RESEARCH JOURNAL OF FISHERIES AND HYDROBIOLOGY 2016. 11(3): 242-248 ISSN: 1816-9112 Journal home page: http://www.aensiweb.com/JASA/ Open Access Journal Published BY AENSI Publication © 2016 AENSI Publisher All rights reserved This work is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution International License (CC BY). http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/ To Cite This Article: Nastaran Nafari and Nor Atiah Ismail., An Analysis of Critical Factor Impacts on Development of Community Center in Malaysia. Research Journal Of Fisheries And Hydrobiology, 11(3): 242-248, 2016 An Analysis of Critical Factor Impacts on Development of Community Center in Malaysia Nastaran Nafari and Nor Atiah Ismail Department of Architecture, Faculty of Design and Architecture, University Putra Malaysia (UPM), 43400 UPM Serdang, Selangor, Malaysia Address For Correspondence: Nor Atiah Ismail, Department of Architecture, Faculty of Design and Architecture, University Putra Malaysia (UPM), 43400 UPM Serdang, Selangor, Malaysia. E-mail: noratiah72@yahoo.com.sg Received 22 January 2016; accepted 2 March 2016; published 10 March 2016 A B S T R A C T Nowadays, most of people are faced with stress and like to keep calm, especially in their leisure time. So, community center plays an important role as the hub of community development. Nevertheless, the Malaysian community center is not being used effectively and these faces with lack of participation. The present paper is a review article aiming to present the important aspect for increasing participation in the Malaysian community center. The research is roughly divided into three phases that includes the development and assessment of: physical factors, functional factors and perceptual factors. This study tries to propose a design framework for the successful community center that enhance participation and integration in Malaysia. Key words: community center, physical factor, functional factor, perceptual Factor INTRODUCTION The word of ‘community’ derived from the Latin word ‘communutas’ means ‘the same’. Community is an interacting population of diverse groups of people in a common place and having common interests. People with the same interests but different social, religious and political backgrounds who come to play, to learn or to work together for personal satisfaction or community improvements [1,2]. The community center is a location where operated by behalf of a government or non-profit organization in order to prepare community activities, which includes social, physical, art, educational activities as a part of an integrated network of community resources. Providing activities that respond to native requires, to be inclusive, accessible, and encourage active participation and involvement in the community play a dominant role in creating a community center [2]. Malaysia is an example of a country with multiracial society that can be a model for other country. The community hall of Malaysia with long time used is not being active in current time [23/25]. Malaysian community center, is nothing more than a large empty space used for games like badminton, ping Pong and the occasional events. Demand of people has changed with changing the time. So, there must be places for various ethnic groups to meet and do their modern needs like other countries [1]. This paper tries to re-look dominant factors that influence the usage of spaces in the community center. The discussion will consist of three major parts that includes physical, functional and perceptual factors in Malaysian community centers. Literature Review: Community Center: The word ‘community’ is taken from the Latin word ‘communutas’ with the means ‘the same’. In one hand, the increasing of specific requires of various age groups mixed with the enhanced quality of free time has