Alice Ismail
Nur Khaleda Atirah Kamarudin
Malaysia
Designing communal cultural place in the Malaysian context has been challenging towards time and
place. Due to modernization, modern values start to erode traditional way of life among younger generation
which are leads to the declining of cultural heritage among community. The system tends to ignore the
essence and the needs of community in providing communal cultural place. In order to investigate the needs
of community, Baba Nyonya community in Malacca has been choosing as a case study. This paper is
concern about the needs of Baba Nyonya Community in providing their communal cultural place without
losing the real essence of Baba Nyonya culture. The main objective of this paper is to identify and propose
the suitable design guideline framework that highlight Baba Nyonya cultural heritage through communal
engagement, the adaptation of building program and architectural cultural design base for future reference.
There are three theory approaches in finding the suitable design guideline framework which are theory of
culture, theory sense of place and theory sense of community. Based on the study of theory approach and
data collected, it is hoped that the finding of the study will help in designing a better communal cultural
place for Baba Nyonya community in Malaysia.