Towards Sustainable Housing Construction in Southeast Asia

Traditional houses (Figure 1) in Southeast Asia are typically constructed using prefabricated of ready-made housing components. This construction technique is feasible due mainly to the geography and climate of the region, namely proximity to the sea and high annual rainfall, and has been passed down through generations by the local people. However, a shift of socio-economic pattern from traditional agriculture to monetary-based agriculture and later to manufacturing industry has changed the Southeast Asian planning pattern and construction system as the adopted planning laws, building codes and regulations borrowed from the West have forbidden housing development based on traditional concepts, because the regulations promote heavy weight construction using bricks and reinforced concrete as the main materials. This causes an increase in the incidence of flood-prone areas and land erosions, due to the large number of land clearings and reclamations for housing and commercial industry, as well as the construction of highways. These issues are often raised today as problems of uncontrolled development of urban growth as concern for the environment is not considered. New technology has it possible to apply traditional construction techniques to urban housing, and further studies are important to ensure its potential for future uses. This change could promote the potential of using the traditional system as an alternative construction system towards sustainable urban development in Southeast Asia.