised roofs. They also have the function of extending the life of the building.
In addition to the weather, termites and durability, the construction of wooden buildings also takes into account the factors of fire and fire protection design. The absolute fire protection of wooden construction does not exist. The fire is usually an accident, but the fire is not started by the fire itself. Mostly due to human error caused by the common mistakes, including overloading cabling and improper use of matches and electrical appliances.The wood structure is considered as only non-fireproof structure, due to the familiar Japanese-style wood structure in the past, with light wood frame elements and small sections of the solid wood composition, with no extension of the fire zone and the blocking mechanism, Can not withstand the sudden fire.In Europe countries, the firefighters engaged in firefighting tasks can carry out internal firefighting of buildings within the effective time of fire protection of timber buildings. For other structures, it often fails to take risks on the firefighting because they cannot judge its effective time of fire protection correctly.For example, steel structures without special fire protection have three times the structural strength degradation on fire and its degree of collapse is unpredictable, whereas fire protection designs for modern wood have utilized safe combustion of the remaining broken columns Multiple fire protection design mechanisms such as pillar design and fire resistant construction systems such as multiple fire protection design, combined with advances in modern fire protection technology will allow people to build safe and secure wooden buildings.
SOCIAL & CULTURAL FACTOR
In today's society, people have raised their awareness of environmental protection. In Malaysia, environmental protection has been constantly promoted in recent decades and many large and small original conservation forests have been built. Therefore, referring to the use of wood as a raw material for construction, according to the data show that people think that felling the trees as building materials is an indirect destruction of nature.
(to be continued.......)
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