that is pushed back into the system. We wanted to see how all that can be used effectively as part of the building system. We have a lot of green as well. So we decided to see how that could be utilised as part of the building component. We wanted to integrate landscaping vertically, as part of a housing component rather than just as an aesthetic part, so that the landscape is a functional element of the building. Architects at the turn of the century forgot how to design for the moment that the air-conditioning unit was designed. The first air conditioning units rolled off the factory lines, but people forgot how to design better houses. Now we needed to see if there were prevailing winds available to see how that could be utilised to make it a well-ventilated building. We also knew that our customers like to upgrade. We don’t mind them coming back and buying more houses from us! It is just that from an environmental point of view, we would need to carve out more land for buildings to accommodate people who had already bought houses. So we thought that we should look at modular construction and expandable spaces so that people could buy the houses that they could afford for what they need now and if they ever wanted to expand, to come back to us and get another module. That way, we can actually manage the expansions of land exploration, and the physical expansion of our land banks as well. So we started to put things in place. We took that sketch, and those ideas and performance and put them in the BIM system, where all the design decisions are stored in a single system, including costs, weights, performance data, structural data and energy data. We knew that while the house needed to have architectural and stylistic appeal, we wanted to make it more modularised and simplistic. The whole purpose was to make it more effective. While it may look complicated, every single space in the design actually runs on a grid of 4.2 by 4.8, which is based on the expandability set by Malaysian Standards 1064. Theoretically, or when we designed this, we thought if it was done to set standards, all the materials would fit nicely with absolutely zero wastage on site. Construction system Then we needed to look at the construction system. Because we knew that we had done the design stage in a very smart and efficient way, we wanted to look at how the construction part can be smart and innovative as well. There was no point for us to start with a blank sheet of paper. We had to look at how the conventional methods of construction actually work. We knew it was paperbased. We knew it was compartmentalised - the architects usually come up with the basic sketch, the engineers come in and fulfil their part and the architects get most of the accountability. It is very cost-based, not value-based. There are a lot of variables because the precision of the drawings and design is as good as the draughtsman, so if you miss anything out, you will probably get variations in the end. The risks are individually managed, and are usually fragmented. It is wet and messy, and it is time-consuming and very labour-intensive.
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