Friday 19 October 2012

Introduction (Draft)


This is not completed yet..

1.0 Introduction
1.1 Definition & Examples of social welfare architecture
Social welfare architecture is defined as buildings that are built with the various social services provided for the benefits and pensions for the citizens mainly the elderly, the sick, the underprivileged, the poor, the orphans etc[1]. These buildings reflect the attitudes and values of the society through its space planning and living condition. Among all the different types of social welfare centres, I would put my focus onto the orphanages and old folks home in this dissertation.

1.2 Issue - Problem faced by these buildings in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia
There are different categories of architecture that exist in the world but the social welfare architectures are the one who always being neglected. In Malaysia, especially in the city Kuala Lumpur, this issue is getting more serious recently due to many factors and most of them are not funded by the government.

1.3 Topic, Aim and Objectives
The aim and objectives of this dissertation are to find out the problems faced by the orphanages and old folks homes in Kuala Lumpur in terms of its space planning, exterior and interior design, location, facilities and the maintenance factors, to observe the living in these centres, to find out why are these buildings being neglected, to study the lifestyle and the economy status of the people in Kuala Lumpur, to study the social welfare architecture in other countries in order to learn from them, to find out the architectural solutions, to understand how important is the role of architects, designers, educators and government in working together to work out this issue and create a society with good ethics and moral values.

1.4 Hypothesis
1. The main reason of social welfare architecture being neglected in Malaysia is due to the self-centered attitude of Malaysians.
2. Once all the architectural problems are solved, the living condition of the underprivileged can be improved.
3. The government must work together with the educators, architects and designers in order to come out with an architectural solution to solve all the problems and indirectly to create a society with good ethics and moral values.
4. People living in Kuala Lumpur are too busy to take care of their old parents and children, a centre of combination of old folks home and orphanage is suitable for them to drop their family there and pick them up after work.

1.4 Outline of the Essay
The following topics will be discussed throughout the dissertation to have a clearer understanding about the issue and its solutions, the background of Malaysia living lifestyle and social welfare architecture will be discussed in Chapter 2, the problems faced by existing social welfare architecture in Malaysia in Chapter 3, reasons of these buildings being neglected in Chapter 4, studies on overseas social welfare architecture as references in order to improve the quality of these buildings in Malaysia in Chapter 5, the architectural solution in Chapter 6, solution in terms of the space planning in Chapter 7, the different roles of architects, designers, government and the community in handling this issue in Chapter 8 and lastly the conclusion in Chapter 9.

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