The cultural landscape is regarded as being of the most complex designs which involves interactions between man, nature, cultural values and the associated built environment. Issues relating to the degradation of the cultural landscape are often caused by rapid urbanisation and industrialisation. The traditional Malay Landscape exists through harmoniously balanced interactions between man, nature and culture together with the traditional house, and contains unique and interesting features that have to be preserved as one of the most important cultural heritage sites. However, the preservation of heritage in Malaysia tends to focus more on architectural buildings rather than adopting a holistic approach that includes the surrounding environment of where the building is located. The absence of such approach has contributed towards the loss of the traditional Malay Landscape. This study highlights the changes and threats in the preservation of the traditional Malay Landscape by focusing on the preservation of a traditional house compound. The research employs a qualitative approach which involves site visits, interviews, and document analysis concerning the research topic. The old Malay villages located in Tumpat, Kelantan and Alor Gajah, Melaka have been selected as case studies. The findings reveal that the changes and threats include four underlying aspects; Unsuitable and inappropriate uses, Ownership Problems, Inadequate fund and consultation and Current development trends. The study concludes that the traditional Malay Landscape is facing numerous changes and threats in terms of its physical characteristics, environmental aspects and cultural values. In addition, the study reveals that traditional Malay landscape is not seen here as an integrating, holistic concept.

In hot-humid Malaysia, there are around five million units of housing. Among these, the medium-density terraced are the most built. However, little emphasis was given to designing for thermal comfort and energy efficiency. Consequently, air-conditioning is ubiquitous with ever-rising residential energy consumption. This paper studied passive design systems to improve living conditions and conserve energy through orientation and insulation parameters for terraced housing. Utilizing a triangulation of methods to correlate between thermal comfort and energy performance, findings from the questionnaire survey, data monitoring and computer simulation contended that with the passive design strategies minimum thermal comfort is attainable and energy savings predicted.

Building codes are an established strategy for ensuring safe and hygienic construction. These codes' development, adoption by the local councils, enforcement, and cyclic improvement are all substantial in a resilient built environment. Illustriously, the literature review indicates lacunas in building codes in Pakistan, especially in rural areas. The natural disasters and evident climate change in Pakistan are significant threats to Pakistan's built environment. The primary aim of this study is to investigate the effectiveness of building codes, the challenges faced by building codes, and the venues for improvement for code compliance in rural areas of Pakistan. A qualitative approach was adopted by developing a survey instrument targeting the randomly selected built environment professionals. The responses were analyzed using SPSS V24 for reliability and triangulation of the observed variables and leading constructs. The study's findings demonstrate that the development of building codes, their adoption and enforcement by the local councils, and monitoring need improvement. Furthermore, the study findings suggest that the inclusivity of architects, planners, and code officials in the development of building codes has the ability to bring resilience to the built environment in rural areas of Pakistan.

Concerns about climate change and global warming have led many countries to initiate energy rating systems in the planning and development of the built environment. Although useful and novel, this paper contends that these ratings are only remedying and alleviating whatever negative impacts that development creates. Energy ratings are seemingly lacking in attempts to integrate and enhance the physical development of the natural environment. Instead, biomimicry is adiscipline that explores nature and tries to understand its bio-integration for the establishment of sustainable products, processes and systems. This paper postulates that with the integration of Biomimicry – Life’s Principles (BLP) into the Green Building Index (GBI) Malaysia, a higher level of environmental sustainability could be achieved. This paper attempted to explore the presenceand the extent of the presence of BLP in the existing GBI utilizing the content analysis method. This article concludes that although the presence of BLP in the GBI is high, the extent of the presence is low. The paper also recommends the areas of concern that could be improved within the GBI for a more effective rating system.

In hot-humid Malaysia, there are around five million units of housing. Among these, the medium-density terraced are the most built. However, little emphasis was given to designing for thermal comfort and energy efficiency. Consequently, air-conditioning is ubiquitous with ever-rising residential energy consumption. This paper studied passive design systems to improve living conditions and conserve energy through orientation and insulation parameters for terraced housing. Utilizing a triangulation of methods to correlate between thermal comfort and energy performance, findings from the questionnaire survey, data monitoring and computer simulation contended that with the passive design strategies minimum thermal comfort is attainable and energy savings predicted.