The challenges, potentials, and experts’ opinions on developing a Malaysian garden identity

As well as generally being considered as symbols of national and country identity, gardens fulfill various functions within society such as being aesthetically beautiful, satisfying human needs, and also functioning as places for various activities. In accordance with this, the Malaysian government in her newly launched National Landscape Policy put forth a vision to achieve “The Most Beautiful Garden Nation” by the year 2020, reflecting a desire to develop a distinctive landscape identity for the country. Due to this, the National Landscape Department of Malaysia suggested developing a garden identity as an indispensable part of this vision because even though the country has great potential in the development of parks and gardens, an exclusive garden identity is still lacking. This paper aims to justify that the development of a garden identity could enhance national and landscape identities for the country. It is also presumed that such development faces several challenges. Moreover, the study intends to highlight Malaysia’s great potential for developing its gardens. A review of existing literature along with Malaysia’s new landscape policy was thus undertaken, and findings were then triangulated by conducting face-to-face interviews with Malaysian local landscape architects. Consequently, the importance of creating a unique garden identity corresponding with Malaysia’s new landscape policy was confirmed. Furthermore, challenges (which mainly relate to political, social, cultural, and economic viewpoints) and potentials for such development were recognised. The results can ultimately be utilised to contribute to the formation of gardens with distinct Malaysian identities

Towards integrating public art in Malaysian urban landscape

Public art is an art form that exists in public area for public view. It can be in the forms of sculpture, mural, sculpture fountain and even stabile or mobile inside shopping mall. Its existence breaks the mundane environment and engages some kind of social flux towards public spaces. As urban landscape serves as urban retreat place, it is a much boost of a better quality environment when art approach is becoming part of urban landscape components. Seeing that the combination of site, art and people as one organization, it generates the aura of sustainability towards the urban landscape. However, a paradox situation happens in Malaysia as all the components function solely as different units. This paper focuses on an investigation on the potentials and issues of public art in Malaysian urban landscape. Literature review, document analysis and interview were also done to help justify the findings of the investigation. The first part of the paper examined public art as a contributor towards quality urban living environment. Subsequently, issues and problems which shield the Malaysian urban landscape and to be fully integrated by public art will be highlighted as well. It is argued that the process which artworks fusing with the urban landscape leads to an awareness and an understanding of the public issues to the notion of public art. Therefore, this paper will help to generate the society’s awareness and understanding of the effort of integrating public art in the Malaysia urban landscap

Kish as a small island towards sustainable tourism

Small islands are often encouraged to balance their economic and environmental concerns toward sustainable tourism. Universal experience shows that sustainable tourism in small islands should take into account their individual characteristics. This paper investigates the quality of sustainable tourism in a small island, namely, Kish in the South of Iran. Firstly, the main characteristics of small islands in relation to tourism sustainability are studied. Then the characteristics of Kish are identified as a small island. Finally, this study suggests that the crucial issue of sustainable tourism has been neglected in the development planning of the island. It is concluded with some recommendations for improving the development of Kish towards sustainable tourism. The results are generally applicable to other small islands. In addition, the results can be generalized to other tourist destinations in Iran or other countries with similar climatic and cultural condition

FRUITY-SCAPE : fruits in landscape

Landscape is the environment experienced by individuals which includes the flora and fauna, and the patterns of human activities. It is an interaction between natural resources and human needs comprising an appreciation of beauty and aesthetic values, ecology and history of the area. This chapter discusses three aspects of the fruit trees in different landscape areas which relate to the fruity-scape of the area

Malaysia's three major ethnic group preferences in creating a Malaysian garden identity

Malaysia has a complex multiracial population, predominantly defined by three major ethnic groups: Malay, Chinese and Indian races, with diverse cultural backgrounds. Despite this, the country has a vision to be the most beautiful garden nation, and its National Landscape Policy (NLP) puts emphasis on creating a unique landscape and garden identity. Because of ethnic and cultural differences, there are differences between preferences for developing a garden identity for Malaysia. Hence, this study focused on the visual quality of gardens. Representative images of four well-established gardens of the world including Persian-Islamic, English, Japanese and Chinese gardens were presented to the study's respondents through preference photo surveys. Respondents from the three major ethnic groups in Malaysia were asked to rate their preferred garden types, elements and scenes that they would like to see in Malaysian gardens. The results pinpointed expectations of the visual quality of gardens. These highlighted some similarities and differences between the three major ethnic groups in their preferences for the scenes and elements that they sought in gardens. Diverse factors must be considered when creating Malaysian gardens that will be accepted by Malaysians of different ethnic groups. Garden development reveals preferences attached to visual qualities and emphasises cultural differences between garden users

Factors influencing preferences of garden iconographies

Gardens are natural and cultural artifacts presenting both natural and man-made beauty through their natural images. The collection of these representative images or iconography forms the particular identity of a garden. Hence, different gardens present a variety of iconographies, which could affect people preferences for them. For the purpose of this study, four well-established gardens in the world were selected as case studiesand their images were used to represent their iconographies. A photo-questionnaire survey was employed to elicit preferences for garden iconographies and to determine factors influencing their preferences. Factor analysis was used to reveal preference dimensions and stimuli in each category or groups of garden scenes based on preference ratings. Dimensions were qualitatively analyzed and were discussed in terms of their contents and spatial organizations. The study found that garden elements, axes, direction, focal points, and their particular arrangements influence preferences of garden iconographies. The findings from this study will help to inform Landscape Architects the choice of iconographies in the development of new garden identities