Why is the concrete house is being used in Malaysia?Isn't it better to use traditional housing method?

Question

I'm currently doing a research on the traditional housing construction method in Malaysia.Why the lifted house design is not widely adopted in Malaysia nowadays?Isn't it better in terms of energy consumption as we all concern?

Answer 1

It's new!, therefor better.   Same reason many things catch on, even though they are often not better and usually even worse than what has worked for hundreds/thousands of years.

Answer 2

I can see some advantages and disadvantages to building a concrete house.

Advantages:

The thermal mass of concrete is energy efficient and would reduce heating an cooling costs.

The house would be much more resistant to rot and decay.

The house would be much more resistant to hurricane/tsunami damage.

Disadvantages:

The price of construction would be much more than the traditional method.

The cement would have to be brought in, instead of building from local materials.

The engineering required to put the house on stilts (to prevent flooding during a hurricane/tsunami) would further increase the price and difficulty of construction.

These are just my opinions, hope they help.