A concept of clean toilet from the Islamic perspective

Islam is the official religion of Malaysia and more than half of the population is Muslim. As Muslims, the aspect of cleanliness is one of the most important and basic things that should be followed and practised in everyday life. Allah loves those cleanse themselves as quoted in the holy Qur'an. .. God loves those who turn to Him, and He loves those who cleanse themselves ".(Surah Al-Baqarah: 222) There is a growing awareness of public toilets among the public and authorities which can be seen in the events such as the "A Clean Toilet Campaign Seminar" held at national level end of July 2003 in lohor Bahru, Johor. Criticisms by visitors and locals stirred the level of consciousness among those responsible directly or indirectly for clean and effective public facilities. Nowadays, toilet is no longer perceived as merely a small and insignificant part of a building. It contributes and serves more than the initial purposes intended. Due to socio-economic changes, a toilet has been diversified and become multi-functions. It has surpassed its traditional role as a place to empty bowels or urinates to serve as comfortable vicinity with conveniences. In developed countries such as Japan and Korea, a public toilet has become a communal area where people could do face washing, showering, freshen up or taking care of their kids and so on. In designing a public toilet, some elements should be highlighted particularly on the understanding of users needs. With the various type of users, there is a need for a universal design of a public toilet that is always clean, comfortable and safe as well as relaxing. In Malaysia, it is important to understand the 'Islamic toilet manner' as they can influence and has direct implications for the design and planning of toilet facilities as Islam is a universal and advocates matter of cleanliness

Designing inclusive educational space for autistic children : a review of the axisting discourse

Inclusion of autistic children in the regular educational setting becomes an issue in contemporary discourses on early childhood education. As the enrolment rate of children diagnosed with autism spectrum disorder (ASD) is increasing each year, it becomes crucial for the architects to rethink about their approaches to design inclusive educational learning space to benefit all types of users. While most of the earlier researches addressed the problem of inclusion from educational perspective, a few have been undertaken to address the problem of physical inclusion in terms of school designing. Current researches on design practice for autism friendly learning environment falls mainly in two categories, while the first one addressing the need for special treatment of the environment exclusively for the children with autism spectrum disorder (ASD) (Mostafa, 2008; Mullick & Khare, 2008; Vogel,2008; Paron-Wildes, 2009), the second one actually has translated research based knowledge on this subject matter in to practice thus designing several school building for the target group (Humphrey, 2005; Whitehurst, 2006; Beaver, 2010). This Scenario has left professionals and researchers with new questions regarding the relationship between the need of children with autism and inclusive environment. This paper attempts to critically look into these earlier works based on literature review and hopefully provide inputs to architects to start rethinking in designing Inclusive environment for this special group of children. This could be used as ground to embark on further research to propose appropriate standards for the architects for designing learning environment that reflects inclusion of children with autism spectrum disorder (ASD) along with their able-bodied peers

Access audit on universal design: the case of Kota Kinabalu water front

Most developed countries have enforced the use of “Universal Design” in any physical development of their cities, for the purpose of eliminating discrimination among the society members towards the unfortunate handicapped persons. Nevertheless, in many developing countries, the awareness and inclusion of Universal Design is still in its initial stage. Cities’ authorities have not fully enforced the requirement of providing access to people with disability in their built environment; neither in public nor private spaces. The Department of Standard Malaysia (SIRIM) had initiated the publication of Malaysian Standards as guidelines for designers; architects, city planners, landscape architects, interior designers, and others who are involved in the construction of physical development with Universal Design. The Ministry also commissioned researchers to do access audit on various public spaces in several cities, to examine whether or not the cities’ public spaces are built in compliance of the Universal Design or not. This research describes the procedures, process and findings of the access audit done in the city of Kota Kinabalu. Simulation of the access audit utilised five (5) people, each with different type of disability such as: fully impaired vision, partially impaired vision, hearing impaired, wheel-chair bound, and a crutch user. With guidance from the researchers, the disabled respondents simulated their movements at the water front area of the city stretching about one (1) kilometre in length and 200 metres wide. The access audit done in Kota Kinabalu concluded that the water front area was designed without consideration of Universal Design, and renovation of the built environment is urgently needed to comply with the Malaysian standard requirements

Sustainable Masjid Architecture and Public Buildings

A hydroelectric project proposed by Tenaga Nasional Berhad in Telom, Pahang, Malaysia will inundate six Orang Asli villagers whose residents have relocated to a new resettlement. However, TNB still needs their agreements and provide fair and agreeable compensation. This paper analyzes the process associated with the exercise. It is a descriptive analysis of activities conducted in preparing the plans as well as principles and values considered in calculating the proposed compensation and resettlement. It is hoped that the more sensitive and inclusive approach can be emulated in future projects affecting Orang Asli and others affected by developments© 2016. The Authors. Published  for AMER ABRA by e-International Publishing House, Ltd., UK. Peer–review under responsibility of AMER (Association of Malaysian Environment-Behaviour Researchers), ABRA (Association of Behavioural Researchers on Asians) and cE-Bs (Centre for Environment-Behaviour Studies, Faculty of Architecture, Planning & Surveying, Universiti Teknologi MARA, Malaysia.Keywords: Orang Asli; compensation plan; resettlement plan; Telom Hydroelectric Projec

Adaptibility and modularity in housing : a case study of Raines Court and Next21

Adaptable buildings are widely recognized as intrinsic to a sustainable built environment. The term adaptable architecture describes an architecture from which specific components can be changed in response to external stimuli, for example the users or environment. Further, if the parts that do change over time are designed for assembly, disassembly and reuse, if not recycling, this is an additional benefit in the service of a sustainable future. The paper presents idea to transform and industrialized the Malaysian construction industry to be more innovative in architectural design towards adaptability and modularity. The modular housing of Raines Court in London and adaptable housing of NEXT21 in Osaka was selected as a case study to assess the stage of modularization and adaptation of the building. The cross-sectional case study was carried out by semi-structured interviews and observation. They are used to evaluate the level and method of adaptation for the cases. Different levels of adaptation are determined to pinpoint the relations between the different connotations of adaptable. To generalize the outcome of the analyses the different components of the building are categorized. As a conclusion, the studies suggested the series of specific design strategies such as integrated building design, and concept of recyclability and adaptability, as well as green effect to be carried out in Malaysia. Then it would meet the requirement of new techniques and a new level of adaptability for Malaysia as can be concluded as Architectural Programmin

Application of universal design in the built environment

This objective of this book is to disseminate information related to what is access audit, why carry out an access audit, access survey and the process of implementing it in built environment specifically to our existing buildings. It also to inform the public especially professional in the building industries such architects, engineers, planners, landscape architect, contractor, technical people from the local authorities, administrators and politician the importance of providing access in our built environment continuously in a seamless journey inside and outside buildings. This book will further disseminate information regarding access audit to built environment, explain on the procedures in accessing a building and to do the checklist on how to analyze an access audi