Optimising a modular design for affordable home / Salmiah Aziz

The needs of the affordable houses amongst Malaysians are much more than the total amount of the house that has been built. Most affordable public housing schemes in Malaysia are built under PR1MA in which the construction is based on the Industrialized Building System (IBS). Adoption of Modular Construction System (MCS) to IBS is an innovative way to promote new technology in the Malaysian construction industry. Recent studies found that there are multiple issues faced by building industrial players in the Malaysian construction industry such as the lack of modular experts, technology and technical failures (manufacturing and construction). Therefore, the research aims to identify the perception of MCS technology by the industrial players and to analyse the existing combinatorial spatial planning for affordable home (modular pattern). The research methods focus more on qualitative methods where content analysis is derived from literature and an analysis of building case studies through structured questionnaire interviews with the building experts. It consists of 3 phases of data collection and analysis such as a) Preliminary phase (Desktop Study), b) Data Collection and Analysis Phase (Combinatorial Design Development and Design Proposal) and c) Data Collections from the View of Experts as Validation. The research objectives that are satisfied are: 1) Experts’ suggestion of MCS as a three-dimension (3D) prefabrication modular model. Local industry players faced technical difficulties in utilizing IBS in the conventional construction cost of MCS due to competency issues despite high demand. In addition, MCS production qualities are much better than a conventional system with a consideration of culture, climate, and innovation in modular concepts.