Town planners involvement in the planning and design process of Green Building Projects in Malaysia

Nor Kalsum Mohd Isa

QR Code Link :
Type :	article
Subject :	G Geography (General)
Main Author :	Nor Kalsum Mohd Isa
Title :	Town planners involvement in the planning and design process of Green Building Projects in Malaysia

Place of Production :	Tanjong Malim
Publisher :	Fakulti Sains Kemanusiaan
Year of Publication :	2019
Corporate Name :	Universiti Pendidikan Sultan Idris

Abstract : Universiti Pendidikan Sultan Idris

Green building is a holistic project that requires integrated planning and design approaches through the involvement of multidisciplinary professions. Green building projects in Malaysia usually involve developers, architects, engineers and energy consultants to make decisions in planning and design. The role of town planners in the project is limited especially when it comes to getting the approval for planning from the local authorities. This study aimed to identify the level of town planners’ involvement in the planning and design process of green building projects in Malaysia. It also offered recommendations on how the green building projects could be supported by the town planners. The data were collected in two tiers of interviews. A first series of interviews was conducted among 22 town planners who represented town planning organizations from the private and public sectors in Malaysia. The data were analyzed qualitatively using the content analysis technique. Then, a second series of interviews were conducted among the town planners who had been involved with the planning and design process of three selected green building projects in Malaysia. The data obtained from this in-depth case study interviews were analyzed using the cross-case analysis. Findings indicate that the involvement of town planners and the input given to the green building projects were very limited which had led to disagreement throughout the planning and design process. The early contribution of town planners to the projects in the planning and design process will enhance the opportunity of the project to become ‘green’ in the true sense of the word.

References

1. Bohne, R. A., & Solli C. (2011). How to measure environmental impact in the planning phase of a settlement - The case of Brøset, Trondheim (Norway). Retrieved January 1, 2016, from http://www.irbnet.de/daten/iconda/CIB_DC22945.pdf

2. Building and Construction Authority. (n.d.). Singapore: Leading the way for green buildings in the tropics. Retrieved June 17, 2016, from https://www.bca.gov.sg/Publications/ BuildGreen/BuildGreen.html.

3. CBRE. (2010). CB Richard Ellis Malaysia special report: Going green Malaysia. Retrieved January 1, 2016, from https://www.scribd.com/document/91128790/Going-Green-Malaysia

4. Green Building Index. (2016). GBI executive summary. Retrieved November 17, 2016, from http://new.greenbuildingindex.org/Files/Resources/e_summary/2016/summary%2010. pdf

5. Høyer, K. G., & Naess, P. (2008). Interdisciplinarity, ecology and scientific theory: The case of sustainable urban development. Journal of Critical Realism, 7(2), 179-207.

6. Isa, N. K. M. (2015). A framework for integrating sustainability into the project planning process for buildings: The case of Malaysia (Doctoral thesis), University of Malaya, Malaysia.

7. Isa, N. K. M., Albahori, A. S., Alias, A., & Ismail, K. (2019). The execution of the green building project in Klang Valley, Malaysia: A pilot study. Pertanika Journal of Sciences and Technology, 27(2), 911-919.

8. Isa, N. K. M., Alias, A., & Samad, Z. A. (2014). Towards developing a sustainability integration framework for building project. Journal of Building Performance, 5(1), 22-33.

9. Li, F., Yan, T., Liu, J., Lai, Y., Uthes, S., Lu, Y., & Long, Y. (2014). Research on social and humanistic needs in planning and construction of green buildings. Sustainable Cities and Society, 12, 102-109.

10. Ministry of Energy, Science, Technology, Environment and Climate Change. (2011). Low carbon cities framework and assessment system. Putrajaya: Author.

11. Neumann, J. E. (2000). Managerial and employee involvement in design processes. In D. ClementsCroome (Ed.) Creating the productive workplace (pp. 259-271). London: E. & F. N. Spon.

12. Retzlaff, R. C. (2008). Green building assessment systems: A framework and comparison for planners. Journal of the American Planning Association, 74(4), 505-519.

13. Safee, F. A., Yunos, M. Y. M., Ismail, S., Ariffin, N. F. M., & Isa, N. K. M. (2015). Establishing elements of a good city planning: An analysis of city planning theories. Jurnal Teknologi, 75(9), 101-105.

14. The Chartered Institute of Building. (2010). Code of practice for project management for construction and development (4th ed.). Oxford, United Kingdom: Wiley-Blackwell.

15. United Nations Environment Programme. (2009). Buildings and climate change: summary for decision makers. Retrieved March 10, 2016, from http://www.unep.org/sbci/pdfs/SBCIBCCSummary.pdf.

This material may be protected under Copyright Act which governs the making of photocopies or reproductions of copyrighted materials.
You may use the digitized material for private study, scholarship, or research.

Back to previous page