Review on the community centre design in Malaysia : problems of object centre discourse and failure to address cultural context in modern community in Malaysia.

• Main Authors: Utaberta, Nangkula, Spalie, Nurhananie, Nik Ab. Wahab, Nik Syazwan
• Format: Conference or Workshop Item
• Language: English
• Published: 2014
• Online Access: http://psasir.upm.edu.my/id/eprint/32292/1/32292.pdf; http://psasir.upm.edu.my/id/eprint/32292/
• Institution: Universiti Putra Malaysia

Malaysia is one of the classic examples of a multi-ethnic society. The country is proud of its multiracial culture which makes it a model for other countries. The ubiquitous community hall in the Malaysian landscape, as it stands now, has long passed its time of usefulness. These halls are labelled with names like dewan serbaguna, dewan orang ramai or even balai raya. But as it stands today, the community hall in our midst is nothing more than a large empty space used for games like badminton or ping pong and the occasional event. The changing modern Malaysian society demands more of this simple out-dated facility; there must be a place for the various ethnic groups to meet and fulfil modern needs such as family days, health checks, child's play, music lessons and many more important uses. This paper examines how such spaces can be redesigned to make them truly relevant to today's Malaysian Community.