International Journal of Construction Engineering and Management 2016, 5(4): 108-117
DOI: 10.5923/j.ijcem.20160504.03
Factors Affecting People Preferences toward Environment
Landscape, Case Study: Shopping Mall in Kuala Lumpur
Ahmad Hami
1,*
, Fazilah Fazle
2
, Farzin Emami
1
1
Department Landscape Engineering, University of Tabriz, Iran
2
Faculty of Design and Architecture, Universiti Putra Malaysia, Malaysia
Abstract This study focused on the influence of socio demographic factors on patrons’ preference for interior landscape
of shopping mall. Three dimensions namely green, business, and seating dimensions were identified, besides the effect of
gender, age, income, ethnicity, house type, and usual spent time on preference dimensions were tested. The results showed
no significant between gender groups. The other factors such as age, income, ethnicity, house types, and spent time groups
had significant different effect on people preferences towards the three dimensions in shopping mall. The findings showed
as the age and income level go up people prefer green dimension more. In other word, younger visitors like to see more
business features rather than green and seating features. In addition, the results portrayed that green features received the
highest preference from those spend much time in shopping malls.
Keywords Socio demographic Factors, Gender, Age, Ethnic, Income Level, House Types, and Interior Landscape
Dimensions
1. Introduction
Unlike western developed countries, developing
countries in Asia such as Malaysia has started to establish
mega shopping mall centres in the recent decades. However,
the research on the understanding of patrons’ interaction
with shopping mall interior landscape is lacked. However, a
prior study revealed that demographic and social factors
exert in forming environmental preferences [1]. This
research motives to establish basic information regarding
interaction of landscape attributes and human characteristics
in shopping malls. Thus, the study aims to identify effect of
the socio demographic factors on preference for interior
landscape design in shopping mall. The research
sub-questions to answer the objective is followed:
1. Is there significant difference between gender groups
toward interior landscape design in shopping mall in
Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia?
2. Is there significant difference between age groups
toward interior landscape design in shopping mall in
Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia?
3. Is there significant difference between race groups
toward interior landscape design in shopping mall in
Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia?
* Corresponding author:
ahmadhami2008@gmail.com (Ahmad Hami)
Published online at http://journal.sapub.org/ijcem
Copyright © 2016 Scientific & Academic Publishing. All Rights Reserved
4. Is there significant difference between income groups
toward interior landscape design in shopping mall in
Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia?
5. Is there significant difference between housing types
groups toward interior landscape design in shopping
mall in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia?
6. Is there significant difference between spent time
groups toward interior landscape design in shopping
mall in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia?
In this view, socio demographic factors those might
influence preference for landscape are described in below.
2. Socio Demographic Factors Influence
People’s Preferences towards a
Particular Landscape
Besides various factors such as the content and spatial
quality of the scene which affect people’s preferences, there
are also many other factors involved in determining these
preferences towards the environment. Some researchers
have found that different factors influencing people’s
preference include the factors on culture or ethnicity [2-6].
The other factors identified include educational level [7-9],
expertise [4, 9], income level [8, 9], gender [8, 9], age
[8, 10]. All these are related to people’s background
information, but there are also other factors which have
significantly found to affect the people’s preferences such
as the living environment [4], familiarity [9], housing