Relationships of Spatial Properties in Low-Cost Flats Configurations and Residents' Local Social Contacts

While walk-up flats are common low-cost housing types in Malaysia, the social impacts of such housing have not been fully explored. Evaluating spatial properties of flats configurations and the outdoor near homes spaces, where daily social interactions often take place, is crucial to identify socially encouraging layouts. This study investigates the relationship between spatial properties of flats configurations and local social contacts. It employed network mapping to measure social contact sizes and utilized syntactical software to compare visibility and integration levels of various flats configurations. Possible relationship was found between flats spatial properties and the size of social contacts. (C) 2012 The Authors. Published by Elsevier Ltd.