A design guide for public parks in Malaysia

Abstract

Public park areas are developed to serve as major activity areas in the city or town. They are public spaces designed to attract all races and cultures and to provide places for attention to the integration of uses. The spaces affect many people and their design could be replicated in several other public parks. A major problem faced by designers in Malaysia is the fact that there are three major communities, each with their own distinctive culture. These different communities are Malay, Chinese, and Indian and each group has different traditions about the use of public parks. The area of landscape design which is the concern of this book relates to the design of public parks in the context of a multi–racial society. The purpose of this book is to rationalize how public parks function in Malaysia. This objective is achieved by looking at current theories in public park design, examining the appropriateness of them all to the local tropical situation. This book gathers information and experiences that could contribute to the development of a new theory for public park design in Malaysia.