Social Cohesion of the Malaysian Cul-de-sac Neighborhoods: Brief critical review of concepts

Abstract

The national mass housing policies are currently being scrutinised on affordability and quality of life. The consideration of a better neighbourhood design is currently only evident in curvilinear and organic planning designs of neighbourhoods such as the cul-de-sac. The objective of this paper is to identify concepts of the cul-de-sac neighbourhoods and the community’s social cohesion through a critical review of available literature within the framework settings of a Malaysian pluralistic neighbourhood. The paper is anticipated to lead to methodological assessment processes of the physical environment and neighbourhoods as well as expand existing contextual knowledge of the Malaysian cul-de-sac neighbourhoods.
 Keywords: Cul-de-sac, social cohesion; neighbourhoods, Tessellation Planning, quality of life, Malaysia
 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.

Enhancing urban safety through honeycomb housing design: A quantitative analysis of crime prevention

“…Parks and public places are also provided in locations that are easy to see within walking distance through a clear line of sight to avoid trapped spaces (trapped spaces and dead ends/entrapment spots). Each unit is connected within walking distance of 400 meters from the center of the neighborhood with a cul-desac that does not exceed 75 meters to facilitate the identification and detection of foreigners (Bajunid et al, 2018a). This footpath access is continuous in residential areas, neighborhood centers, business areas, and public focus areas that can be seen directly from nearby premises and are not obstructed by any structure.…”

“…Soft engineering also acts as a heat-absorbing agent, bird habitat, and health therapy (Sennett, 2018;Sim, 2019). Therefore, Honeycomb Housing strives to balance the urban ecosystem by practicing green housing and green neighborhoods as required by the Housing Planning Guidelines (Bajunid et al, 2018a).…”