Quality of life for livable mixed use living

Abstract

One of the typologies of mixed-use urban buildings is the shophouse. This kind of structure has long been one of the favorite dwellings of urban society. No wonder that development keeps continuing until today. Several previous studies indicate that shop house design is not always suitable for some livability criteria, such as the lack of open space, spatial, thermal, and audial comfort. Due to this 'weakness', this paper intends to explore aspects of quality of life in shop houses through literature studies. This study analyses secondary sources, namely scientific writings from academic journals and books. This exploration concludes that it is essential to focus the analysis on a subjective view of the quality of life-related to buildings' quality. The relationship between the built environment and quality of life-based on residents' living experience becomes the study's framework. The review recommends phenomenology as the approach to investigate the correlation. This study is vital for architects to design more livable buildings from the viewpoint of building occupants so that the design is more acceptable and beneficial.