Personalization as a means of achieving person-environment congruence in Malaysian housing

Abstract

The aim of this research is to suggest design considerations for personalizable houses in Malaysian housing in order to support person-environment congruence that leads to housing satisfaction. The study focuses on the approaches of achieving person-environment congruence in house design through personalization. Data were elicited from housing schemes in Johor, Malaysia using a combination of questionnaire survey and means-end chain research methods. Due to insufficient number of Indian respondents, ethnic differences were not addressed in this research. The research revealed that owner-occupiers or users in the study area personalized their houses due to inappropriateness of the original house design. The personalization works were characterized by the significant number of personalization works undertaken before the users moved in. Intense modification had caused financial burdens to the users. The research found that personalization is an important approach in Malaysian mass housing because it is a means of achieving person-environment congruence, and it is a user participated home making. For design considerations, the study discovered that there were 5 important attributes for personalization namely forecourt, living room, kitchen, bedroom, and floor. Personalization of these attributes was influenced by values hedonism, family security, self-image, conformity, and tradition. The modifications were aimed at establishing users’ expected affordances mainly everyday activities, communal activities, and pleasant feeling of home environment. To support personalization, the research found that the houses should have flexible internal layout and construction techniques. Users should be allowed to decide on the size and layout of the important attributes, to extend beyond building setback line, and to extend vertically. The research also suggests four user participation approaches in the process of personalization, they are user as developer, user as contractor, user works together with tradesmen, and user to handle all related works. These findings are potentially useful in establishing personalizable house prototype and personalization programmes in Malaysian housing