Design for intergroup relations: community and welfare centre

Abstract

The community centres in Malaysia are found to be underutilised due to various reasons including simplistic functional design and bureaucratic management. Active communities are instead found in sacred places such as mosques, temples, and churches. Past researchers suggest the use of sacred places for community development. However, the inclusiveness of community development in sacred places is controversial due to its exclusive use and building language.This thesis proposes an alternative approach to utilizing faith's social capital for inclusive community development. That is, to integrate charity welfare, a universal activity across religion and humankind, into the community centre. The thesis explores architectural design approaches for the integration. It identifies the problem and need of charity welfare and community centre, reviews design principles for intergroup relations, and finally develops design approaches from the literature review and case study.