Hikmah Kamarudin

Green Roofs Benefits; Perception by Malaysian Residential Highrise End Users

The paper aims to identify end users perception towards benefits offered by green roofs at Malaysia high rise residential buildings. The perception is crucial in determining potential of green roofs, as it offers many benefits mainly in providing sustainable residential building. The study was conducted through questionnaire surveys to the end user at selected five case study buildings at Shah Alam and Subang Jaya. Survey results found that end users mostly agree with the benefits offered by green roofs particularly in the aspect of social and aesthetic value benefits. It reveals good potential of green roofs towards providing sustainable highrise residential building in Malaysia.

Malaysian Standard Conformity on Access and Facilities for Person with Disabilities in Public Bus Terminal Buildings

Public bus terminal buildings are included as public buildings where providing access and facilities for everyone is crucial for both the internal and external environments of the buildings in order to ensure that every journey continues. However, literature review revealed that many of the access and facilities provided inside and outside public buildings are not disabled-friendly including public bus terminal buildings. Requirements to fulfill the Malaysian Standard (MS) code of practice related to access and facilities are clearly stated in the Uniform Building (Amendment) By-Laws (UBBL) 1991 for public buildings. Thus, this study aims at examining the MS conformity of the access and facilities for person with disabilities (PWDs), inside and outside of public bus terminal buildings. Access auditing has been conducted at three public bus terminals in Klang Valley by evaluating the existing access and facilities for PWDs with the established requirements. Results showed that improvement is still needed even though it received the highest score among the three public bus terminal buildings audited, especially upgrading elements that do not conform to the MS. Noncompliance of the MS suggests that more input of knowledge of the requirement is needed by the implementer and firmer enforcement should be engaged by the enforcement body.