Content area
Full Text
Abstract
Each place possesses characteristics that confer on if a sense of place and identity through the meanings and values that they provide. The role of the physical built environment in place and identity development has not received adequate attention in built environment literature. This paper attempts to identify the unique and exceptional characteristics of places which create a unique environment and make a continuing contribution to the overall sense of the place. A preliminary survey was conducted in Kuala Kubu Bharu (KKB), a small town in the northern part of the Malaysian state of Selangor; to examine the characteristics of the place that influence and contribute to the identify of the town. The survey results demonstrate that the cultural heritage of the physical built environment acts as an important trigger for the town's identity. While if is undeniable that cultural heritage is indeed greatly the product of non-visual sources; subjective meanings, experiences, beliefs, ideology and past history of the place, this paper highlights the significance of the physical built environment in influencing the very individuality of the place.
Keywords: Place identity, Place, Small town, Built heritage, Kuala Kubu Bharu.
1 .0 Introduction
Over the eight decades of its existence, the small town of Kuala Kubu Bharu (or KKB as it is commonly known} has remained largely untouched by development and thus retained many of the remnants and traces from the second World War, such as bombed buildings. Many Garden City design elements including the green belts and playgrounds introduced by Malaya's first town planner, Charles Crompton Reade, are also still in place. As stated by Yuksel & Ida I (2005), it is the small towns where the original historical heritage is protected. The potential importance of this heritage does not lie only in the intrinsic beauty of what is being preserved, the immediate revenue it may bring from tourism based in history, but above all in the identity conferred. The inherent architectural, historical, and cultural significance of the buildings are what makes them unique and subsequently connote the very individuality of a place from other places in the world (Noor Suzaini 2007). Apart from these factors, functional qualities of the buildings also serve as one of the critical elements in constructing a...