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Successful implementation of bioclimatic design strategies not only reduces energy use, but more importantly increases the resident’s satisfaction. A post-occupancy evaluation, a form of survey method, was used in assessing the satisfaction and perception of residents in two residential colleges, at the University of Malaya, Kuala Lumpur. Both Case Study A (CS-A) and Case Study B (CS-B) represent the uppermost and moderate implementation of bioclimatic design strategies. The results showed that 414 questionnaires were retrieved fully filled by occupants at CS-A while 155 respondents from CS-B returned their questionnaire. The questionnaire was based on a 5-point Likert scale. Respondents were asked to rate the levels of satisfaction and perception with various aspects of the building, including the immediate environment. A detailed survey on thermal comfort had also been done by adopting the predicted mean vote index. As initial findings, the implementations of bioclimatic design strategies at the selected residential colleges were able to provide comfort for the residents.

Abstract. Cameron Highlands was discovered in 1885 and was developed as a hill station. It first served as a quaint retreat destination for the British residence where the urban morphology of its little town centres were strongly characterised by colonial architecture such as bungalows, institutional buildings and government offices, shophouses and market stalls. Eventually due to economic pressure and location potentials, more land was opened for tea plantations and vegetable and flower industries. Conversely, recent rapid uncontrolled developments in the built environment and agricultural sectors have tarnished its natural environment, old-world charm and historical values. If this trend persists, the popularity of Cameron Highlands as a vacation destination for local and foreign visitors may be badly affected. This research paper seeks to determine the perception of local stakeholders and tourists of the development in Cameron Highlands and whether they agree that agro-ecotourism can be used as a tool to achieve sustainability in the area. This paper is an assessment of a pilot test to determine initial perceptions toward Cameron Highlands development. The pilot test sample size was 41 respondents, comprising local authorities, local communities and NGOs, as well as local and international tourists. The results showed that the majority agreed that agroecotourism can generate a sustainable income and preserve the environment while ensuring sustainability through fair trade.

Abstract. Provision of affordable housing is important to low-and middle-income population. A fit form of house will not only fulfil a basic human need for shelter, but it also contributes to physical and psychological well-being of the occupants. Excellent quality and affordable housing is an indication of a high quality of life. While writings exist on various aspects of the quality of affordable housing in Malaysia, discussion regarding space and design standards has scarcely been given any serious academic attention. Standards concerning residential development usually cover different aspects or stages of the development process. They can include planning standards, design standards, space standards and technical construction standards. The main concern of this paper is on space and design standards specifically. Space standard can be defined as a set of framework which dictates fixed internal space minimums. Meanwhile, design standard indicates design guidelines to ensure the functionality, comfortability and habitability of the house. This paper is concerned exclusively with indoor spaces of a house excluding external circulation spaces and service facilities (in case of strata housing). Its interest is in internal space as an aspect of housing quality. It can be concluded that one of the way forward will be to find the balance between providing adequate minimum spaces for resident satisfactions and having economic values for housing developers. This paper may be used as a valuable reference for authorities and policy makers to better address the best housing space design standards that would benefit not only the occupants, but also the local government and developers alike.

Building sector has been identified as a major energy consumer with nearly half of the world's energy used is associated with providing environmental conditioning in buildings. Approximately, two third of this is for heating, cooling and mechanical ventilation. Therefore, there is a need for optimizing the building design which collaborates with surrounding environment in enhances the energy conservation programme. Energy consumption evaluation and audits for buildings is the most important step that can contribute to energy conservation. As preliminary studies to this research, four low rise residential college buildings with specific layout were selected in finding the relationship between green/passive building strategies and energy performance. The study initial approach was to critically analyse the design of the selected buildings through scaled drawings and site visits. Comparison of the two were carefully made to obtain current and post renovation conditions and surroundings as most of the drawings were drawn 30 to 40 years back. The elements of bioclimatic design were implemented as matrixes or criteria, particularly on natural ventilation and day lighting. Then, the energy performance was crucially audited to find out Building Energy Performance (BEP) acknowledged as energy use per unit floor area, and EnergyEfficiency Index (EEl) to elaborate the kWhlm 2 /year of each residential college for five years duration. As initial findings, the implementations of appropriate green building strategies is able to provide positive impacts to the overall energy performance of the residential colleges.

The aim of this methodological description is to illustrate the application of mixed methods research in architectural design using a hybrid model consisting of a taxonomy development model and an embedded quasi-experimental model. The research employed qualitative and quantitative methods to explore the design of an architectural intervention and determine its effectiveness in improving environmental knowledge, attitudes, and behavior among primary school students. It also outlined strategies adopted to overcome the challenges related to the use of a hybrid design. Combining sequential and embedded mixed methods designs is a relatively new approach in architectural research, providing new insights that contribute to future mixed methods exploration in the field of design and planning.

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Two important factors that have been put in the limelight in the current age are environmental concerns and sustainable future. The building sector has emerged as an important player in this matter due to their contribution into the large share of resources and energy consumption as well as harmful greenhouse gas emission. This paper discusses the percentage of embodied energy (EE) in two common building wall materials in Malaysia: steel and concrete. Concrete is used in concrete non-load bearing walls and steel is used to manufacture curtain walls. Although there are more materials used in the selected case studies, steel and concrete possess the high amount of embodied energy. Thus, the concrete wall and curtain wall in the lifecycle analysis (LCA) pre-use phase in high-rise office buildings in Malaysia are considered in this research. GaBi software is used to evaluate and calculate embodied energy in the case studies. The functional unit for this LCA study is determined as one cubic meter of concrete non-load bearing wall and curtain wall. In order to determine the components included in the analysis, input-output flowcharts are created for each process. The comparison of these walls shows that curtain wall has more embodied energy than concrete. The highest amount of embodied energy in curtain wall construction for case B is 4873.89 MJ, and for the case A is 4851.09 MJ approximately. The amount of EE in the concrete non-load bearing wall for both case studies are the lowest amount, with 278.85 MJ for case A and 280.66 MJ for case B. Results also show that the manufacturing of materials is the biggest contribution to the amount of EE at more than 50%, whereas transportation is between 1.83% and 3.77% only.