Social interactions in high-rise residentials through the adoption of Kampung Sungai Melayu social inventions

Abstract

The purpose of this study is to identify the roles of public communal spaces that could improve the social interaction of the community in high-rise residentials. It is very common to see high-rise buildings erected throughout a developing city. The high-rises are like the key players of the city, and normally a driving force for the improvement of the urban infrastructure. As the people are moving-from horizontal community to vertical community, the issues of social interaction arise. Therefore, communal spaces in high-rise buildings are very important and the implementation into the current industry is yet to be reinforced. Social interaction is important as it is beneficial to human health, both physically and psychologically. The idea of including communal space in high-rise is no longer a new idea as it had been incorporated during the 1980’s. But it is yet to be fully implemented in the high-rise development due to the cost and plot ratio issues. The main objective of this research is to create an architectural method for encouraging social interaction in high-rise community. The research adopts the questionnaires, interviews and observation as the methodology for data collection. The data are collected from the selected village, Kampung Sungai Melayu. From the findings, it had been identified that certain characteristics that are encouraging community social interaction is found in Kampung Sungai Melayu, such as the anjung, typical house typology and communal spaces. The author suggested a few methods that can be incorporated into the design of future high-rise residentials in order to encourage social interaction within the high-rise communities, such as incorporating the anjung into the unit design, offset the corridor with the individual units, create a transition space between the public corridors and private units, etc.