Low Cost Flats Outdoor Space as Children Social Environment

Urbanization in Malaysia continues to demand more low cost housings. Walk up flats are popular housing forms for their relatively lower construction and maintenance costs. Standardization and spatial efficiency requirements result in minimum dwelling spaces that spill life outdoor. For children, outdoor space becomes integral part of growing up and social experiences. Different flats configuration offer different spatial affordances for such experiences that could inform designs. The paper explores children outdoor activities and relates them to flats layouts through comparative study and found that the different flats configurations affect the different patterns of children outdoor activities. (C) 2012 Published by Elsevier B.V. Selection and/or peer-review under responsibility of Centre for Environment-Behaviour Studies(cE-Bs), Faculty of Architecture, Planning & Surveying, Universiti Teknologi MARA, Malaysia