ELEENA JAMIL ARCHITECT MALAYSIA
Eleena Jamil Architect is a Malaysia-based architectural practice founded in 2005 and led by Eleena Jamil. The practice has an established reputation for sensitively built projects that successfully engage with Asian cities and their nuances. Jamil’s projects are informed by a desire to root them to place, bringing a specificity and richness of expression to each project. The studio’s focus is on research-based, design-led architecture that is rooted in context and engaged with local communities. Their projects explore the experiential potential of building form, materials, and construction methods, through the use of local materials and processes. This develops an approach that is not only focused on environmental and economic sustainability, but also social sustainability.
Eleena Jamil Architect works with a diverse group of private, public, and third-sector clients on community libraries, education buildings, workplaces, private houses, and residential projects, applying traditional Malaysian building techniques to modern designs. Utilizing timber structures, Jamil proposes to build permanent housing in urban areas using local materials such as bamboo as a permanent construction material, and explores sustainable passive strategies for ventilation and lighting for affordability. The practice’s projects have been widely published in the international press and have been shortlisted for awards such as the Dezeen Award, World Architecture Festival Award, Habitus House of the Year Award, the LEAF Award and the American Architecture Prize.
Bamboo Terrace Homes
Malaysia
Area: 3,304 s.m. | Status: In Progress
This project explores the potential of bamboo as a primary building material in a terrace house typology with a 22-foot-wide frontage overlooking a typical Malaysian street. It advocates for the replacement of conventional construction materials such as concrete, steel, and bricks with bamboo, a material that has been utilized for temporary structures for millennia. Due to its abundant and rapid growth, as well as its small carbon footprint, bamboo is a sustainable and accessible material for rapid residential development. The aim is to create a prototype for bamboo homes that can be replicated, promoting sustainable mass housing construction for developers and the government.
The proposed terraced houses use whole bamboo culms as the primary structural elements. The bamboo frames will be prefabricated off-site, allowing for better quality control and ease of assembly, as well as reducing construction costs.
Due to the fact that bamboo is a combustible material, full height fire-rated masonry walls are installed between units, with bamboo columns and beams spanning them, while exterior walls are made up of bamboo composite board systems.
The project seeks to demonstrate that living in a bamboo house is not a temporary arrangement or a regression in lifestyle, but rather a modern and sustainable option. Drawing inspiration from traditional tropical design, the terrace home units prioritize the residents' quality of life. Each house features outdoor space at every level and louvred skylights are positioned at the top of the outdoor stairs. These skylights enable natural light to filter down through the space, resulting in an indoor courtyard where plants can flourish.
The proposed terraced houses use whole bamboo culms as the primary structural elements.
This project explores the potential of bamboo as a primary building material in a terrace house typology with a 22-foot-wide frontage overlooking a typical Malaysian street.
Due to its abundant and rapid growth, as well as its small carbon footprint, bamboo is a sustainable and accessible material for rapid residential development.
The aim is to create a prototype for bamboo homes that can be replicated, promoting sustainable mass housing construction for developers and the government.
Due to the fact that bamboo is a combustible material, full height fire-rated masonry walls are installed between units, with bamboo columns and beams spanning them, while exterior walls are made up of bamboo composite board systems.
Humanizing Housing
Malaysia
Area: Varies | Status: In Progress
High-rise housing has long been a solution to housing the urban poor in modern Malaysia. One of the most common is the Program Perumahan Rakyat (PPR) or People’s Housing Program developments by the government. Tall residential buildings up to 20 stories are frequently constructed in dense urban areas to accommodate as many housing units as possible. Due to limited funding for low-income housing, the units within these buildings are small, lacking in adequate ventilation and natural light, and designed with uniform layouts that don’t accommodate different household sizes and compositions. Apartments are accessed through dark corridors and arranged around narrow ‘light wells’ that serve as ineffective zones for internal lighting and ventilation systems for kitchens, bathrooms, and utility rooms.
Humanizing Homes is a research project that explores ways to improve low-income housing to make units more comfortable to live in and sustainable to build. The proposal considers various "humanizing qualities" such as increased space standards, bright and open spaces that promote cross ventilation, and outdoor areas for drying clothes.
This is accomplished by incorporating larger windows, taller ceilings, and visual connections to the surrounding area. Privacy and security are also taken into consideration through the provision of private protected space outside each unit's entry and through arranging units to overlook public and play areas to enhance natural surveillance.
The apartments, designed as modular units that can prefabricated to reduce cost, can be combined to form different sized units based on occupants' household demographics. Five modules with a similar width can be combined to create units ranging from 1 to 4 bedrooms, with varying sizes of living, dining, and kitchen areas. The modules can be arranged to maximize natural light, improve natural ventilation, and provide adequate outdoor social spaces such as pocket parks and communal gathering areas.
Humanizing Homes is a research project that explores ways to improve low-income housing to make units more comfortable to live in and sustainable to build.
The proposal considers various "humanizing qualities" such as increased space standards, bright and open spaces that promote cross ventilation, and outdoor areas for drying clothes.
The apartments, designed as modular units that can prefabricated to reduce cost, can be combined to form different sized units based on occupants' household demographics. Five modules with a similar width can be combined to create units ranging from 1 to 4 bedrooms, with varying sizes of living, dining, and kitchen areas.
