LEARNING FROM THE SINGAPORE SHOPHOUSE:

TOWARDS A SUSTAINABLE TROPICAL ARCHITECTURE

By

TUT CHUAN GUAN

A THESIS PRESENTED TO THE GRADUATE SCHOOL

OF THE UNIVERSITY OF FLORIDA IN PARTIAL FULFILLMENT
OF THE REQUIREMENTS FOR THE DEGREE OF
MASTER OF SCIENCE IN ARCHITECTURAL STUDIES

UNIVERSITY OF FLORIDA

2011

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© 2011 Tut Chuan Guan

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 ACKNOWLEDGMENTS

I thank my Committee Chair, Professor William Tilson for his detailed comments

as we discussed my work during our regular Skype sessions. These sessions ranged

far beyond my thesis topic to many aspects of architecture. They were very stimulating,

and effectively formed a course of study by themselves.

I thank my Committee Member, Professor Christopher Silver, for listening

patiently to my ideas when he was in Singapore prior to the start of my study. He

clarified the expectations on the research question and methodology and offered ways

to frame them. His comments helped me set the scope and direction of the study.

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 TABLE OF CONTENTS

page

ACKNOWLEDGMENTS .................................................................................................. 3

LIST OF ABBREVIATIONS ............................................................................................. 6

ABSTRACT ..................................................................................................................... 7

1 INTRODUCTION ...................................................................................................... 8

2 LITERATURE REVIEW .......................................................................................... 11

Literature on the Shophouse................................................................................... 11

Literature on Learning from the Vernacular ............................................................ 16
Schemes to Achieve Sustainability in Architecture ................................................. 19
Literature on Density Aspects ................................................................................. 23

3 METHODOLOGY ................................................................................................... 28

4 THE TRADITIONAL SINGAPORE SHOPHOUSE .................................................. 29

5 SUSTAINABILITY ANALYSIS OF THE SHOPHOUSE........................................... 37

Analysis through Green Mark ................................................................................. 37

Analysis through New Urbanism ............................................................................. 39
Analysis through Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design
Neighborhood Development Checklist ................................................................ 41
Analysis through Pattern Language ........................................................................ 44
Summary of Analysis .............................................................................................. 45

6 TOWARDS A NEW TROPICAL ARCHITECTURE ................................................. 46

Adaptations ............................................................................................................. 46
Borrowing of Elements ............................................................................................ 47
Limitations of Shophouses ...................................................................................... 48
Limitations of this Study .......................................................................................... 48
Future Study ........................................................................................................... 49

LIST OF REFERENCES ............................................................................................... 54

BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCH ............................................................................................ 57

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 LIST OF FIGURES
Figure page

2-1 Replacing Manhattan by large courts ................................................................. 26

2-2 Comparing achievable density............................................................................ 27

4-1 Shophouses by the Singapore River .................................................................. 30

4-2 Shophouses at Sultan Gate ................................................................................ 31

4-3 Shophouses at Jalan Sultan ............................................................................... 32

4-4 Shophouses at North Bridge Road ..................................................................... 33

4-5 Back lane in Ann Siang Hill................................................................................. 34

4-6 Five-foot way at Seah Street. ............................................................................. 35

4-7 Restaurant at Purvis Street. ............................................................................... 36

6-1 Study for a podium with tower block – interior. ................................................... 53

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 LIST OF ABBREVIATIONS

ASHRAE American Society of Heating, Refrigerating, and Air-Conditioning

Engineers

BCA Building and Construction Authority of Singapore

LEED Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design

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 Abstract of Thesis Presented to the Graduate School
of the University of Florida in Partial Fulfillment of the
Requirements for the Degree of Master of Science in Architectural Studies

LEARNING FROM THE SINGAPORE SHOPHOUSE:

TOWARDS A SUSTAINABLE TROPICAL ARCHITECTURE

By

Tut Chuan Guan

December 2011

Chair: William Tilson

Major: Sustainable Design

The need for a sustainable tropical architecture is highlighted and the Singapore

shophouse is identified as an architectural heritage to be mined for solutions for such an

architecture. As a vernacular form developed before the modern era of carefree use of

energy, the shophouse offers lessons in achieving urban livability on a low resource

budget. The shophouse is described and then the schemes of the Green Mark, New

Urbanism, Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design (LEED) Neighborhood

Development, and Pattern Language are brought in to evaluate elements of the

shophouse that can be borrowed and applied in a new architecture. Various

adaptations for modern needs are also explored.

The limitations of the shophouse and of this study are discussed. This sets the

context for a program for further study, which starts with calibrations for functional

specifications versus costs. An inventory of vernacular forms will then be built up within

a framework of these two dimensions to serve as a library of possible solutions.

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 CHAPTER 1
INTRODUCTION

Large swaths of humanity live in the tropics and are urbanizing rapidly. This

tropical urban population increased from 286 to 1,515 million between 1950 and 1990

and is expected to reach 4 billion by 2025 (figures include sub-tropical) (Gupta, 2002).

It will be a fascinating process to watch, and comes with the enormous opportunity of

reducing the carbon footprint of billions more people coming into modern urban living.

In the tropics, achieving thermal comfort under the fierce sunshine which measures 1

kW/m2 all year round (NASA Earth Observatory, n.d.) presents further challenges. A

sustainable tropical architecture which minimizes ecological demands is urgently

required.

To work towards sustainability, Singapore, a modern tropical city, had in 2008

incorporated the Green Mark (Building and Construction Authority, 2010) into its

building code. The Green Mark is a scheme to rate and encourage green buildings.

While the Green Mark award winners (Building and Construction Authority, 2011a;

Building and Construction Authority, 2011b) show various modern ways of achieving a

more sustainable tropical architecture, more ideas can be mined from Singapore’s

heritage of traditional shophouses.

Vernacular architecture has always embodied the accumulated wisdom of

millennia of using local material in the most suitable and economical way to cater to the

lifestyle and livelihood needs of people within local climatic conditions. It is not an

unchanging style but a continuous evolution and adaptation as needs and conditions

change. As Vellinga (2007) described it, “the dynamic and dialectic nature of vernacular

traditions . . . change and adapt to the cultural and environmental circumstances and

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challenges of not just the past, but of the present and future” (p. 117). This tradition,

however, received a total disruptive break worldwide in the modern era, with the advent

of industrial processes, new construction technologies, and materials, like steel which

allows buildings to grow in height virtually without limit and resulting in a proliferation of

skyscrapers, and abundant oil which allows carefree use of electricity for air-

conditioning and motor transport for urban sprawl. Facing collision against ecological

limits, it is now time to look back to the vernacular for solutions, as, having developed

before the modern industrial age, it is by definition of low carbon footprint.

The archetypal Singapore shophouse (also commonly found elsewhere in

Southeast Asia), as Davison and Tettoni (2010) described, “is a two- or three-storey

building with shop premises on the ground floor and living accommodation above. The

ground floor is set back a little from the road, while the upper storey, supported by a

brace of columns, projects forward in line with the edge of the street to create a covered

verandah in front of the shop. Shophouses were always conceived as being combined

to form a terrace – a row of similar units built side by side with party walls making up

one side of a street or city block. This being the case, the front verandah of every

shophouse at street level is contiguous with its neighbor on either side, effectively

creating a continuous covered walkway or colonnade in front of the shops along which

passers-by may stroll, protected from both the sun and the rain” (p. 14). This covered

walkway is known locally as the “five-foot way”.

The Singapore shophouse dates back over a century and to a time before air-

conditioning. It used at most a minimal amount of electricity for lighting, and later, for

fans, and is well adapted to the climate. The earlier Chinese courtyard houses from

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which they evolve date back to a time without electricity and embody millennia of

accumulated wisdom that have been neglected by the post war half-century of carbon-

powered modernization. Now is the time to mine this heritage, and the research

question in this study is “What elements of the traditional Singapore shophouse can we

borrow to support the development of a new sustainable tropical architecture?”

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 CHAPTER 2
LITERATURE REVIEW

There are four classes of literature we need to review. The first are those on the

shophouse. If we want to borrow from the shophouse, we need to know more about it,

including how it arose, and what problems they were designed to solve. Next are those

on learning from vernacular forms, to build on the experience and insights of others who

have tried to do the same thing. Third are those on the various schemes to achieve

sustainability in architecture. As sustainability is our aim, these schemes will help us

evaluate the shophouse and guide new adaptations. Fourth are those on the density

aspects that will help us analyze one of the key characteristics of the shophouse.

Literature on the Shophouse

Ideal literature would be those that analyze traditional Singapore shophouses from

a sustainability angle, but what this author can find are books and papers that approach

from two other perspectives. The first study the shophouses from a cultural

perspective, like Li (2007). The other study them from an architectural historic

perspective, like Lee (1988), and Davison and Tettoni (2010).

Li (2007) said that Singapore has long absorbed imported influences, localized

and adapted them since before colonization, and the process has never stopped. The

shophouse was a manifestation of this. The prototypes were brought over by the

immigrants from south China, and absorbed Malay and European details, most clearly

seen in the shophouse façades, which are outward expressions of a community’s ideals

and aspirations, and Li proceeded to analyze the façades of shophouses in the Telok

Ayer area.

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 He divided them into three main styles – “Early” built between the 1820s and 1900,

“Chinese Baroque” built between 1900 and 1940, and “Art Deco” built between 1940

and 1960. The political stability of Singapore together with the chaos of the collapsing

Qing dynasty had attracted Chinese immigrants such that by 1900, 164,000 Chinese

had settled in colonial Singapore, making up 80% of the population. The first

generation shophouses constructed then were executed by Chinese builders, and the

style, materials and methods were heavily Chinese, with Chinese elements making up

51.3% of the area of the façades in his sample. Over the years, these were reduced to

28.2% and then 10.3% at the end of stylistic periods. Other styles grew slightly, but the

façades mostly became plainer.

Lee (1988), The Singapore House, is an architectural history of the main housing

types of early Singapore built between the years 1819 and 1942. Lee described the

basic principles on which the immigrants built their shophouses were dictated by

tradition – a progression of spaces with courtyards or airwells. The houses ranged from

one or two airwells within a long and narrow site to a more complex but symmetrical

arrangement of living and working areas around airwells, or courtyards on wider lots.

The roof spanned the depth of the building in sections rather than the narrower width.

The elaborate beam-and-bracket roof support system of the Chinese prototypes was

rarely used. Instead, five-inch diameter purlins of Bintangore (Calophyllum) were fixed

at three feet intervals to support roofs which were covered with the cheaper Malacca

clay tiles instead of the imported Chinese tiles. The maximum purlin size of about 20

feet consequently limited the width of the building and in turn influenced the floor plan

arrangement.

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 Davison and Tettoni (2010), Singapore Shophouse, is an architectural history of

the Singapore shophouse and descriptions of several well-preserved shophouses in

Singapore. Describing the narrow and deep plan of the shophouse, Davison and

Tettoni gave the dimensions for the typical frontage as between 16 to 18 feet, and listed

the average depth as around 80 feet, although some of the older houses could extend

back twice as far. They further elaborated on the building structure. Each shophouse

unit shared a party wall with its neighbors which extended above the roof ridge by

around 18 inches to reduce the risk of fire spreading from one unit to another. The

interior was lit by airwells, or narrow courtyards, open to the sky, which helped with

ventilation and cooling of the building. An enclosed yard at the back was used for meal

preparation on a brick-built, charcoal-burning hearth, with a roof over it to keep off the

rain. This was also where clothes were laundered and the occupants of the house

bathed, with water drawn from a well. The privy was situated here too.

Most sources attribute the ultimate lineage of the shophouse to the courtyard

houses of China (Davison & Tettoni, 2010, p. 18) but where and how did this

transformation from the detached courtyard house to a row of multiple units of narrow

fronts and deep plan happen? According to Lee (1988), it seemed to have happened in

Singapore in response to the urban planning and regulations of the colonial

government. According to Davison and Tettoni (2010) it seemed to have happened in

the coastal cities of Guangdong and came to Singapore with the immigrants. Their

accounts bear a close reading, so let us quote them at length. Here is Lee (1988):

For the majority of the Chinese [in Singapore], however, life was lived in
terraced houses often with businesses on the ground floor. The terraced
form was due to the original subdivision of the land into narrow lots for
reasons of economy as well as to Raffles’ directive of November 22, 1822

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 requiring that houses have uniform fronts with covered footways. Raffles
stipulated that “for the sake of uniformity and gaining as much room as
possible, a particular description of front for all brick and tiled houses should
be attended to.” He added that “a still further accommodation will be
afforded to the public by requiring that each house should have verandah or
a certain depth, open at all times as a continued and covered passage on
each side of the street.” (p. 79).

Lee (1988) was silent about the transformation of detached courtyard houses into

a single row of shophouses, but we see him citing urban planning (“subdivision of the

land into narrow lots”), municipal regulations (“continued and covered passage”), and

material limits (“maximum purlin size”) for the Singapore shophouse taking the form it

had.

Here is Davison and Tettoni (2010):

This characteristic [narrow and deep] ground plan has in origins in ancient
China where house taxes were calculated according to a building’s width or
frontage on to the street. . . .

The shophouse . . . was one that could be easily added to, simply by
erecting a second building at the rear of the site, so that what was originally
the backyard now became an internal courtyard, or airwell, separating the
two built structures, with the cooking arrangements and so forth being
transferred to the rear of the new construction. The process could be
repeated a second, and even a third time, depending on how far back the
site extended. In southern China, in the coastal regions of Guangdong
province, from where many of Singapore’s early immigrants hailed, this kind
of dwelling is referred to as a “bamboo house”, not because of its layout
where rooms and courtyards are arranged sequentially like the nodular
sections of a bamboo culm. There are instances of shophouses in
Singapore with three or more airwells and a depth of more than 200 feet,
although the great majority were less than half that length. (p. 16).

Many of the features we usually associate with the Singapore shophouse –

a long and narrow plan, airwells, firewalls and even Raffles’ celebrated five-
foot way – are to be found in southern China where one typically
encounters rows or terraces of similarly built houses separated by narrow
lanes. This type of settlement pattern encouraged the adoption of different
construction methods to those of northern China, most notably load-bearing
walls into which the floor joists and roof purlins are set. (p. 84).

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 Davison and Tettoni (2010) were also silent on when the detached courtyard

house prototypes were transformed into a row but implied that the transformation, if any,

was too far back into history to be in part of their purview, and showed that buildings in

an urban context in south China had long been contiguous and shared party walls

(Davison & Tettoni, 2010, pp. 84 – 85). Unlike Lee, they attribute the narrowness of the

frontage to Chinese models “where house taxes were calculated according to a

building’s width or frontage on to the street.” We can note here that narrowness being a

consequence of taxation on frontages also indicates that if scarce resources are priced

correctly, they are used optimally, whether the tax collectors intended it or not. In this

case, the resource is the length of a pedestrian’s stroll and it has led to high density and

walkability. The practice of extending the house by building another section behind,

whether in China or Singapore, could only have taken place in linear settlements around

a single street. Once urban planning with back lanes arrived, the rearward extension of

the plot was permanently blocked. In contrast to Lee giving emphasis to the shophouse

taking its form in Singapore as a response to government urban planning and

regulations and the limitations of purlin strength, Davison and Tettoni implicitly credit the

Chinese prototypes as determinants for shaping the Singapore shophouse. They were,

however, also careful to state only that “features we usually associate with the

Singapore shophouse . . . are to be found in southern China”, and not that a single

building type like the Singapore shophouse which integrates all these features already

existed in China.

Regarding influences, both Lee, and Davison and Tettoni could be correct. Raffles

was a well-traveled man, his work for the British East India Company taking him all over

15
Asia. He was intensely interested in all the indigenous cultures he encountered, so

much so that he was able to write books like A History of Java. Quite possibly, he was

aware of the Chinese prototypes, appreciated their quality, and borrowed elements for

his new Singapore tropical architecture. The Chinese immigrants came, saw that the

regulations were consistent with their traditions, adapted quickly and built well. The

span of a single timber was mentioned by both, so there was no conflict there; indeed it

was a natural technical optimization to avoid having any columns in the house.

To bring closure to this section, a reasonable hypothesis could be proposed that

the row of narrow, deep units had first developed in south China. Various other

shophouse features also existed there, but the full integration of everything into its final

form with the five-foot way and the back lane took place in Singapore. Or, as another

author Li (2007) simply said, “immigrant Chinese brought with them the ‘blueprints’ of

the Southern Chinese shop dwellings that eventually evolved into a distinctive

Singapore shophouse topology” (p. 1).

Literature on Learning from the Vernacular

Rudofsky first brought widespread attention to vernacular architecture via a series

of Museum of Modern Art exhibitions and the book which resulted from it (Rudofsky,

1964). He criticized the state of architectural history and the attitudes of the time in

treating the art of building as being too narrow, restricted in their purview to the late

stages of European design thinking, and even then only to the grand buildings of the

privileged. The rest of architecture did not even have a name. In his book title he used

“non-pedigreed architecture”; elsewhere he also used “vernacular”, “anonymous”,

“spontaneous”, “indigenous”, and “rural”. The body of the book is a series of

photographs of buildings from all over the world, stunning in their variety and ingenuity

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of solutions to problems, and most of all, for Rudofsky, in their humaneness. For

instance, modern streets are deserts, while vernacular ones with pergola and awnings,

or in the form of arcade, provide shelter from the elements, protection from traffic

hazards, and even act as forums. While Rudofsky never surveyed Singapore, he would

have appreciated the five-foot way of the shophouse.

The next surveyor of the vernacular was Paul Oliver. In the first edition of his book

(Oliver, 1987), he said that there was as yet no discipline for the study of vernacular

architecture, and such a discipline would probably combine elements of both

architecture and anthropology, for the family and community life are powerfully

integrated into the dwelling. By the second edition of his book (Oliver, 2003), there was

still no discipline but at least the term “vernacular” was established and more architects

were influenced by vernacular traditions. For instance, Oliver quoted the Egyptian

architect Hassan Fathy after he studied the Nubian mud brick vault and designed the

town of New Gourna near Luxor – “the vernacular architecture of the Arab World and

neighbouring regions not only solved the climatic problems but did so with a

combination of beauty and physical and social functionality” (Oliver, 2003, p. 11).

The message of these surveys is, as Rudofsky (1964) said, “There is much to

learn from architecture before it became an expert’s art” (p. 4). For specifics, the field is

much thinner, especially those concerned with sustainability aspects. Soflaee and

Shokouhian (2005) showed that traditional building techniques are well adapted to the

climate and we can use them with new technology. The techniques use sustainable

forms of energy like wind together with the structure and form of the building. The

paper studied the natural cooling systems used in the hot and arid regions of Iran, like

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badgirs, central courtyards, showadans, and sabasters. Badgirs are wind catchers

consisting of a tower and a head rising above the roof with vents facing the predominant

wind direction. Showadans are rooms built 6 – 7 meters below ground and exhibit a

constant comfortable temperature all year round. They are illuminated by vertical ducts

to the surface of the courtyard. Sabasters are cellars with ceilings a meter above the

courtyard with louvers to vent in fresh air and light. Exposure to direct solar radiation

has always to be avoided, so there cannot be large or even any windows on external

walls. Without the cross ventilation that windows enable, the traditional devices are

able to adequate ventilate the house and avoid the heat. They concluded that in tight

and dense clusters of courtyard houses where opportunities for cross ventilation are

limited, such devices were the best key to facilitate natural ventilation. In a further pair

of case studies (Soflaee & Shokouhian, 2007; Shokouhian, Soflaee & Nikkhah, 2007),

they presented quantitative analyses of how the size, shape and direction of the

courtyards regulate the temperatures of traditional Iranian dwellings. Soflaee and

Shokouhian showed careful study of specific vernacular features for their functionality

while being sustainable (not requiring electricity) within the context of a hot and arid

climate.

Fathy (1986), Natural Energy and Vernacular Architecture, is a book looking at

how vernacular architecture uses natural energy to keep cool in hot and arid climates;

how climatic elements and the properties of local building materials are exploited to

create a comfortable microclimate within the buildings. Bringing in modern tools of

thermodynamics and aerodynamics, the sun, wind, and humidity factors were analyzed.

In hot climates, the over-riding factors are to keep cool and control the light and

18
ventilation coming in and the various vernacular devices to achieve these were

discussed. There are shading and orientation, various types of roofs, blinds, and

openings. There is the mashrabiya, a cantilevered space with a lattice opening, where

small water jars are placed to be cooled by the evaporation effect as air move through

the opening. There is the claustrum, a multitude of small vents built instead of windows

to create privacy, security, uniform distribution of air flow, and the blocking of direct

solar rays. There is the wind-escape, a funnel using the suction caused by low air-

pressure zones to generate steady air movement indoors. There is the malqaf or wind-

catch, a shaft rising high above the building with an opening into the prevailing wind

(Fathy regarded the badgir as a specific type of malqaf). It traps the wind from high

above the building where it is cooler and stronger, and channels it down into the interior

of the building. The malqaf thus dispenses with the need for ordinary windows to

ensure ventilation and air movement. The malqaf is also useful in reducing the sand and

dust commonly carried by the winds of hot arid regions. The wind it captures above the

building contains less solid material than the wind at lower heights, and much of the

sand which does enter is dumped at the bottom of the shaft. With special relevance for

the tropics, Fathy noted that the value of the malqaf is even more obvious in dense

cities in warm humid climates, where thermal comfort depends mostly on air movement.

Fathy also discussed how courtyard designs and fountains affect the microclimate, and

his study offers a valuable insight to vernacular architecture’s utilization of free, natural

energy for human comfort.

Schemes to Achieve Sustainability in Architecture

With growing environmental consciousness, building authorities and civic bodies in

many parts of the world have developed schemes and rating systems for

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sustainable/green buildings. The emphasis on buildings as a focus on a sustainability

strategy was well justified. Deng, Li, and Quigley (2011) noted that buildings and their

associated construction activities account for nearly a third of world green house

emissions, and the construction and operation of buildings account for about forty

percent of worldwide consumption of raw materials and energy, thus also explaining the

priority on energy efficiency in all rating systems.

In a survey of six such schemes – Leadership in Energy and Environmental

Design (LEED), BREEAM, SBTool, CASBEE, Building and Construction Authority of

Singapore (BCA) Green Mark, and ESGB, Mao, Lu, and Li (2009) noted the provenance

of Singapore’s Green Mark from LEED and BREEAM. BREEAM, developed in U.K. in

1990 and considered the first real green building rating system in the world, is the

foundation for all others systems. The Green Mark built on the experience of these

other systems.

We look then, at Singapore’s Green Mark. When it started in January 2005,

Green Mark certification was not mandatory, but sought instead to encourage

developers to build to a more sustainable standard for their own long term cost savings

and prestige. But since April 2008, it has been incorporated into the building code as

the Code for Environmental Sustainability for Buildings (henceforth “the Code”),

essentially requiring new buildings to attain at least the Green Mark “Certified” level.

(The other levels rise through “Gold” and “Gold-plus” to “Platinum”.) A tighter Code was

effective from December 2010 (Building and Construction Authority, 2010). The Code

applies to all new buildings or extensions or retrofits involving a gross floor area of

2,000 m2 or more.

20
 As the Code states, its intent is to “establish environmentally friendly practices for

the planning, design and construction of buildings, which would help to mitigate the

environmental impact of built structures.” The Code lays down its scoring criteria,

separately for residential buildings and for non-residential buildings, and the five

categories it measures buildings by are: energy efficiency, water efficiency,

environmental protection, indoor environmental quality, and other green features (like

innovative adoption of green practices and new technology). Energy efficiency is

regarded as the prime category and on its own forms one of two Requirements – the

Energy Related Requirements, with the rest combined into Other Green Requirements.

The first sentence of its Assessment Criteria section (Building and Construction

Authority 2011c) states that “BCA Green Mark is a green building rating system to

evaluate a building for its environmental impact and performance.” It does not address

neighborhood development. The closest it comes is a minor category “Green transport”

which measures a building’s access to the nearest Mass Rapid Transit, Light Rail

Transit or bus stops, and provision of covered walkways, electric vehicle recharging

points, and covered bicycle parks. It is otherwise strictly about the building itself. On its

own, it will be insufficient for our purpose, as it does not address how buildings fit

together to make a community that might, for instance, enhance walkability enough to

make driving a car unnecessary.

As with the Green Mark, the United States’ LEED had not addressed

neighborhood development, but, in collaboration with the Congress for the New

Urbanism, and the Natural Resources Defense Council, it now has a pilot program

called the Neighborhood Development Pilot, which “integrates the principles of smart

21
growth, urbanism and green building into the first national system for neighborhood

design” (U. S. Green Building Council, 2009). With two-and-a-half years of market and

user feedback, LEED has packaged its program into a Neighborhood Development

Project Checklist.

Green Mark and LEED operate on the scale of an individual building. LEED now

has a pilot extension for neighborhoods, but New Urbanism (New Urbanism, n.d.) can

be applied on scales from a single building to an entire city or region. It aims to create

walkable, mixed-use communities not necessarily through any new or alternative

technologies but the same components as conventional development assembled in a

more integrated fashion. These should contain housing, work places, shops,

entertainment, schools, parks, and other essential civic facilities. New Urbanism

promotes the increased use of trains and light rail, instead of having more highways and

roads. It would complement the building-focused Green Mark quite well. It has ten

principles for creating livable sustainable communities –

1. Walkability

2. Connectivity

3. Mixed-Use & Diversity

4. Mixed Housing

5. Quality Architecture & Urban Design

6. Traditional Neighborhood Structure

7. Increased Density

8. Smart Transportation

9. Sustainability

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 10. Quality of Life

While New Urbanism does not address the specifics of the required architecture,

the Pattern Language of Alexander, Ishikawa, and Silverstein (1977) most certainly

does, through a list of 253 patterns. Written before the present age of environmental

narrative, it did not use the language of the current sustainability paradigm, but was

prescient in its emphasis on environmental stewardship, treasuring of natural capital

and the commons, and quality of life via personal freedom and development and living

in harmony with nature. Starting from the scale of regions and cities and going down to

that of rooms, they listed the design problems that are encountered time and again and

prescribe the solutions. They did not believe that large scale structures can be

designed by a central authority, but are best grown piecemeal by grassroots self-

organizing. This emphasis on community has influenced the later New Urbanism

movement (Alexander being one of the two inaugural recipients of the Athena Award

given by the Congress for the New Urbanism). Presented in the form of a handbook of

patterns, it was not explicit about its sources and influences but it would have drawn

much inspiration from the vernacular, as vernacular evolve at the grassroots level

through millennia of adaptation by generations of builders. The relevant patterns will be

described as they are applied to analyze the shophouse in Chapter 5 below.

Literature on Density Aspects

In a series of studies launched by Leslie Martin and Lionel March in the late 1960s

(Martin & March, 1972; Ratti, Raydan, & Steemers, 2003), it was found that the

courtyard is the most efficient form of usage of land, and it was even calculated that the

center of Manhattan could be replaced by large courts, creating large open spaces and

23
reducing the height of buildings from an average of 21 storeys to 7, as in figure 2-1

(Martin & March, 1972, p. 21).

The shophouse is a kind of courtyard house. From its southern Chinese courtyard

house prototype, imagine squeezing both sides until it is deep and narrow, so narrow

that rooms on the sides disappears into the party walls with the neighboring units, then

the lost enclosed space is restituted to the front. Indeed, the squeezing is also applied

to a row neighboring units, originally detached, until they are joined by party walls. The

courtyard itself remains, for natural lighting and ventilation.

This squeezing results in a unit that can be as narrow as twelve feet, so that there

can be twelve shop fronts in a 144 feet block. This is a form of density not often

discussed – the number of shop fronts per straight line pedestrian stroll. Martin and

March distinguished courtyard from terrace houses (which they called “street” or

“parallel rows”), and showed that courtyard housing achieved half as much again

accommodation as terraces while holding the height and the light angle constant.

Where tower blocks (which they called “pavilions”) achieves a plot ratio of 1:1, terrace

houses achieves 2:1 and courtyards 3:1. As they explained, with reference to figure 2-

2:

We might place on any given site parallel rows of 4-storey buildings spaced
apart by a conventional light angle of 45°: in this case the plot ratio will be
2:1. If however the building remains at 4 storeys but is arranged as a solid
block lit by courts, in which the prescribed light angle is still used, the plot
ratio will increase from 2:1 to 3:1, that is by a factor of 50% (p. 35).

The Singapore shophouse is both courtyard and terrace, its shop front together

with those of adjacent units forming a terrace, and this is a different kind of density that

enables a high quality urban life. People will not willingly take detours, as the customer

traffic differentials between ground floor shops and higher floor shops within any multi-

24
storied shopping mall, and main corridors and the side corridors within such corridors

will attest. Johnson, Davies, and Shapiro (2000) gave the typical valuation of shops in

town centers and shopping parades as – basement £20/m2, ground floor £450/m2, first

floor £75/m2, and second floor £20/m2 (p. 383). The ground floor scores much more

than all other floors in valuation for shops, and therefore having just a row of shop fronts

on street level as the traditional Singapore shophouse already reaps most of the

benefits of space allocation for shopping. Adding the upper floors for shops would add

at most marginal returns. They are better used for residence or back offices for the

shopkeepers to minimize commuting distances and achieve a different kind of optimum

in density.

In mathematically proving that low rise courtyards can be equivalent to or even

beating high rise tower blocks, Martin and March held two parameters constant –

people or units per unit ground area, and total surface area. The first is obvious. The

second is there because it limits the amount of natural light and ventilation possible.

Thus the importance of surface area, and it highlights a shortcoming of the shophouse –

the party walls with adjacent units block off natural light and ventilation. But this is

because the shophouse optimized for a different parameter, the density of shop fronts

per unit length of pedestrian stroll. Glassie (1990) regarded vernacular architecture as

insistently recording the history of a people. The shophouse had evolved in the ethnic

Chinese urban conglomerations of Southeast Asia and needed to cater to their trades of

trading, distribution, and home-scale crafts and manufacture, with the loss of surface

area ameliorated by the jack roof and the vestigial courtyard. It was to cater to the

business needs of this community that the shophouse had evolved, so the maximization

25
of this measure of density for business needs is the natural and correct one, rather than

the more physical measures prioritized by Martin and March. The maximization of

business encounters, people encounters, goods flow, people flow, gossip flow, and

information flow rather than just residents per unit area need to take priority where these

matter.

Figure 2-1. Replacing Manhattan by large courts. (Source: Martin & March, 1972, p.
21.)

26
Figure 2-2. Comparing achievable density. (Source: Martin & March, 1972, p. 36.)

27
 CHAPTER 3
METHODOLOGY

We want to find elements of the shophouse that can be borrowed for a sustainable

tropical architecture. The methodology is

(a) Give a description of the shophouse sufficient for a sustainability analysis;

(b) List the sustainable features that could be used as they are; and

(c) Propose ways elements could be adapted for a modern context.

Part (a), which is Chapter 4, is to understand the essential characteristics of the

shophouse, and what problems they are trying to solve.

From (a), we first derive (b), Chapter 5, where those shophouse features are still

solving the problems satisfactorily and in a sustainable manner; and then derive (c),

Chapter 6, where those features could be made to do so or in a more efficient way with

modifications. Green Mark, New Urbanism, LEED Neighborhood Development

Checklist, and Pattern Language would help decide the shophouse’s strengths and

weaknesses and determine what is sustainable. The factors chosen are necessarily

selective. For example, the Pattern Language alone has 253 patterns and it would be

impossible to run shophouse features by all of them. To guard against arbitrariness and

selection bias, we will run through the entire Green Mark, New Urbanism and LEED

Checklist categories.

28
 CHAPTER 4
THE TRADITIONAL SINGAPORE SHOPHOUSE

We touched on history, style, and construction as part of the literature review.

Here we look at the material used. Walls were made of locally fired bricks, brick-making

being one of the first industries set up soon after the British settled in 1819. Wall plaster

was made from river sand and lime. The walls were given a coat of lime wash, which

forms a semi-permeable surface wicking moisture from the base of the wall and

evaporate, which had a cooling effect. Piles, where necessary in uncertain soils, were

staves of rot-resistant mangrove wood driven vertically into the ground. Sometimes

short lengths of balau wood laid crossways and lengthwise were used instead.

Foundations were made from masonry rubble set in lime mortar (Davison & Tettoni,

2010, p. 20). As noted earlier, roof purlins and beams were wood, and so were floor

boards.

These were all traditional locally available material. No steel or concrete were

used. The only material that would be environmentally taxing today is wood for beams,

floor boards, and pilings. In the rest of this chapter, figures 4-1 to 4-7 illustrate the

essential characteristics of the shophouse.

29
Figure 4-1. Shophouses by the Singapore River. The inner courtyards can be seen in
the first few units of the riverside row, two thirds of the way inside each unit.
These are full width courtyards, taking up the entire span between the party
walls. Behind this row is the back lane, then another row of shophouses, a
street, then a third row of shophouses, and another back lane. The third row
units have their courtyards and rear sections covered by flat concrete roofs, a
later accretion. Units are separated by party walls which rise above the roofs
to act as firebreaks. (All photographs by the author.)

30
Figure 4-2. Shophouses at Sultan Gate. The upper floors are usually fronted by French
windows which permit through ventilation even when closed. Splash from the
rain is prevented by the overhanging eaves which also prevent direct sunlight.
Behind the windows are waist level balustrades, as can be seen behind the
panels on the left. The glass doors behind the balustrades are a later
accretion to permit modern air-conditioning. The high ceilings can be
discerned in the proportions of the upper floor.

31
Figure 4-3. Shophouses at Jalan Sultan. These three newly renovated shophouses
would originally have half-width courtyards at the back, but the two outer units
have theirs totally roofed over at the first level for small roof gardens.
Vestiges of the original courtyards can be seen in the middle unit.

32
Figure 4-4. Shophouses at North Bridge Road. Each unit at the maroon block in the
middle has two courtyards each, one in the middle and one at the back. Both
are half-width. The design depth of the shophouse can be extended
indefinitely by adding courtyards. Note also the jack roofs for natural light and
ventilation. Traditionally, skylights are not used because of the unacceptable
heat gain from direct equatorial sunlight, which has a strength of 1 kW/m 2.

33
Figure 4-5. Back lane in Ann Siang Hill. Every shophouse connects to a street in front
and a back lane behind. In the days before sewage piping, the back lane
provided a separate disposal route for buckets swapped out through a small
hatch-door to the latrine just inside the back wall, and provided, and still
provides today, a complete alternative access network free of motor traffic
and forms a world unto its own.

34
Figure 4-6. Five-foot way at Seah Street. The five-foot way, so-called because of the
original statutory minimum width, shelters the pedestrian from sun and rain,
and allows him to view the goods and services on offer as he strolls past each
shop front, and provides a neutral ground to initiate inquiries and bargains.

35
Figure 4-7. Restaurant at Purvis Street. The front section of the shophouse where the
customer just steps off the five-foot way would be where business is
conducted. Further inside would be preparation areas, kitchens, workshops,
or stores. Interiors are usually free of any columns or walls, offering
maximum flexibility of use. Ceilings are also high. This shop’s does not look
too high because it has a false ceiling, which would have been put up by a
previous tenant for air-conditioning, two blower units of which can be seen
here, and unused by the current tenant. The front door usually opens to the
entire width of the unit, facilitating the maximum flow not just of customers,
but fresh air which breezes through to the inner courtyard, which can be
glimpsed via its outdoors light in alignment with the lady customer’s hair.

36
 CHAPTER 5
SUSTAINABILITY ANALYSIS OF THE SHOPHOUSE

Analysis through Green Mark

Let us run the shophouse through Green Mark’s categories qualitatively. While

this, together with the New Urbanism principles and the LEED Checklist run-through

below might be repetitive, we will still do them for thoroughness as a check against any

bias of selective omission. For residential buildings, Green Mark has two sections –

Energy Related Requirements and Other Green Requirements. The first section has

eight categories – Thermal Performance of Building Envelope (maximum points 15),

Naturally Ventilated Design and Air-conditioning System (22), Daylighting (6), Artificial

Lighting (10), Ventilation in Carparks (6), Lifts (1), Energy Efficient Features (7), and

Renewable Energy (20). Keeping out the heat and otherwise keeping the interior cool is

perhaps the most important requirement distinguishing tropical architecture from other

architectures.

For the first category, by sharing party walls with neighboring units and having a

narrow frontage, the exposed building envelop area is minimal and avoids heat gain by

direct sunlight. The overhanging eaves further minimizes direct sunlight on exposed

walls, and the traditional permeable lime wash wall coating further cools the walls via

evaporation. For the second category, the inner courtyards, French windows, jack roofs

promote some natural ventilation, though not as much as buildings with shallow floor

plans, no party walls, and large windows. For the third category, daylight comes in

through the jack roof and courtyard, though in the deep interior, this has to be

complemented by artificial lighting. For the seventh category, the overhanging eaves

37
and jack roofs preventing direct sunlight entry can be considered energy efficient

features. The other categories are not applicable.

The second section, Other Green Requirements, has four subsections. They are

Water Efficiency, Environmental Protection, Indoor Environmental Quality, and Other

Green Features. Water Efficiency, consisting of the three categories Water Efficient

Fittings (10), Water Usage Monitoring (1), and Irrigation System and Landscaping (3), is

not applicable to a building type.

Environmental Protection consists of Sustainable Construction (10), Sustainable

Products (8), Greenery Provision (8), Environmental Management Practice (8), Green

Transport (4), Stormwater Management (3). For the first two categories, the shophouse

uses only traditional building materials and would score highly. For the last category,

the shophouse has storm drains both front and back, and its efficiency would depend on

the efficiency of the drainage infrastructure it is connected to. It does not implement any

swales or any other buffering devices. The other categories are not applicable.

Indoor environmental quality consists of Noise level (1), Indoor air pollutants (2),

Waste disposal (1), and Indoor air quality in wet areas (2). If windows are open,

proximity at street side could let in some noise. With air flow through to the courtyard

and jack roof, and being built with traditional materials, indoor air pollutants should be

minimal. The other categories are not applicable. The fourth subsection Other Green

Features, which consist of the single category Green Features and Innovations (7), is

not specifically applicable.

To conclude, by Green Mark categories, the shophouse is energy efficient through

avoiding direct sunlight and also through some evaporative cooling by its permeable

38
lime wash wall coating. It scores highly in the Naturally Ventilated Design and Air-

conditioning System, and Daylighting categories due to its through ventilation and inner

courtyards, though its natural lighting and ventilation may not be as high as other

building types with large windows and without party walls. Finally, it has sustainable

construction through the use of traditional locally available materials.

Analysis through New Urbanism

Let us run the shophouse through New Urbanism’s principles. The first two

principles are Walkability and Connectivity. The five-foot way shelters pedestrians from

rain and sun and the narrow shop fronts allows a high density of units so that the

pedestrian can cover lots of units in comfort per unit length stroll. The back lanes offer

a motor traffic free path for walkers and cyclists, offering a complete access network

totally independent of the main streets in front. The high density and dual-networks

gives high connectivity.

The third and fourth principles are Mixed-Use & Diversity and Mixed Housing.

With its column-free interiors and usually wall-free interiors – certainly free of all load

bearing walls – shop houses can be and have been used for all purposes. Traditionally,

the family running the shop on the ground floor lives upstairs.

The fifth principle is Quality Architecture & Urban Design. This is subjective, and

shophouses can be simple and bare with only boards for walls; or large and luxurious,

especially those constructed as purely residential units with brick walls to partition the

interior into rooms. Works like Davison and Tettoni (2010) contain many examples of

well-planned and lovingly decorated units. On objective criteria like the amount of cool

air and natural light, it certainly scores less than other forms, but it has to be noted that

39
those forms, say bungalows or attap houses, could not achieve the density of

shophouses; while modern buildings could only achieve them via heavy air-conditioning.

The sixth principle is Traditional Neighborhood Structure. Being a vernacular

form, the shophouse by definition forms a traditional neighborhood. The seventh and

eighth principles are Increased Density and Smart Transportation. The issue of density

has been discussed in connection with the literature review on Martin and March above.

The shophouse does not address transportation directly but its density, mixed use, and

walkability reduce the need for cars.

The ninth principle is Sustainability. As a vernacular form developed before the

spread of modern air-conditioning, the shophouse used in the traditional way is nearly

carbon-free. It can be built with traditional materials, and does not require any steel in

its construction as reinforced concrete would. As a low rise, the level of expertise and

cost of construction and maintenance required are low.

The tenth and last principle is Quality of Life. The shophouse facilitates a

traditional neighborhood and all the quality of life that that implies. In terms of physical

comfort, operating in a Singapore climate with a mean temperature of 27.0°C (81°F)

and mean relative humidity of 80.4% (Climate and Temperature, n.d.), it does not

compare to some modern buildings, which are able to achieve the American Society of

Heating, Refrigerating, and Air-Conditioning Engineers (ASHRAE) recommended

temperatures of between 67°F and 82°F and relative humidity of less than 65%

(ASHRAE, 2010a). However, it has to be noted that these modern buildings achieve

their superiority at an environmental cost, in particular its need for air-conditioning to

achieve the necessary temperature and humidity.

40
 To conclude, the shophouse scores highly in almost all principles of New

Urbanism. It is walkable, of mixed use, traditional, dense, and sustainable. Only in the

subjective principle of Quality Architecture & Urban Design would it, as noted also in the

Green Mark section for natural light and ventilation, score less than some other building

types.

Analysis through Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design Neighborhood

Development Checklist

Let us take the shophouse through the LEED Neighborhood Development

Checklist. The Checklist has three sections – Smart Location and Linkage,

Neighborhood Pattern and Design, and Green Construction and Technology. There is

an open format fourth section, Innovation and Design process, and a fifth Regional

Credits section, which are not applicable to us. The Checklist is for a particular

development and not a type, and we will apply it to a typical shophouse neighborhood

where it makes sense.

The first section, Smart Location and Linkage, has five prerequisites. These are

Smart Location, Imperiled Species and Ecological Communities, Wetland and Water

Body Conservation, Agricultural Land Conservation, and Floodplain Avoidance. They

are all not applicable, but the shophouse’s dense, compact design would help conserve

agricultural land by minimizing land use.

The nine credits are (maximum points awardable in brackets) – Preferred

Locations (10), Brownfield Redevelopment (2), Locations with Reduced Automobile

Dependence (7), Bicycle Network and Storage (1), Housing and Jobs Proximity (3),

Steep Slope Protection (1), Site Design for Habitat or Wetland and Water Body

Conservation (1), Restoration of Habitat or Wetlands and Water Bodies (1), and Long-

41
Term Conservation Management of Habitat or Wetlands and Water Bodies (1). The

back lanes could be used for bicycles, and traditionally, the family who run the business

on the ground floor lived upstairs, so enabling housing and jobs proximity. The rest are

not applicable.

The next section is Neighborhood Pattern and Design. Its three prerequisites are

Walkable Streets, Compact Development, and Connected and Open Community. Its

fifteen credits are Walkable Streets (12), Compact Development (6), Mixed-Use

Neighborhood Centers (4), Mixed-Income Diverse Communities (7), Reduced Parking

Footprint (1), Street Network (2), Transit Facilities (1), Transportation Demand

Management (2), Access to Civic and Public Spaces (1), Access to Recreation Facilities

(1), Visitability and Universal Design (1), Community Outreach and Involvement (2),

Local Food Production (1), Tree-Lined and Shaded Streets (2), and Neighborhood

Schools (1).

The shophouse comfortably and fully fulfill all three prerequisites via its five-foot

ways and its back lanes free from motor traffic. The five-foot way, though legally having

each section the property of the respective unit owner, allows public access and invites

the public to browse each shop front in neutral territory making every row connected

and open. The narrow shop fronts contribute to compactness in frontage, and the lack

of any lawns or gardens contribute to areal compactness. For the mixed use credit, the

flexibility of the shophouse has always allowed it to house a diversity businesses and

residences wherever it appears. The rest are not applicable.

The third section is Green Infrastructure and Buildings. It has four prerequisites –

Certified Green Building, Minimum Building Energy Efficiency, Minimum Building Water

42
Efficiency, and Construction Activity Pollution Prevention. There are also seventeen

credits – Certified Green Buildings (5), Building Energy Efficiency (2), Building Water

Efficiency (1), Water-Efficient Landscaping (1), Existing Building Reuse (1), Historic

Resource Preservation and Adaptive Use (1), Minimized Site Disturbance in Design and

Construction (1), Stormwater Management (4), Heat Island Reduction (1), Solar

Orientation (1), On-Site Renewable Energy Sources (3), District Heating and Cooling

(2), Infrastructure Energy Efficiency (1), Wastewater Management (2), Recycled

Content in Infrastructure (1), Solid Waste Management Infrastructure (1), and Light

Pollution Reduction (1).

The first prerequisite of certification is not applicable, as it applies to a building and

not to a type. For the next two, minimum energy and water efficiencies, as a pre-

modern vernacular, the shophouse would fulfill. For the fourth prerequisite of

preventing construction pollution, it would depend on particular development, but as a

low rise building using traditional and local materials, it is unlikely to cause much

pollution. For the credits, if the shophouses are preserved, they certainly get full credits

for reuse and historic preservation and adaptive use. For stormwater management, all

shophouses have a storm drain in front and another behind, so it will depend on how

these are connected. For infrastructure energy efficiency, party walls with adjacent

units not providing extra surfaces for heat gain could be regarded as contributing to it.

The others are not applicable.

To conclude, the shophouse measure well in most of the applicable categories of

LEED Neighborhood Development. Whether it is Smart Location and Linkage, or

Neighborhood Pattern and Design, its compact design and walkability allows it to score

43
highly. For Green Construction and Technology, its use of traditional and local

materials is also an asset.

Analysis through Pattern Language

Alexander et al. (1977) advocated piece-meal development, for organic growth

that precisely caters to the needs of the community. The shophouse can be built a row

at a time, or even have units added to the side of the row a unit a time where the sides

have not been fixed by urban planning. Each unit can be modified independently of its

neighbors as long as the integrity of the party walls is respected. In a linear settlement

with no fixed back lanes, the back can even be extended simply by adding courtyards.

Because each unit is small and flexible, it can be bought or rented by a single family or

small enterprise and operated for practically any purpose. Change and growth is cheap

and easy. The modern mall or large building would require active tenant selection and

operational management. The shophouse, because of its flexibility and smallness of

unit, self-organizes. This allows an easy and autonomous clustering of related

businesses into the Mosaic of Subcultures pattern (pp. 42 – 50).

The pattern Lace of Country Roads (pp. 29 – 31) recommended having country

roads at least a mile apart and enclosing countryside and farmland at least a square

mile in area, with homesteads one lot deep along these roads. The compact, narrow

and deep floor plan of the shophouse would fit in perfectly, having sufficient density to

give self-contained community life while minimizing encroachment into farmland. The

pattern Scattered Work (pp. 51 – 57) put a case for having people working within

minutes of where they live. The shophouse, where the family running the business at

the ground floor lives in the floors above it, takes this principle to its logical conclusion.

44
 Summary of Analysis

To conclude this chapter, here are some examples of shophouse features with

strong sustainability aspects that can be used as they are. The first is that the

traditional Singapore shop house has details that help cool the house and ensure

ventilation, like overhanging eaves, jack roofs and courtyards. The second is that it has

a narrow shop front. This enables the shopping browser to walk just a few steps to the

shop next door. It achieves a high degree of density and allows a walkable community.

The third is that its covered five-foot-ways make walking and browsing pleasant in

the sun and rain, again contributing to walkability and efficiency in all weathers. The

fourth is that its compact and flexible design allows it to be used for many sorts of

settlements, giving sufficient density to allow a critical mass of community life and

minimizing sprawl, and offering self-organization and easy adaptation for changing

community needs.

45
 CHAPTER 6
TOWARDS A NEW TROPICAL ARCHITECTURE

Adaptations

Here are some examples of the sustainability features of the shophouse that could

be adapted for the modern world. The first is that the walls of many traditional

Singapore shop houses were coated with a lime wash which was semi-permeable. It

wicked moisture from the ground, evaporated, and cooled the walls, but could also

encourage mildew and mold, deteriorating air quality. Neo-shophouses could try a

more systematic solution involving collected rainwater and semi-permeable cladding

using all that modern technology and materials make available. The fact that many

modern occupants of the shophouse put in air conditioning points to the fact that

modern expectations have gone beyond what the original shophouse could offer.

Figure 4-2 shows gutters leading rainwater off the roofs. Singapore has 2.4 meters of

rain a year and most of the tropics are equally blessed, and there is ample opportunity

to collect this for both this cooling effect and other non-potable uses.

The second is that every shop house is connected at its back by the back lane.

The original purpose was to provide access to swap in an empty bucket for the full

bucket and cart it away, in the days before piped sewers. The relevant characteristic

here is that this is a second parallel network offering complete (every shophouse being

connected to a back lane) and alternative (being separate from the main road in front)

access, simply because it interferes with clients and customers moving along the five-

foot way. For neo-shophouses, we could connect all the back lanes into an alternative

network for bicycles, separate from the motor road network.

46
 The third considers the problem that the jack roofs of shop houses were trying to

solve – how to bring in natural light and ventilation while not letting in direct sunlight and

rain – can be solved more effectively. Neo-shophouse jack roofs can be enlarged or

incorporate a badgir or malqaf to funnel in more wind or have light shelves added to

bring in more light. With new LED lighting both extremely energy efficient and non-

toxic, lighting is perhaps of less important so priority should be given to adapting the

badgir that can be used in conjunction with the evaporation cooling mentioned above,

assisted by some fan draught if necessary. Earlier, ASHRAE recommended levels of

temperature and relative humidity were quoted to compare against Singapore’s climate.

But as ASHRAE themselves would point out, thermal comfort is a function of

temperature, humidity, airflow, and clothing acting in combination (ASHRAE 2010b), so

improving airflow could minimize if not eliminate the need for air conditioning.

There is much scope here. A low rise form like the shophouse, in contrast to all

high rise forms, has the unsurpassable advantage of each unit having its own roof and

courtyard. There is much potential here for capturing rainwater, as mentioned above;

groundwater, reprising the earliest shophouses’s wells in their courtyards; sunlight for

gardens, natural light, and photovoltaic energy; and fresh air. This could be important if

the form is to be adapted to other locales in the tropics where water and power

distribution systems are non-existent or insufficient or leaky. Even in an efficient city,

on-site sufficiency will always help as distribution systems always have losses.

Borrowing of Elements

In addition to neo-shophouses, elements can be adapted for other building types.

For instance, in a study for a podium with tower block done by the author, the five-foot

way goes all around the podium block at street level offering pedestrians the same

47
shelter from sun and rain while they browse the shop fronts at street level. For each

floor, as illustrated in figure 6-1, eaves as used in the shophouse extend out boldly 2

meters. In combination with a ceiling height of 4 meters, and exploiting the free space

around the tower block, these eaves go all round each floor and implement an adapted

jack roof idea of bringing in natural and ventilation at a high ceiling level while blocking

out rain and direct sunlight. While a jack roof extends above the ceiling, this adaptation

extends as a continuation of the mid-level fixed windows, with the eaves extended out 2

meters to prevent direct sunlight coming in. It exploits the multiple levels of the tower

block to reflect sunlight from the upper surface of each lower eave upwards to the lower

surface of each upper eave to then come inside the building. Figure 6-1 explains it

better. The angle of the slope of the eaves are optimized for this effect.

Limitations of Shophouses

Flexible as the shophouse is, it cannot fulfill all purposes. For instance, it offers

nothing to the requirement of wide and open spans for food markets or a cooked food

center. We had noted that the strength of a single timber beam puts a limit of the width

of the shophouse if it still wants to remain column free. With reinforced concrete, this

restriction no longer exists today, but using such modern methods to broaden the width

would remove its essence of being a shophouse, leaving perhaps just a façade. That

may be desired to fit into a particular neighborhood, but for most such applications,

conventional modern architecture will usually have better answers.

Limitations of this Study

Firstly, the analysis was not quantitative, as that would be a highly technical work

beyond the scope of this study, and this author did not uncover prior studies of this type

on the shophouse that could be cited. There is also the difficulty of defining a baseline

48
platform. For instance, on what do we measure energy efficiency? Lived in the

traditional way, the shophouse is essentially carbon free. The earliest shophouses used

only kerosene lamps for lighting, and when electricity first arrived, only for lighting at

night. On the other hand, many modern occupants have added air-conditioners.

Secondly, the adaptations proposed could have been provided with more details

and drawings. The enormous arsenal of modern technology and materials has also not

been brought to bear for adaptations. These should not just enable higher functional

specifications but allow lower costs. For instance, beams and floor boards made from

laminated bamboo could be used in place of the traditional timber to refurbish old

shophouses or construct new ones. New possibilities of design offered by such new

materials and techniques were not explored.

Thirdly, there is a lack in historical thoroughness in tracing each feature back to its

earliest source and seeing how they were used. Many features of the shophouse, like

overhanging eaves, narrow fronts, courtyards, jack roofs, have long appeared

elsewhere. The shophouse, after all, is less than two hundred years old. This study

has used the shophouse to channel these features because it has brought them

together in such a compact package optimized for doing business in an urban setting.

A better history would also shed more light on how the shophouse adapted to changing

needs as it morphed from a possibly rural agrarian courtyard house to urban trading

south China row house to metropolitan international commerce Singapore shophouse.

Future Study

The shophouse does not offer solutions to everything, in recognition of which the

research question has been “What elements of traditional Singapore shophouse can we

borrow to support the development of a new sustainable tropical architecture?” It needs

49
complementation from modern architecture and other vernacular traditions. In

Singapore itself, other vernacular forms on offer include the attap house and the kelong.

While attap houses are unlikely to appear in high density urban developments, its

solutions on keeping out rain and sun and out of the way of damp ground and floods

could be studied. Kelongs are structurally attap houses on stilts over shallow seas and

serve as fish traps and accommodation for the fisherfolk. Clusters of them (without the

fish traps) linked by walkways form villages elsewhere in Southeast Asia. They may

offer solutions, not just on building forms, but neighborhood organization, to the

disappearing of land under rising sea levels. What remains to be done is to show

comprehensively how shophouse elements can be combined with these other elements

and implemented with all that modern technology can offer.

The shophouse, like all vernacular constructions, may have limitations, but the

study of the vernacular does not rely on the premise that it was some kind of perfection

that only needed to be resurrected for the world to return to a golden age. For a start,

conditions of society and economy have changed and we now have technology and

materials unavailable to the vernacular builders, so any criteria for perfection would

have shifted. Rather, it is that – with the realization that the carefree use of electricity

and natural resources would have to end and that it would be a good time anyway for a

retrospection on the entire modern paradigm – an appropriate way to proceed would be

to mine our heritage for solutions and insights because they have evolved in a low-

carbon era. For instance, we should reconsider the use of air-conditioning as a

panacea to every heat and ventilation problem. Furthermore, vernacular architecture

are often more attractive than modern. In Paris, young suburbanites congregate in the

50
ancient vernacular “twisting, narrow streets that were supposed to be rationalized out of

existence . . . in the evening for relief from dull [modern] housing projects.” (Hohenburg

and Lees, 1995, p. 346).

Modern technology need not be avoided. Glassie (1990) explained that modern

technology is simply a greatly exaggerated form of certain tendencies of western

vernacular, and indeed, it and all other sources have to be tapped for solutions. For

example, Alexander et al. (1977) strongly championed ultra-lightweight structural

concrete as “one of the most fundamental bulk materials of the future” (p. 958).

A program for future work could look like the following. Firstly, we note that the

performance or efficiency of a building or neighborhood is derived from two separate

concepts – functional specifications, and costs. We encountered a dilemma earlier in

assessing the carbon efficiency of shophouses when we saw that early shophouses are

essentially carbon free in use while modern occupants have added air-conditioners

which of course require electricity. Ideally, scales for both functional specifications and

costs can be calibrated so that they can be normalized to each other to make

comparisons meaningful between different building types or different neighborhood

designs.

Next, the functional specifications have to be well understood. This is not just the

number of appropriately built up square feet or specifications for light, ventilation, and

temperature levels. It has to include how buildings can fit together at what appropriate

measures of density to enable what types of residential, social, and economic activity.

Thirdly, what are the costs? This has to include whole life costs and externalized

costs, including those to the environment, and whether they are low enough to be

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sustainable. Do the builders have the necessary skills to build and maintain the

buildings, or will they need extra training? Will the materials have to travel a long

distance or otherwise damage the environment? In use, what are the operating costs?

Does it facilitate a low carbon lifestyle and less need for travel? Does it require

constant maintenance and repair work? Will that curved glass canopy or intricate

computer-controlled integral sunlight angling mechanism ever need to be repaired or

adjusted? What if the manufacturer goes bankrupt? We should not look just ten or

twenty years ahead but fifty or a hundred, as demolition and reconstruction or even just

refurbishment is costlier financially and ecologically than continued occupation. A

standardized and comprehensive framework for evaluating the two dimensions of

functional specifications and costs would be ideal.

An inventory of vernacular forms could then be collected within this framework.

The context for which they were optimized must be fully documented, so that their

appropriateness to any particular problem will be clear. In future, elements could be

borrowed as appropriate or re-interpreted in modern materials as necessary.

But all that is for the future. For now, we have learnt that beyond some of the

shophouse’s various elements that can be borrowed for a sustainable tropical

architecture, its basic concept is worthy of inventory, as generations have proven it to

be conducive to an urban lifestyle and livelihood, and existing copies are still highly

coveted and lovingly restored and used. Architecture, after all is to enable life to be

lived to its fullest and most comfortable, and any form which has proven itself and still

makes little demand on environmental resources deserves our careful attention.

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Figure 6-1. Study for a podium with tower block – interior. (Drawing by the author.)

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 BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCH

T. C. Guan has degrees in engineering and computer science, and business

administration. He now works as an investor. A concern for the environment and a love

of drawing and design drew him to this course.

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