Due to the increased food price volatility during the 2007-2008 food price crisis and its aftereffects, food self-sufficiency has been one of the policy priorities in various nations, including Senegal, India, the Philippines, Qatar, Bolivia, and Russia. In addition, the United Nations predicts that the global population will reach 9.7 billion by 2050, and that half of the land that may be utilised for crops and agriculture worldwide would be unusable for farming owing to climate change, soil degradation, and poverty. The world’s population is growing rapidly, and so is the demand for food. This highlights the importance of food self-sufficiency and the need to investigate and develop a comprehensive plan. This study explores food self-sufficiency and the concept of creating a modular and flexible self-produced food system that might potentially generate safe food from organic plants using environmentally aware farming practises and free of pesticide residues without the usage of arable land. The analysis phase comprises categorising the challenges, while the synthesis stage is when the efforts culminate in the creation of a remedy. Hence, more individuals may start growing their own food, with hydroponics being a popular choice.

Adequate comfortable shelter is a significant human rights and needs. In Kuala Lumpur, high demand of affordable quality housing for urban poor has yet to be fulfilled. In order to meet demand for adequate affordable housing for low-income households, the government has introduced numerous housing programs. However, anecdotal evidences suggest that most of this typical type of affordable housing may have design deficiency that could affect occupants’ housing satisfaction. This paper critically reviews on housing policy, typology and design issues for low-income housing in the context of Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia. This paper argues that there is a direct relationship between housing design and occupants’ satisfaction. Based on the review, it can be recommended that housing design for low-income people should consider factors such as safety, local climate, privacy, sufficient space, layout planning, culture and social integration. Implications for the design of future housing for low income people are raised and the need for the improvement of the ongoing research is identified.

Natural and artificial lighting is essential for humans to carry out and support daily routines from simple to complicated tasks. However, insufficient lighting in buildings leads to poor task performance and visual discomfort and may cause Sick Building Syndrome (SBS) such as itchy, watering eyes, and eye irritation. On the other hand, excessive light, particularly natural lighting, may contribute to heat gain in buildings and thermal discomfort and glare among occupants if a building is not well designed. Previous scholars found that a comfortable indoor environment with proper lighting improves occupants’ performance and satisfaction. Therefore, as a passive design strategy that promotes sustainability, natural lighting projection through façade optimisation is proposed and analysed implemented/studied for a proposed design of the Pontian Disaster and Relief Center. Revit Architecture software is used to develop 3D modelling of the design and simulate the interior solar pattern. Consequently, the application of shading devices is investigated along with on-site data collection to determine the climate pattern and other measurements to create more accurate data. Moreover, a case study on the Diamond Building was referred to assist the researcher for an appropriate pattern or form to maximise the solar radiation image, ultimately creating a new construction system. Finally, this study found that an application of natural lighting system for semi-open concept is considered sufficient towards maintaining occupants’ visual comfort, but solely based on simulation results.