Re-imagining sustainable furniture by using ergonomic applications of the traditional Malays

Abstract

This paper aims to discuss on ways to re-imagine various sustainable furniture, by using the ergonomic applications used by the Traditional Malays, in defining their furniture inside internal spaces of Traditional Malay Houses (TMH), which will all be used as literature review for the author’s preliminary study. Furniture, above all, is functional and the ergonomics of sustainable furniture includes its’ user friendly attributes, which encompasses easy accessibility and handling of the furniture. With the increase imports of Western furniture that applies to Western ergonomics, into Eastern territories, a majority of them proves unsuitable for its Eastern users. The scope of this paper will cover literature review of previous studies on Traditional Malay Houses as well as Traditional Malay Furniture. Other than that, this paper will also touch briefly on the ergonomics of Traditional Malay Furniture and its’ applications. Samples that will be used for this preliminary study includes archival evidence reported and collected by the Centre of Built Environment in the Malay World (KALAM) of Universiti Teknologi Malaysia (UTM), as well as secondary research from previous documentations and studies on ergonomics. Research methodologies that will be used for this study might include a comparative study of Western and Eastern ergonomics used in furniture. Expected findings for this preliminary study may suggest that the lack of an Eastern standard of ergonomics causes the continuous importation of unsuitable furniture into Eastern countries. With the similarities of the anthropometrics of users in the East, the Malay standard of ergonomics can be applied in re-imagining new sustainable furniture that are ergonomically designed to fit its’ Eastern users, while at the same time, help in reducing imports of furniture designed with unsuitable ergonomic standards.