Designing sustainable city centre regeneration in Malaysia :
[Thesis]
Zainal Abidin, Nuruljannah
the case of Kuala Lumpur
University of Birmingham
2017
Ph.D.
University of Birmingham
2017
The link between economic development and urbanisation has placed urban sustainability on national and city agendas. Designing sustainable city centre regeneration projects remains a crucial challenge, particularly in understanding the ways physical planning and social issues interact. Urban regeneration has been criticised for creating issues related to gentrification, displacement, social segregation, lack of coherent spatial planning, rising living costs, poor quality of life, etc. An optimum balance of state/market/civil society forces throughout the decision-making process is crucial to delivering sustainable cities, with policy, politics, governance and resources influencing the dynamics and types of (re)development. This thesis investigates the strategies and processes of urban regeneration in the Malaysian context by exploring the connections between social sustainability and physical planning/urban design. Malaysian urban development is examined in the context of an aspiring world city, Kuala Lumpur, where models of regeneration operate at the intersection of developed and developing country models. Three case studies were selected within Kuala Lumpur to explore how these governance processes and design interventions have impacted on local communities and the urban environment.