In Malaysia, the demand for affordable and quality housing has increased throughout the years particularly in urban regions such as Kuala Lumpur, Selangor and Johor Bahru. The demand is increasing because of the increasing population and high housing prices (Yin et al., 2019). Report by Department of Statistics Malaysia expressed that in year 2019, they were 32.6 million population and targeted to increase before the finish of year 2020. It likewise announced that 80% of the population earns less than RM 6,275 per month (DOSM, 2017). In the event that the definition of affordability being not more than 3 times of their yearly pay, then they are not having the option to purchase a house with value more than RM 300,000. Be that as it may, National Property Information Centre uncovered that just 21% of the total number of housing units launched in the year 2019 has a price tag beneath than RM 300,000 (NAPIC, 2019). The gap between the population housing demand and the housing price has asked the Malaysian government to take serious thought in this issue since affordability is not just about pricing, yet in addition long-term robustness is livable.
In the Eleventh Malaysia Plan (2016-2020), it was expressed that the construction industry will expand by 10.3% per annum throughout the following five-year period. This growth was expected to originate from the expanding interest for affordable quality housing particularly from the low to middle income household group (Economic Planning Unit, 2015). However, for the past 50 years, the housing industry has seen the growth of reinforced concrete frame structure and brick masonry as its main construction system. The conventional construction system has met with various issues, for example labour intensive, time consuming due to the large consumptions of mortar joints, low quality control and generating a lot of waste at the construction site (Kohail et al., 2019). With the increase in cost of construction materials and the demand for affordable quality housing is on the rise, an alternate construction method or system which is financially savvy and sustainable was required. Thusly, the Malaysia government through strategy produced by the Construction Industry Development Board (CIDB) have been asking for the utilisation of an Industrialised Building System (IBS) or prefabricated construction system to promote low carbon and sustainable practices in the housing construction industry (Economic Planning Unit, 2015).
Malaysia is one of the largest producers of palm oil and paddy grain in the world with an estimation of 454 palm oil mills and 490,000 hectares of paddy field operating in Malaysia (Tan et al., 2019 and Adnan et al., 2018). The most significant by-products generated from the agricultural industry are palm oil fuel ash (POFA) and palm oil fibre (POF) from palm oil mills and rice husk ash (RHA) from rice mills. The excessive amount of waste created will be disposed of in open spaces as agricultural waste (Luhar et al., 2019a). Concerning the preservation of natural resources, recycled concrete aggregate (RCA) from the construction industry were considered to balance the shortfall of future natural resources (Shahidan et al., 2017). In any case, there is no research work that combines all the byproducts waste into a single concrete mixture. As such, the combination of the agricultural and construction waste in a single concrete mixture called green concrete is needed as it contributes to more sustainable building material (Khan et al., 2020).
Other than addressing the need for more quality and affordable housing, the Construction Industry Development Board (CIDB) simultaneously demands a construction system which is environmentally sustainable as expressed in the Construction Industry Transformation Programme, (2016-2020) (CIDB, 2016). The GCH block system is a potential masonry product towards IBS industry to accelerate the construction process besides providing a sustainable construction method to fulfil the need for affordable quality housing in Malaysia. Further advantages of the GCH block system will be environmental sustainability, its load bearing capacity, its lightweight and its interlocking features to facilitate the construction of different types of wall arrangement.
In the Eleventh Malaysia Plan (2016-2020), it was expressed that the construction industry will expand by 10.3% per annum throughout the following five-year period. This growth was expected to originate from the expanding interest for affordable quality housing particularly from the low to middle income household group (Economic Planning Unit, 2015). However, for the past 50 years, the housing industry has seen the growth of reinforced concrete frame structure and brick masonry as its main construction system. The conventional construction system has met with various issues, for example labour intensive, time consuming due to the large consumptions of mortar joints, low quality control and generating a lot of waste at the construction site (Kohail et al., 2019). With the increase in cost of construction materials and the demand for affordable quality housing is on the rise, an alternate construction method or system which is financially savvy and sustainable was required. Thusly, the Malaysia government through strategy produced by the Construction Industry Development Board (CIDB) have been asking for the utilisation of an Industrialised Building System (IBS) or prefabricated construction system to promote low carbon and sustainable practices in the housing construction industry (Economic Planning Unit, 2015).
Malaysia is one of the largest producers of palm oil and paddy grain in the world with an estimation of 454 palm oil mills and 490,000 hectares of paddy field operating in Malaysia (Tan et al., 2019 and Adnan et al., 2018). The most significant by-products generated from the agricultural industry are palm oil fuel ash (POFA) and palm oil fibre (POF) from palm oil mills and rice husk ash (RHA) from rice mills. The excessive amount of waste created will be disposed of in open spaces as agricultural waste (Luhar et al., 2019a). Concerning the preservation of natural resources, recycled concrete aggregate (RCA) from the construction industry were considered to balance the shortfall of future natural resources (Shahidan et al., 2017). In any case, there is no research work that combines all the byproducts waste into a single concrete mixture. As such, the combination of the agricultural and construction waste in a single concrete mixture called green concrete is needed as it contributes to more sustainable building material (Khan et al., 2020).
Other than addressing the need for more quality and affordable housing, the Construction Industry Development Board (CIDB) simultaneously demands a construction system which is environmentally sustainable as expressed in the Construction Industry Transformation Programme, (2016-2020) (CIDB, 2016). The GCH block system is a potential masonry product towards IBS industry to accelerate the construction process besides providing a sustainable construction method to fulfil the need for affordable quality housing in Malaysia. Further advantages of the GCH block system will be environmental sustainability, its load bearing capacity, its lightweight and its interlocking features to facilitate the construction of different types of wall arrangement.
Words by: by Mr Mohamad Zulhairi bin Mohd Bosro