Enhancing fishermen’s place attachment to Kukup through architecture

Abstract

Kukup is a historically significant Fishermen’s village in Malaysia located in the state of Johor. This research was intended to identify ways to enhance fishermen’s place attachment to Kukup through architecture. Kukup is well known for its heritage, mangrove forest, fishing activities, seafood, and locals products. The villages remain to be inhabited only by the descendants from original immigrants, and the historical record has been generally inherited to existing generations. However, uncontrolled tourism development of Kukup resulted in a threat to place attachment of the local fishermen community to Kukup. Kukup has lost its identity due to modern development that does not integrate with local context and culture; and lack of environmental consciousness also resulted in local economic and environmental deterioration. Hence there is a significant need to identify ways to enhance local fishermen’s place attachment to Kukup, and architecture is an effective vehicle to achieve that. The research aimed to enhance local fishermen’s sense of place attachment to Kukup. The research objectives were to identify place attachment of local fishermen to Kukup, to identify solutions to improve Kukup’s local economy, and to establish design strategies to enhance local fishermen’s place attachment to Kukup. Data was collected through site observation, interviews and case studies. Content Analysis was performed to analyse qualitative data. The study found five significant place attachment components of local fishermen in Kukup. It also suggested sustainable economic strategies for better fishing and marketing method in order to improve local economy in relation to place attachment. Lastly, design strategies for each place attachment component were formulated in relation to Kukup tourism development. Hence, this study anticipates that by implementing these strategies, place attachment value of Kukup as fishing village can be established without compromising its adaptation to tourism development.