Chap.4 Socio-Cultural of Kajang

This paper study about the socio culture of the site project that focus in Bandar Kajang, Selangor Malaysia. There’s four main sub topic was covered, which is first Social Interaction (idea of interaction), second Social Interaction (neighbourhood community), third Social Interaction (multi ethnic) and fourth Revival of historical value (conservation of heritage architectural style).

This section is about social interactivity in Kajang town. Millenium Group highlighted a study by Salih et al. (2020) that pocket parks are effective for promoting social interactions among residents of Baghdad City. The authors focus on the types and characteristics of public open spaces to enhance residents’ social activities in the Karkh district of Baghdad city. The study recommends provision of pocket parks with adequate characteristics to promote the residents’ social interactions in Baghdad city. The critical actionable attributes of pockets parks can be embedded into new development, land-use policies, or upgrading of existing parks.

United Kajang Group also mentioned that Hatefishojae et al. (2020) study on the role of Alexander's theory of living centres in promoting social interaction at the local and urban square. The authors determine which pattern of Alexander's theory would mostly affect social interactions in squares and how the individual factors impact social interactions in local and urban squares. Their study selected the Avicenna Tomb Square and the centre of Aqajani Beig neighbourhood in Hamedan. Hatefishojae et al., (2020) state that the patterns of Alexander's theory are efficient in promoting social interactions in local and urban squares. Individual factors are not effective in this regard, but strong centres and urban square contradictions are more effective in resident's social interactions than that of void spaces and strong centres. While the above-mentioned studies are limited to the local and regional context, their results could guide the design of a concept store in the context of Kajang site by applying similar pattern in the spatial programming for bringing in the community to the concept store through enhanced social interaction.

This section is about social interaction focusing on the neighbourhood community context. According to group Millenium, Hamdan, H., Yusof, F., Marzukhi, M. A., et al. (2018) highlight about the social capital and quality of life in multi-storey housing neighbourhood community while focusing on social well-being, strengthen neighbourhood and increase the quality of life. Hamdan, H., Yusof, F., Marzukhi, M. A., et al. (2018) found bonding of social capital according to four dimensions based on their localities where diversity of its people and surrounding developments could influence the pattern of social capital.

United Kajang Group mentioned Tedong et al. (2014) who researched on the social and spatial implications of guarded neighbourhoods specifically resident-generated enclosed areas in urban Malaysia where the authors illustrate neoliberal urban practice in fragmenting cities. (Tedong et al., 2014) stated that guarded neighbourhoods in Malaysia simultaneously reflect social exclusion—of non-residents, lower classes, migrants, and ethnic ‘others’—and cohesive social action of the politically and economically powerful to produce neighbourhood identity and community coherence through enclosure.

However, according to group Millenium the author only doing this study and collected the result by just having household questionnaires. Therefore, based on Hamdan, H., Yusof, F., Marzukhi, M. A., et al. (2018), their study recommended having more varieties of methods in studies to get more efficient results as the household questionnaires got many lacking in collecting data and analysis. However, (Tedong et al., 2014) limited their study to resident-generated enclosed areas only. Therefore, based on (Tedong et al., 2014), their study recommends to broad the social and spatial implications in the commercial area to prevent the social segregation in the community. For both studies, an inclusive could have indicate better the in-depth public perception regarding selective neighbourhood.

This section is focusing to social interaction between diverse multi-ethnicities. According to United Kajang Group, Nee and Khan (2012) highlighted how a public urban space can contribute to one of the government policies: One Malaysia. The policy was introduced to promote greater integration among the multi-ethnic society where the authors studied several popular activities that can stimulate interactions between people irrespective of ethnicity. They revisitesd strategies how they could be incorporated in public urban spaces in the context of Malaysia. Based on this research paper, Nee and Khan (2012) found existing public spaces can only create opportunities of interaction in passive manner and hence, require other stimuli to create active interactions. The authors recommend inclusive activities that can dilute the ethnic bias and enhance gender or age instead. Additionally, other bias where considerations for opportunities for social interactions, types of activities, and group behaviours can be orchestrated through visual sense for group formation.

Aziz, R. A. (2012) highlighted the New Economy Policy (NEP) and the Malaysian multi-ethnic middle class which the authors briefly trace the emergence and growth of the Malaysian multi-ethnic middle class, followed by a discussion on the roles they play in affecting changes in the Malaysian society. Aziz, R. A, (2012) described the changes of the multi-ethnic middle class from the era before 1969 and 2000. The comparison is made based on economy, social and politics. The author documented the changing of this multi-ethnic middle class and the current behavior of this group.

In summary based on the studies, the group United Kajang study supports Nee and Khan (2012) to create a public space so it can create opportunities of interaction in a passive way and to identify other stimuli to create active interaction. Further study is needed on the implementation of Alexander's theory of living centers in designing a concept store. This paper proposes to ensure the involvement of multi-ethnic society by implementing the changes and current behavior of the Malaysian multiethnic middle class from year 2000 onwards.

This section will discuss the revival of historical value focusing on conservation of heritage architectural style. According to heriTECH Group, Šćitaroci & Šćitaroci (2019) presented spatial, urban, and landscape contexts for the revitalization and enhancement of cultural heritage where the author explores deeper for its inclusion of contemporary life. The key points of heritage revival are affected by context/environment while discovering new uses and repurposing its functions. Their results show that the key points of heritage survival are linked to urban and spatial planning methods, which takes into account the integrity of space and the cultural heritage in it such that it can be used for place branding, infrastructure development as well as a crucial element of urban design.

heArt Group reported Vileniškė, & Urbonas (2011) found architectural heritage as a socioeconomic opportunity for revitalization of historic urban centers where the authors analyze how the use, re-use and the preservation of the architectural heritage could contribute to the socioeconomic revitalization of historic urban centres. Vileniškė, & Urbonas (2011) explained that architectural heritage could be a socioeconomic opportunity by the rehabilitation of historic built environment when, it is sustainably managed in its use, re-use, preservation, and maintenance of architectural heritage.

Taher Tolou Del et al. (2020) highlighted the semantic conservation of architectural heritage: the missing values where the authors stated that conservation practice is based on the values offered by the architectural heritage resources for different individuals, groups, societies, and governments. Results of their content analysis concluded that the conservation of architectural heritage can be investigated and analysed at three levels: people, experts, and governments. Meanwhile, the holistic conservation of the architectural heritage can be achieved only by the joint cooperation of all three levels. Additionally, results showed that the cultural value, economic value, historical value, and identity greatly influence the semantic conservation of the architectural heritage.

While Šćitaroci & Šćitaroci (2019) are concerned with historic institutional buildings, this study agrees to use the urban and spatial planning methods for new planning of Kajang which takes into account the integrity of space and the cultural heritage in it for guiding the place branding, infrastructure development as well as a crucial element of urban design that extend over the historic residential buildings.

In addition to adaptive re-use as recommended by Vileniškė, & Urbonas (2011), this study would like to conserve the urban visual integrity and fabric preservation, thus, improving the built environment and the public spaces quality, while reinforcing the social cohesion and the centrality of social networks essential for the regeneration of the historical urban environment in terms of social, social and economic aspects. Extensions over individuals, groups, societies, and governments are encouraged thereby allowing the missing architectural semantics to be preserved for future generations.

Several elements can be extrapolated in this study. Firstly, lacking of social interactions can be improved by providing pocket parks along green lanes to attract residents of Kajang to come outside for social activities. Such urban park arrangement would increase social accessibility within Kajang. Planners can influence the creation of public park designs and offer a more conducive rural night environment for community social activities. Secondly, revival of historical value can be made through conservation of heritage architectural style to be undertaken by the local government. Ideas for 'heritage walk' is proposed if it could solve traffic congestion problems. As an architect or designer, a successful building outcome will need to address the site context including its socio-cultural heritage and responds to its residents’ behavioural context.

Aziz, R. A. (2012). New Economic Policy and the Malaysian multiethnic middle class. Asian Ethnicity, 13(1), 29-46. doi:10.1080/14631369.2012.625692

Hamdan, H., Yusof, F., Marzukhi, M. A., & Abdullah, F. (2018). Social Capital and Quality of Life in Multi-storey Housing Neighbourhood Community. Asian Journal of Quality of Life, 3(9), 141. https://doi.org/10.21834/ajqol.v3i9.85

Hatefishojae, S., Islami, S. G., & Rezaei, M. (2020). Role of local and urban textures in promoting social interactions of residents and emphasizing living centres theory of Christopher Alexander, Frontiers of Architectural Research

Nee, T. H., & Khan, T. (2012). Revisiting Strategies to enhance Social Interaction in Urban Public Spaces in the context of Malaysia. British Journal of Arts and Social Sciences, 8(2), 198

Salih, Sarah Abdulkareem, Sumarni Ismail, and Aysha Mseer. 2020. “Pocket Parks for Promoting Social Interaction among Residents of Baghdad City.” Archnet-IJAR: International Journal of Architectural Research.

Šćitaroci, M. O., & Šćitaroci, B. B. O. (2019). Heritage urbanism. Sustainability (Switzerland), 11(9). https://doi.org/10.3390/su11092669

Taher Tolou Del, M. S., Saleh Sedghpour, B., & Kamali Tabrizi, S. (2020). The semantic conservation of architectural heritage: the missing values. Heritage Science, 8(1), 1–13. https://doi.org/10.1186/s40494-020-00416-w

Tedong, P. A., Grant, J. L., & Abd Aziz, W. N. A. W. (2014). The social and spatial implications of community action to enclose space: The guarded neighbourhood’s in Selangor, Malaysia. Cities, 41, 30–37. https://doi.org/https://doi.org/10.1016/j.cities.2014.05.003

Vileniškė, I. G., & Urbonas, V. (2011). Architectural Heritage as a Socioeconomic Opportunity for Revitalization of Historic Urban Centres¬: a Global Perspective. 5(January 2011), 27–37. https://journals.rtu.lv/index.php/AUP/article/download/aup.2011.003/22