The Interdependency Of House Layout, Privacy And Culture From The User-Behavioural Perspective Of Urban Malays

The most fundamental form of traditional architecture is housing, built by ordinary people to accommodate their lives daily needs. Previous studies have shown that these houses provided better congruence between human behaviour and culture. For instance, in traditional Malay house the spatial organi...

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Main Author: Mohamad Ali, Harlina
Format: Thesis
Language:English
English
Published: 2007
Subjects:
Online Access:http://psasir.upm.edu.my/id/eprint/4963/1/FEM_2007_1.pdf
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author Mohamad Ali, Harlina
author_facet Mohamad Ali, Harlina
author_sort Mohamad Ali, Harlina
collection UPM
description The most fundamental form of traditional architecture is housing, built by ordinary people to accommodate their lives daily needs. Previous studies have shown that these houses provided better congruence between human behaviour and culture. For instance, in traditional Malay house the spatial organization is more flexible as physical separation of space within it is minimal. Low priority is given to personal privacy where emphasis is more on maintaining closeness within the family or intimacy with family. The main priority is towards protecting the privacy of female family members from male guests. Therefore, the segregation of space between the public domain in front and the private domain at the back is very important. This is demonstrated in the serambi (reception area) located in front of the house where the male guests are entertained during social and religious functions.Nowadays, majority of modern housing are mass-produced and inhabitants have little choice but to adapt their lifestyle within the ‘given environment’ regardless of their behavioural needs and cultural background. The spatial organization of modern link house is more formal as there are fixed and enclosed spaces for specific activities. Using scheduled-structured questionnaires, observation and graphic aid during interviews, this research analyzed the perspectives of urban Malays with regards to privacy concept and cultural needs. From the data analysis, many respondents agreed with the re-introduction of the serambi concept in modern housing as a transition zone for entertaining, where it is used to regulate privacy whilst maintaining privacy of family in the main house. It was found that even though intimacy with family is regarded important, there is awareness for personal privacy among the respondents due to the influence of modern housing layout especially about the separation of space for personal activities. The respondents cited that they either try to adapt themselves to the modern housing layout, adjusted the layout accordingly or have the intention to move elsewhere in the future. A spatial analysis of the respondents’ house plans were conducted, which culminated with a proposed prototype of a standard link house layout which best fulfills current privacy and cultural needs of urban Malays.
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spelling upm.eprints-49632013-05-27T07:19:26Z http://psasir.upm.edu.my/id/eprint/4963/ The Interdependency Of House Layout, Privacy And Culture From The User-Behavioural Perspective Of Urban Malays Mohamad Ali, Harlina The most fundamental form of traditional architecture is housing, built by ordinary people to accommodate their lives daily needs. Previous studies have shown that these houses provided better congruence between human behaviour and culture. For instance, in traditional Malay house the spatial organization is more flexible as physical separation of space within it is minimal. Low priority is given to personal privacy where emphasis is more on maintaining closeness within the family or intimacy with family. The main priority is towards protecting the privacy of female family members from male guests. Therefore, the segregation of space between the public domain in front and the private domain at the back is very important. This is demonstrated in the serambi (reception area) located in front of the house where the male guests are entertained during social and religious functions.Nowadays, majority of modern housing are mass-produced and inhabitants have little choice but to adapt their lifestyle within the ‘given environment’ regardless of their behavioural needs and cultural background. The spatial organization of modern link house is more formal as there are fixed and enclosed spaces for specific activities. Using scheduled-structured questionnaires, observation and graphic aid during interviews, this research analyzed the perspectives of urban Malays with regards to privacy concept and cultural needs. From the data analysis, many respondents agreed with the re-introduction of the serambi concept in modern housing as a transition zone for entertaining, where it is used to regulate privacy whilst maintaining privacy of family in the main house. It was found that even though intimacy with family is regarded important, there is awareness for personal privacy among the respondents due to the influence of modern housing layout especially about the separation of space for personal activities. The respondents cited that they either try to adapt themselves to the modern housing layout, adjusted the layout accordingly or have the intention to move elsewhere in the future. A spatial analysis of the respondents’ house plans were conducted, which culminated with a proposed prototype of a standard link house layout which best fulfills current privacy and cultural needs of urban Malays. 2007 Thesis NonPeerReviewed application/pdf en http://psasir.upm.edu.my/id/eprint/4963/1/FEM_2007_1.pdf Mohamad Ali, Harlina (2007) The Interdependency Of House Layout, Privacy And Culture From The User-Behavioural Perspective Of Urban Malays. Masters thesis, Universiti Putra Malaysia. Architecture, Domestic - Malays - Psychological aspects English
spellingShingle Architecture, Domestic - Malays - Psychological aspects
Mohamad Ali, Harlina
The Interdependency Of House Layout, Privacy And Culture From The User-Behavioural Perspective Of Urban Malays
title The Interdependency Of House Layout, Privacy And Culture From The User-Behavioural Perspective Of Urban Malays
title_full The Interdependency Of House Layout, Privacy And Culture From The User-Behavioural Perspective Of Urban Malays
title_fullStr The Interdependency Of House Layout, Privacy And Culture From The User-Behavioural Perspective Of Urban Malays
title_full_unstemmed The Interdependency Of House Layout, Privacy And Culture From The User-Behavioural Perspective Of Urban Malays
title_short The Interdependency Of House Layout, Privacy And Culture From The User-Behavioural Perspective Of Urban Malays
title_sort interdependency of house layout privacy and culture from the user behavioural perspective of urban malays
topic Architecture, Domestic - Malays - Psychological aspects
url http://psasir.upm.edu.my/id/eprint/4963/1/FEM_2007_1.pdf
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