Behavioural Adaptation of Malay Families and Housing Modification of Terrace Houses in Malaysia

Abstract

This paper examines the behavioural adaptation of Malay families living in terrace houses with regards to the activity system, privacy and social interaction among Malay families and terrace housing modißcation. 7he study uses case studies of 11 Malay families living in the three-bedroom two-storey terrace houses in two urban locations in Malaysia. Findings indicate that behavioural adaptation resulted in changes in some aspects of the Malay culture and housing modißcations prouided a more supportiue living environment but have adverse effects on individual family and housing community due to the constraints of the terrace housing design. Keywords: behauioural adaptation; housing modißcation; priuacy; social interaction. eISSN 2514-751X © 2018. The Authors. Published for AMER ABRA cE-Bs by e-International Publishing House, Ltd., UK. This is an open-access article under the CC BY-NC-ND license (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/). Peer–review under responsibility of AMER (Association of Malaysian Environment-Behaviour Researchers), ABRA (Association of Behavioural Researchers on Asians) and cE-Bs (Centre for Environment-Behaviour Studies), Faculty of Architecture, Planning & Surveying, Universiti Teknologi MARA, Malaysia.