The importance of natural environment in traditional Malay medicine setting in Malaysia

Abstract

Kampong Bharu located next to the Kuala Lumpur City Centre, the Kampong Bharu community was founded by the British colonial government in the late 1800s as a 'Malay Agricultural Settlement'. Kampong Bharu today sits in the middle of Kuala Lumpur with its unique characteristic of a rural Malay village. Due to the modernization and rapid development around and inside Kampong Bharu, the Malay living environment of Kampong Bharu starting to change into a monotonous urban environment. The relationship between people and nature, as well as their ancient practises, particularly in traditional Malay medicine, was gradually destroyed by this rapid shift. Based on the study made, the action to reconnect humans and nature in the building can improve the health and well -being of the users of the building, this approach is also known as Biophilic. By developing a platform for communities to communicate and reviving the connection between people and nature, progressive actions must be done to stop this heritage culture and knowledge from being lost and forgotten by future generations. As a result, the purpose of this study is to evaluate the significance of the natural environment in Traditional Malay treatment setting in Malaysia. This study has several goals, the first of which is to investigate and determine the environment and space requirements for traditional Malay medicine training facilities in Malaysia. The second objective is to explore the impact of Biophilic approach in training facilities and finally to propose an ideal space for traditional Malay medicine training facilities based on data analysis findings. In addition, the design attribute and finding from this research can be used as a reference for future study on adaptation and design guide for Biophilic design in the context of Traditional Malay setting.