Exploring Opportunities of Adopting Biophilic Cities Concept into Mixed-Use Development Project in Malaysia

Abstract

Mixed-use development project in urban area emerged to cater the increase of population in the region. Due to rapid urbanisation, many research recommended the engagement of human with nature in cities development, including the mixed-use development project since nature and human are holistically created to complement each other. This is where the United Nation (UN) under its sustainable development programme has established 17 development goals that amongst all cover both sustainable cities and communities. This shows the urgency of having cities that best fit human nature. However, although many mixed-use development projects were constructed with senses of nature, many of these projects are harmful to environment as they are unable to sustain the natural habitat as well as human needs. Hence, there are many attempts to connect human with nature in Malaysia via sustainable cities and green cities concepts although no specific guidelines on these have been established. Recently, emerged the term biophilic cities, a new concept combining sustainable and resilient cities, which are also seen as the panacea to these mixed-use development project issues despite the efforts done via the former concepts of sustainable and green cities alone. Generally, biophilic cities resemble green cities with a few enhanced greener criteria that affiliate human to nature as opposed to green and sustainable cities that merely bring nature to human. Therefore, this paper aims at investigating the elements of biophilic cities that can be adopted for mixed-use development project in Malaysia. Via systematic literature review, this paper listed the criteria of biophilic cities from previous studies, which are then used in designing the questionnaires distributed to 173 construction players in the mixed-use development projects in Malaysia. It is found that biophilic cities encompass four main criteria that are important to be adopted in mixed-use development project in Malaysia, namely “building”, “block”, “street” and “neighbourhood”, with a total of eight design elements. As biophilic cities are closer to human needs and environment whilst able to manage the rapid urbanisation and increased world population that is meant to be tackled by the mixed-use development project, construction players should start to consider adopting the biophilic cities concept in their mixed-use development project in Malaysia.

Overcoming the Project Communications Management Breakdown amongst Foreign Workers during the COVID-19 Pandemic in Biophilia Inveigled Construction Projects in Malaysia

“…Hence, biophilic cities provide landscaping to and from homes, walls, paths and concrete streams to bring nature into the city [27]. Since the idea of biophilic combines human needs and nature, biophilic is increasingly common in community planning [28].…”

“…According to Cabanek et al [33], understanding the biophilic design will fulfil the intention to meet the advantages of human-nature interaction within a contemporary built environment, incorporating nature in houses, buildings both internally and externally within an urban environment setting. Acknowledging the importance of understanding biophilic design elements, Arof et al [28] state 8 criteria and 45 design elements that would help the designers and developers comprehend it, thus, helping in future project development. These eight criteria are building, block, street, neighbourhood, community, region, environment and sensory.…”

“…However, only three biophilic design elements, namely, building, street and block/cluster, have the capacity to influence during the structural and architectural design phase of a development project. Since the biophilic concept is relatively new and has often misled the main stakeholders involved in city planning and development [24,28], the details have to be well communicated to all stakeholders involved in the project. This will help increase the awareness level and mitigate possible errors that would result in delays and cost overruns.…”

“…This will help increase the awareness level and mitigate possible errors that would result in delays and cost overruns. Source: Adopted and modified from [25][26][27][28][29][30]33,[36][37][38].…”

Identifying and Measuring Biophilic Planning Indicators in Riverside Neighborhoods

“…One of the planning and design approaches that call for the preservation of nature and harmony with it is the biophilic approach. Biophilic is defined as the innately emotional affiliation that humans feel towards other living creatures [1]. Rivers play a major role in determining the locations and development of towns and cities throughout history.…”