b.Size of Houses

The last part is here:   Exploration - Town Planning

I just visited Malacca Jonker Walk. Inside there, there were many Peranakan houses. The houses were very long. Usually each house has at least 2 air wells. Two houses were linked back to back with a toilet separating them. I truly wondered how they can clear their shit during shit clearance. My estimate is that they are about 130 ft long and 25 ft wide. Their staircases are unique and rather decorative. At the top of the stairs, it was normally sealed by closing a hatch. In a few occasions, these houses are combined into 50 ft wide or even 100 ft wide.

I have a theory.

Each lot in the white land is usually 50 ft x 140 ft. It usually has a single dwelling house, built-up is usually 1,600 sf (one or two storey). Some have 2 lots side-by-side, i.e., 100 ft x 140 ft. So I guess the fucken definition of 15,000 sf as a good class bungalow is referring to these double lots.

When these single lots are divided into 2 x 25 ft x 140 ft. This becomes rather tiny. So they built them into linked houses. Peranakan houses fell into this class of dwelling.

It is extremely uncomfortable if the dwelling house is made up of 2 storeys. So it should be considered that a proper dwelling house must not have stairs.

When the double lots expand further into 200 ft x 140 ft. It is about slightly more than 1/2 acre in land size. I would consider this house as ordinary. A properly sized single-storey dwelling house can then be built.

I, on the other hand, am interesting in building - 四合院. I would like to emulate the great court of Trinity College, Cambridge.

The Great Court Run 
Great Court, with (from left to right) the dining hall, Master's Lodge, fountain, clock tower, chapel and Great Gate The Great Court Run is an attempt to run round the 400-yard perimeter of Great Court (approximately 367 m), in the 43 seconds of the clock striking twelve. Students traditionally attempt to complete the circuit on the day of the Matriculation Dinner. It is a rather difficult challenge: one needs to be a fine sprinter to achieve it, but it is by no means necessary to be of Olympic standard, despite assertions made in the press. 

It is widely believed that Sebastian Coe successfully completed the run when he beat Steve Cram in a charity race in October 1988. Sebastian Coe's time on 29 October 1988 was reported by Norris McWhirter to have been 45.52 seconds, but it was actually 46.0 seconds (confirmed by the video tape), while Cram's was 46.3 seconds. The clock on that day took 44.4 seconds (i.e. a "long" time, probably two days after the last winding) and the video film confirms that Coe was some 12 metres short of his finish line when the fateful final stroke occurred. The television commentators were more than a little disingenuous in suggesting that the dying sounds of the bell could be included in the striking time, thereby allowing Coe's run to be claimed as successful. 

One reason Olympic runners Cram and Coe found the challenge so tough is that they started at the middle of one side of the Court, thereby having to negotiate four right-angle turns. In the days when students started at the corner, only three turns were needed. 

Until the mid-1990s, the run was traditionally attempted by first-year students, at midnight following their Matriculation Dinner. Following a number of accidents to drunk undergraduates running on slippery cobbles, the college now organises a more formal Great Court Run, at 12 noon on the day of Matriculation Dinner: the challenge is only open to freshers, many of whom compete in fancy dress.

The lawn is about 2 acres in size. Very manageable.

A nice 四合院 has always been my dream.