The Use of Urban Plazas

In Malaysia, factors that contribute toward plaza use have not yet been identified. A pilot study to determine some of the factors that affect plaze use was conducted at five plazas in Kuala Lumpur and Petaling Jaya. Observation of each plaza was carned out and simple counts of the number of users within the boundaries of the plazas were taken. Mean use was determined and correlated with physical characteristics of the plaza and contextual characteristics of the surrounding area using Pearson Correlation Coefficient. Study data showed that plazas with more shaded seating, more plants and located close to retail stores, restaurants and surface parking tended to be heavily used. Plazas which were hidden or had a parking garage tended to be used less. Future studies need to be more intensive and refined in order to validate these finding

A STUDY ON VISUAL QUALITY OF TOURISM ACCOMODATION IN ECO-TOURISM SITE IN PAYA INDAH WETLANDS, MALAYSIA

Visual quality is very important as observer's first response to his/her surrounding to the ecotourism site. This factor should be stressed for eco-tourism sites such as wetland. An ecofriendly design of eco-tourism accommodations that harmonize and compatible to natural surrounding could increase the tourist interest to the place itself. A study was conducted in Paya Indah Wetlands aimed at assessing visual quality and perception of the eco-tourism accommodations using expert judgment technique. This study used selected photographs of the accommodation elements in Paya Indah Wetlands representing different types of buildings, park furnitures, parking features, pedestrian facilities, drainage and signages. The scoring scheme for visual quality and landscape features was valued using the six basic design elements, namely, form, line, colour, texture, shape and space. Data were gathered from 100 experts using a structured questionnaire with surrogated photos, distributed equally among landscape architects and architects. The results revealed that the visual quality of Paya Indah Wetlands accommodations were categorized as moderate in quality and some of the elements were considered as of poor quality. From the results, visual quality of the eco-tourism accommodations should be taken into consideration at the early stage in the development process to lend a higher visual quality to the wetland landscape of Paya Indah Wetlands

Socio-cultural influences in the composition of traditional Malay house compounds in rural Melaka

The traditional Malay living environment is planned carefully through harmonious interactions between man, nature and culture, which are translated into the home design and the surroundings. However, rapid urbanization and industrialization in Malaysia have transformed many traditional villages due to the insufficient numbers of studies done in the local context. This paper explores the existence of the local essences of the Malay landscape characteristics within rural traditional residential gardens through the study on preferences and influencing factors. Eighteen case studies were involved in the quantitative and qualitative inventory processes in understanding the local context. Ian McHarg’s Overlay analysis was adopted in this study to correlate the data by using the macro and micro analyses in order to understand the preferences and influences within the social and cultural contexts. Significant characteristics emerged as the essences of Malay socio-cultural identity, which have been identified as desperately in need of immediate acts of conservatio

Visitor’s adaptability toward natural elements and regulations in Penang National Park, Malaysia

In 2006, Penang National Park (PNP) became the second National Park destination in Malaysia. Through PNP complaint forms, the visitor reports some discomfort conditions from other visitors, facilities, and services while in the park. Cleanliness, signage, operational time of certain facilities and guide behaviour were negatively reported by visitors. Thus, the negative conditions will have an adverse effect on PNP as a conservation area. With this in mind, the research was carried out to learn about visitor’s adaptation in PNP. A total of 402 questionnaires were administered to domestic and international visitors. Some of the items in the questionnaire were further grouped into 4 concepts. Results show significant differences between the mean scores for domestic and international visitors on the concepts of regulation, active-activity, passive-activity and noisy condition, whereby the international visitors were found to be more likely to adapt to the conditions than those of the domestic. On the concept of regulation, both the international and domestic visitors could adapt toward the Park’s regulation. The significance of the results will be forwarded to the PNP management for their consideration of the visitors’ level of adaptation to reduce the negative impacts in the effort keep environmental sustainability in PNP