Urban Environment and Human Behaviour: Learning from History and Local Wisdom

The wisdoms of building traditions in Southeast Asia is the rational outcome of local climate, available building materials, articulation of building typologies, development of construction techniques, manifestation of beliefs and rituals, cosmopolitan urban culture, tangible and intangible traditions, and lessons of sustainability learned over many generations. This keynote paper discusses various examples on different scale levels of urban environment and focuses on how we can learn from history, real experiences, and local wisdoms on tangible efforts to achieve environmental, cultural, and economic sustainability in holistic way.