Kuala Lumpur is a diverse city representing many different religions and nationalities. Recent government policy has actively promoted unity and cohesion throughout the city; and the country of Malaysia, with the implementation of a programme called 1Malaysia. In this book, the authors investigate the aims of this programme-predominantly to unify the Malaysian society-and how these objectives resonate in the daily spatial practices of the city's residents. This book argues that elements of urban infrastructure could work as an essential mediator 'beyond community', allowing inclusive social structures to be built, despite cultural and religious tensions existing within the city. It builds on the premise of an empirical study which explores the ways in which different communities use the same spaces, supported through the implementation of a theoretical framework which looks at both Western and Islamic conceptualisations of the notion of community. Through the analysis of Kuala Lumpur, this book contributes towards the creation of more inclusive places in multi-ethnic, multi-cultural and multi-religious communities across the world.

Kuala Lumpur is a diverse city representing many different religions and nationalities. Recent government policy has actively promoted unity and cohesion throughout the city; and the country of Malaysia, with the implementation of a programme called 1Malaysia. In this book, the authors investigate the aims of this programme-predominantly to unify the Malaysian society-and how these objectives resonate in the daily spatial practices of the city's residents. This book argues that elements of urban infrastructure could work as an essential mediator 'beyond community', allowing inclusive social structures to be built, despite cultural and religious tensions existing within the city. It builds on the premise of an empirical study which explores the ways in which different communities use the same spaces, supported through the implementation of a theoretical framework which looks at both Western and Islamic conceptualisations of the notion of community. Through the analysis of Kuala Lumpur, this book contributes towards the creation of more inclusive places in multi-ethnic, multi-cultural and multi-religious communities across the world.

The book focused on the practical aspects of reactive compatibilization-cum-impact modification of complex systems containing both virgin polymers and/or their mixed plastic waste. This issue is critical for waste management as the mechanical recycling is the most viable method, it demands sorting of plastic waste for homogeneous streams- a costly process. Possibility of avoiding this stage by means of reactive compatibilization would make reprocessing much simpler and cheaper in parallel with providing high quality of the end products based on recyclates. The findings on a combined method of compatibilization and impact modification obtained by the authors for virgin polymers like polyolefins (LDPE and PP) and polyamide 6 (PA6) have been also verified for the blends of virgin/recycled polymers. LDPE and PP have been melt functionalized with three polar monomers and further used as reactive compatibilizers, while ethylene-propylene-diene (EPDM) termonomer has been used as an impact modifier. Complex investigations and characterization of advanced multicomponent polymeric systems carried out in this book provided several innovative results, both with scientific and practical value.

Urban design is one of the key instruments of physical transformation employed to enhance urban quality and achieve sustainable urban environments. Confined by environmental, economic and social realities, urban design is largely influenced by the principal power brokers, including developers and public authorities. The lack of direct end- users participation in the preparation of design solutions is one of the major shortcomings of contemporary urban design. Solving this problem is an important challenge to the contemporary urban design practice. This book develops an approach that identifies subjective views of end-users in any urban locality as to what constitutes, for them, attractiveness of the urban environment, and further determines how this information could be integrated into the urban design process. The concept of attractiveness of the urban environment, introduced to this study is based on the subjective views of end-users. This innovative concept of urban design will be more user friendly, reflect local values, cultures and conditions and also contribute to the creation of a more diversified sustainable urban environment.