Abstract—Cities with compact urban form are often
associated with being sustainable. Among them are impacts on
quality of life, improved access, neighbourhood satisfaction, as
well as improved individual and community’s wellbeing. This
study is part of a bigger scope of study that looks into the
relationship between urban form and social sustainability. This
paper specifically explores the notion of compact urban form
and how it impacts the aspect of sociability in urban
neighbourhood. Objectives of the study are (i) to identify the
extent of compact urban form on influencing community
behaviour and (ii) to establish the type of social interactions as a
result of residing in a compact urban form residential
neighbourhood. Data was collected through the use of
household questionnaire survey which was conducted in
selected residential neighbourhood within Kuala Lumpur
Metropolitan Region and supported by observation survey.
Findings of the study reveals that residents of compact urban
form tend to have higher chance to have social interaction with
their neighbours either, of certain intention or unintentionally.
It is through these social interactions that would lead to better
social cohesion that would create safer neighbourhood
environment.
Index Terms—Compact city, urban form, urban
neighbourhood, social interaction.
W. Wan Mohd Rani is with the UTM Razak School, Universiti Teknologi
Malaysia, Kuala Lumpur, Jalan Semarak, 54100 Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia
(e-mail: wnurul@ic.utm.my).
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Cite: Wan Mohd Rani Wan Nurul Mardiah, " Compact Urban form for Sociability in Urban
Neighbourhoods," International Journal of Social Science and Humanity vol. 5, no. 10, pp. 822-826, 2015.