Issue # 3
36
FEATURE
PROPERTY360DIGEST
PROPERTY360DIGEST
Issue # 3
37
A solution for
Gamuda IBS
has a solution
for affordable
housing
Affordable
Housing
IBS (Industrial Building System)
By Gunaprasath Bupalan
You know the idiom — There’s more than one way to skin a cat?
Well, if you really look at it, there isn’t many ways to build a house.
Home construction isn’t like cat skinning - you basically put up the
four walls then slap on a roof. Viola!
But as everything around us has changed or modernized over the
years, this age-old method of home construction also needs to
change with the times…don’t you think?
Well, technology has already lent a hand in this change.
The most modern of them all is actually
what was revealed some time back at
the South by Southwest festival in Austin,
Texas. A construction technologies startup
company called ICON and housing non-
profit New Story unveiled their version of a
3D printed house. The model is 650 square
feet and consists of a living room, kitchen,
bedroom, bathroom, and shaded porch.
It went from zero to finished in under 24
hours, and it cost less than USD10,000.
That’s cheaper than buying a MYVI in
Malaysia.
I believe that this technology is also
being adopted at El-Salvador to build a
township to house an entire community.
The target for this development is to make
each house ultimately affordable at below
USD4,000 each. This is basically the price
of 1 month’s rental of a high-end semi-dee
here in Malaysia.
The main idea of this El-Salvador project
is very noble, the developer wants to make
sure people without homes (who have
never had a space to call their own) to be
able to finally have one.
What is 3D Printed homes?
ICON’s crane-like printer is called the
Vulcan, and it pours a concrete mix into
a software-dictated pattern; instead of
one wall going up at a time, one layer is
put down at a time, the whole structure
“growing” from the ground up. The printer
consists of an axis set on a track, giving it
a flexible and theoretically unlimited print
area.
With 3D printing, you not only have a
continuous thermal envelope, high thermal
mass, and near zero-waste, but you also
have speed, a much broader design palette,
next-level resiliency, and the possibility of a
quantum leap in affordability.
Do we have such technology in
Malaysia?
Well, we do not have 3D home printing
yet, though I feel that it is just a matter
of time before it reaches our shores,
as before US, 3D house printing was
already introduced in Russia, Dubai and
Amsterdam.
However, in Malaysia, thanks to Gamuda
IBS, who was the first to house a digital IBS
facility in Sepang, we have the next stage
of construction introduced to our shores.
Leveraging on today’s digital design tools
and robotic construction, digital IBS means
flexibility in design, fast construction and
superior quality finish.
What is IBS?
IBS may not be 3D Printing of homes
but it sure looks like a promising solution
for affordable homes, here in Malaysia.
Industrialised building system (IBS) is a
term used in Malaysia for a technique of
construction where by components are
manufactured in a controlled environment,
either at site or off site, placed and
assembled into construction works —
pretty much like a Lego set. Worldwide,
IBS is also known as Pre-fabricated/
Pre-fab Construction, Modern Method
of Construction (MMC) and Off-site
Construction.
The benefits of IBS include, better
consistent quality and faster building
completion with much cost savings and
less dependence on foreign labour. In
other words, less cost on construction and
quicker turnaround time (by approximately
12 months). This ultimately means — lesser
price tag on homes.
Recently, I have witnessed two launches
where Gamuda IBS had been awarded the
construction using Digital IBS — one of
these projects was handed over to buyers
more than 12 months in advance at really
affordable rates of only RM42,000 to
RM250,000.
While the other project was opened for
registration earlier in the year, also sold at
very affordable rates.
Now, I believe many of you would be
thinking (since I mentioned Lego blocks
earlier) that homes constructed with Digital
IBS would all be chalk-a-block standard
designs — well no. Digital IBS allows for
customisation; hence it’s got a more
modern approach, making the quality of
homes and it’s finishing is really top-notch.
Why IBS and not 3D printing yet?
Well, when I spoke with Ong Jee Lian,
who is the Assistant General Manager,
Group Corporate Communications (GCC)
of Gamuda Berhad, her explanation was
simple and apt — IBS has the flexibility to
customise anything landed and high-rise,
This should be looked at more seriously
and implemented more to curb the crisis of
affordable homes
especially when it comes to more than
15-storey buildings which is hard to do
with 3D printing, which is mainly used for
individual small landed units.
According to Previn Singhe of Zerin
Properties — He says that IBS is definitely
the way forward.
So why hasn’t Digital IBS been accepted
by all developers at the moment?
Well, what we actually do not know
is that, as of mid 2016, about 69% of
government projects adopted IBS, while
the adoption rate among the private sector
stood at under 15%.
Now in 2019, more developers are
looking at joining the bandwagon as
Malaysian’s are really suffering without an
actual solution to the two-decade old issue
of affordable housing.
Conclusion
While 3D home printing may seem
like the real solution to the affordable
housing dilemma, IBS may be the stage in
between traditional construction and 3D
home printing, paving the path for quicker
construction with great quality and genuine
affordable rates. My honest opinion is
that every developer should work with
players like Gamuda IBS to ensure that
the Government’s aspiration of building
100,000 units of affordable houses per year
is met.