A High Intensity Retrofit in Malaysia

We don’t see much architecture from Malaysia here. Here is a unique look that we’ve been missing.

With its heightened acid colors, and grim brick and concrete walls, S11 House in Petaling Jaya, Selangor, Malaysia is a curious combination: simultaneously lurid and gloomy.

Peeled paint on a grim concrete ceiling bears testimony to a grander past.

The existing old house on the site was built in the early 1960’s and had become dilapidated and run-down over the years.

ArchiCentre designed a green retrofit that really charged it up with zing.

The orange, the lurid green and the acid lemon are an acerbic and energising combination of colours.

But the high intensity retrofit is not only visually fascinating, it also achieves the highest level Platinum rating of Malaysia’s Green Building Index (GBI).

Recycled from the demolition, brick is used in a novel way, to create a screen, cooling the cross breezes.

The roof insulation is an impressive 0.14, shutting out virtually all the intense heat of Malaysia.

This is achieved with insulation that includes two layers of heat reflective foil and a 200 mm ventilated airspace.

A 5 KW psolar installation provides all the electricity the house uses, with the surplus power sold to the grid.

A solar hot water system is also on the large roof, providing sun warmed heating water for baths, dish washing and heat in the winter.

Above this (very interesting) roof, three rainwater harvesting tanks are aligned in series, removing gradually more sedimentation.

Water from the “dirtiest” tank is used for “black water” needs – like toilet flushing, gardening and car washing.

And the house features what must be a first-ever use of camo as a residential building paint!

(But this paint has more green work to do: these camouflage paints are heat reflective, in order to reduce the heat gain on the west wall, along with a wire netting screen wall of fruit and vegetables.)