The Influences of Ethnicity in Contemporary Row Housing: An Investigation on the Meaning of Home in the Malaysian Setting

Home has many interpretations. The meanings can be derived based on multi-faceted scenarios and circumstances. This paper hypothesises that ethnicities have multiple realities or views on reconfiguring spaces to regulate their way of living within contemporary row housing and perceive the meaning of ‘home’. This paper explores the multi-ethnic society of Malaysian households and how their diverse practices delineate the physical spaces between private and public from the modifications they make to their houses. This study employs qualitative methods and conducts in-person home interviews using mental map drawings and home tour observation to investigate the influences of ethnicity in contemporary row houses as they define the meaning of home. The outcome of this investigation responded to the hypothesis of this paper. This paper concludes that ethnicity has multiple views, which are categorised into four themes: safety and boundaries, religion and lifestyle, tradition and memories, and community living, which explains how each household reconfigured spaces to facilitate their way of living within contemporary row housing thus provide a greater understanding to their meaning of ‘home’