In an earlier posting I had warned about the expanding circumference of KL from KL Ring Road (Jln Tun Razak) to KL Middle Ring Road II (MRR II) to KL Outer Ring Road (to be built) which would not only expand an already choked up city (and the reason why we chose Tanarimba for respite) but may threaten our chosen solitude.
However, here are some good news...
The 10MP is setting aside 2 massive conservation areas in Peninsular and Sabah & Sarawak. The Central Forest Spine (CFS) in Peninsular will cover 4.2 million hectares and will link four major forest complexes from Perlis in the north to Johor in the south, namely Banjaran Titiwangsa-Banjaran Bintang-Banjaran Nakawan, Taman Negara-Banjaran Timur, South East Pahang-Chini and Bera and the Endau Rompin Park-Kluang Wildlife Reserve. CFS should zoom past Tanarimba thus giving us some 'protection'.
The other forest complex will become the Heart of Borneo, covering areas in Sabah, Sarawk and Kalimantan. An extremely important step in protecting the unique biodiversity of Borneo.
CFS is equally as impressive in terms of biodiversity, noting that we do not have tigers in Borneo and some of you may not realise that Fraser's Hill has tarantulas! This small hill has an amazingly diverse number of bird species - more than the entire UK.Belum in Perak is probably home to the most number of hornbills congregation in the world!
I have quoted freely from Malaysiakini. Please read more about it there or in other postings.
Sunday, June 27, 2010
Monday, June 7, 2010
How shall I construct my home in Tanarimba ?
Now that we have made the commitment to live here, the next question to answer would be ‘How shall my home be?’. For many of us, we would have conceptualized the home - how it should look like, where it should face etc - as early as the first time we took interest in Tanarimba. Should it be a mansion of 20 rooms all facing the forest across the stream or should it be a 3 bedroom house just enough for a small family with oversized verandahs for the weekend getaway?
Whichever design we would choose, I would humbly encourage my neighbours to adopt building designs and concepts that would suit Tanarimba.
Here are some ideas:-
1. The right architect and the right contractor
I would choose an architect who ‘feels’ for Tanarimba. Someone who can design a house that fits into Tanarimba, not one that would stick out like that sore thumb. The contractor would be equally important if not more. He or she should be cognizant of the uniqueness of the place and must be conscious enough to work with us and practise good and ecologically-friendly construction methods.
2. Care for our other ‘neighbours’
I am talking about the non-human neighbours. In our design and during construction we should not disturb or harm the animals in the forests. For example, about 2 years ago, the workers of a contractor offered me a Malaysian porcupine if I wanted one, because they said they can easily catch one with their home made trap. I saw the trap but not the porcupine. I reported it to Nathan and they weren’t too friendly with me thereafter.
3. Care for the surroundings
Said many times in this blog, please keep as much of the natural vegetation as possible.
4. It must be a ‘green’ house
Having a home in Tanarimba gives us a unique opportunity to build the perfect green home. It should meet our human needs while at the same time built with the right materials and design to be as green as possible. This topic would justify another few specialized articles on this blog but for now, let me offer some ideas.
4.1 Rain water for non-drinking purposes
I would incorporate rain collection gutter and tank systems and reuse the collected rain water for flushing toilets, washing machine, car wash and general cleaning within and outside the house. I would even have concurrent taps in several areas to utilize the rain water as and when I want. I would just colour code the taps.
4.2 No air-conditioning
I personally think that having an air-condition goes against the very principle of living in Tanarimba. The filtered air that comes out of an air-conditioner will not be half as ‘fresh’ as that coming directly from the outside. In addition, the compressors that run the air-cons would blow hot air out which to me just doesn’t make sense when you are here in Tanarimba.
4.3 Solar panels
This is a tough decision. While I would like to be self sufficient energy wise, the cost of installing and maintaining solar panels to generate electricity for the entire house will be too much to bear at this time- at least for me. But for my other more fortunate neighbours, I would encourage it. I wouldn’t even mind participating in a scheme (if there is one) to have centralized solar panels to generate electricity for Tanarimba’s own use. Maybe in the near future, Sitrac?
4.4 Building materials – are they green?
I ask myself this question all the time. This is where a good contractor comes in. I would strongly encourage my contractor to choose only timber from FSC certified forests, use as little form work as possible, no granite or marble (because the limestone hills where the marble comes from cannot be replaced), know the source of all the building materials so that I can assess the ‘greenness’ for myself. Really tough thing to do in Malaysia, I know, but I would at least try. The more the consumers demand of it, the more effort will the businesses put in to cater to our needs. There’s no other way, green concepts must be led by the consumer. A business’ prime motive is to make profit, so it would not be naturally inspired to offer green products unless there is demand for them.
5. How green is green
We may even choose to follow industry benchmarks when constructing our home.
In Malaysia we have the Green Building Index
http://www.greenbuildingindex.org/
In Singapore, it is the Green Mark
http://www.bca.gov.sg/
In Australia, it is the Green Star
http://www.bgca.org.au/
In the US, it is known as LEEDS
http://www.bgca.org/
6. Will it cost more?
I am convinced not. It does not necessarily mean that a green building will be more expensive than the conventional counterpart. While it is true at this time in Malaysia at least that the more green the building, the more expensive it gets but there are always in between options and we can always plan it such that it is done in stages.
Whichever design we would choose, I would humbly encourage my neighbours to adopt building designs and concepts that would suit Tanarimba.
Here are some ideas:-
1. The right architect and the right contractor
I would choose an architect who ‘feels’ for Tanarimba. Someone who can design a house that fits into Tanarimba, not one that would stick out like that sore thumb. The contractor would be equally important if not more. He or she should be cognizant of the uniqueness of the place and must be conscious enough to work with us and practise good and ecologically-friendly construction methods.
2. Care for our other ‘neighbours’
I am talking about the non-human neighbours. In our design and during construction we should not disturb or harm the animals in the forests. For example, about 2 years ago, the workers of a contractor offered me a Malaysian porcupine if I wanted one, because they said they can easily catch one with their home made trap. I saw the trap but not the porcupine. I reported it to Nathan and they weren’t too friendly with me thereafter.
3. Care for the surroundings
Said many times in this blog, please keep as much of the natural vegetation as possible.
4. It must be a ‘green’ house
Having a home in Tanarimba gives us a unique opportunity to build the perfect green home. It should meet our human needs while at the same time built with the right materials and design to be as green as possible. This topic would justify another few specialized articles on this blog but for now, let me offer some ideas.
4.1 Rain water for non-drinking purposes
I would incorporate rain collection gutter and tank systems and reuse the collected rain water for flushing toilets, washing machine, car wash and general cleaning within and outside the house. I would even have concurrent taps in several areas to utilize the rain water as and when I want. I would just colour code the taps.
4.2 No air-conditioning
I personally think that having an air-condition goes against the very principle of living in Tanarimba. The filtered air that comes out of an air-conditioner will not be half as ‘fresh’ as that coming directly from the outside. In addition, the compressors that run the air-cons would blow hot air out which to me just doesn’t make sense when you are here in Tanarimba.
4.3 Solar panels
This is a tough decision. While I would like to be self sufficient energy wise, the cost of installing and maintaining solar panels to generate electricity for the entire house will be too much to bear at this time- at least for me. But for my other more fortunate neighbours, I would encourage it. I wouldn’t even mind participating in a scheme (if there is one) to have centralized solar panels to generate electricity for Tanarimba’s own use. Maybe in the near future, Sitrac?
4.4 Building materials – are they green?
I ask myself this question all the time. This is where a good contractor comes in. I would strongly encourage my contractor to choose only timber from FSC certified forests, use as little form work as possible, no granite or marble (because the limestone hills where the marble comes from cannot be replaced), know the source of all the building materials so that I can assess the ‘greenness’ for myself. Really tough thing to do in Malaysia, I know, but I would at least try. The more the consumers demand of it, the more effort will the businesses put in to cater to our needs. There’s no other way, green concepts must be led by the consumer. A business’ prime motive is to make profit, so it would not be naturally inspired to offer green products unless there is demand for them.
5. How green is green
We may even choose to follow industry benchmarks when constructing our home.
In Malaysia we have the Green Building Index
http://www.greenbuildingindex.org/
In Singapore, it is the Green Mark
http://www.bca.gov.sg/
In Australia, it is the Green Star
http://www.bgca.org.au/
In the US, it is known as LEEDS
http://www.bgca.org/
6. Will it cost more?
I am convinced not. It does not necessarily mean that a green building will be more expensive than the conventional counterpart. While it is true at this time in Malaysia at least that the more green the building, the more expensive it gets but there are always in between options and we can always plan it such that it is done in stages.
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