Comparative pattern of spatial visibility and stationary activity in Malay traditional and low-income houses

Presently, the current paradigm on housing satisfaction indicates that dwellers are unhappy as they would have to renovate their homes to suit their needs. Previous research has focused on user satisfaction. However, current debates show that spatial properties should be considered in the design of the house. In this study, low-income houses’ built form, their spatial visibility and stationary activity pattern, as well as a set of ideal home designs that could be related to housing design were explored. This research investigated the interrelated functions of housing domestic space that cater for the spatial visibility and stationary activity such as sleeping, chatting, eating, cooking, and daily activities of the dwellers. 47 participants were selected based on purposive sampling and they were from the lowincome population in a slum settlement in Kg Seri Padu, Johor Bahru. They were selected as they had no experience living in Malay traditional and lowincome housing. Questionnaires were distributed to these participants to identify the pattern of their living activities. The findings revealed that the low-income housing concept had spatial visibility difficulties with low scores in visual integration resulting in this concept having problems with space arrangement for stationary activities. Correlation test showed that even though the house concept had a high visual integration score, it also had high scores on stationary activity. The house concept with a low integration value of spatial visibility had the most problems of distributing stationary activity. Correlations showed that spatial visibility and aspects of arrangement of space were most closely associated with stationary activity patterns. Thus, the findings have shown that the housing concept with low visual integration of domestic space has specific problems associated with stationary activity distribution. As a conclusion, this study has illustrated that poor spatial visibility could disrupt stationary activity distribution that would affect the development of an ideal home