Building facades contribute to attractive urban streetscapes. In between, physical elements and visual qualities of building façades play the most important role. This study seeks to identify the impact of building facades on creating attractive streetscapes in the city of Kuala Lumpur. In achieving this, a self-administered questionnaire survey was conducted to gather peoples' evaluation of building facades in Kuala Lumpur where combination of modern and traditional architecture creates worth-study urban landscapes. The researcher randomly surveyed 330 respondents, 18 to 50 years old, from the passers-by who just visit the area and those who reside and work there, using the time interval sampling method. The results demonstrate that consistency of colors and details of building facades, simplicity, unity, conformity of store lots in a single building block, large windows, transparency of the function of buildings, and display items of store-fronts determine visual richness of streetscapes in the study areas. The findings contribute to visual identity of cities through creating attractive streetscapes.

No abstract

People's engagement with public open spaces is complex and affected by different factors.The importance of people's needs differs according to their age groups. In this respect, what this article aims to unveil is the priority of needs in public open spaces across age groups. A self-administered questionnaire survey collected the opinions of 400 people aged 13 years and above using the time-interval sampling method. The results revealed that the strongest inverse relationship existed between age and social needs. This illustrated that old people are less likely to carry out social interaction with other groups or to explore public open spaces compared to younger people. In turn, old people are more concerned about their physical and environmental needs. Exploring the dichotomies between the needs of old and young people highlights the intergenerational conflicts that challenge urban designers and decision makers to ameliorate the design and management of future public open spaces. URBAN DESIGN International (2015) 20, 93-106.

Inconsistencies among historical building facade elements potentially tarnish the image in a historical area. This study identifies visual elements and features of historical facades, such as shape, architectural style, colour and decoration that enhance the historical image of a region. In a time-interval random sampling questionnaire, 220 respondents aged 20-50 years and above were selected from passers-by who frequented the study area. The research zone chosen is located in a historical quarter of the Kuala Lumpur city centre, where the five best and worst historical facades were ranked by the public for further content analysis. According to analysis results, arches, pilasters, columns, ornaments and detailing represent historical components. Legibility, coherence and harmonious repetition of these elements are characteristics strongly projecting the image of historical facades. Conversely, inconsistent colours and non-standardized advertisement boards may spoil the historical appearance. The findings of the present study can assist urban designers and planners to consider the public's evaluation of historical building facades for prospective conservation projects. Therefore, the results of this work are refined into a series of suggestions that provide insight regarding an improved historical representation of the study area for the future.

Evaluating the role of physical elements in creating visually pleasing streetscapes has not been deeply addressed in recent research flow, especially for the context of Kuala Lumpur City. The gap is also accentuated by Kuala Lumpur City Hall as disharmony and inconsistency in streetscapes and lacking visual coherence in most streets in Kuala Lumpur. Therefore, the current paper seeks to evaluate the role of physical and visual elements in creating visually pleasing streetscapes of Bukit Bintang and Tuanku Abdul Rahman using a self-administered questionnaire survey. The respondents of the study comprise 330 passers-by aging from 18 to 50 years old, who visit the streets, reside, or work there. The results demonstrate that transparency, the quality that makes the function of a building visually accessible, and seating places play the most and the least important role in creating streetscapes in the study areas respectively. Comparison of the results in two streets highlights that harmony between and consistency in the facades of modern and traditional buildings, simplicity in design elements of facades, inviting building entrances, and covered walkways contribute to creating attractive streetscapes. Overall, the findings build foundations for restoring the visual coherence, which results in resilient streetscapes in cities.