Abstract
Providing successful pocket parks and recreation space for inner city residents is increasingly challenging by the limited amount of available park space in urban areas. As a result of the diminishing area and limited time, the physical and recreational needs of urban youth often gone unmet and most people have experienced mental fatigue especially those who are staying in urban area. Mental fatigue is a condition characterized by excessive mental tiredness which can potentially lead to serious problems including reduced productivity, poor job performance and impaired physical functioning. According to a research from the University of Melbourne, relaxation is necessary to truly overcome mental fatigue. Several minutes of looking at grassy area can improve concentration which is also called as micro-breaks. Taking a break or gazing out at a green space during micro-break are suggested as it will offer restorative experience for restoration process. Daily routines among city dwellers can significantly contribute to the deterioration of focus which may lead to directed attention tiredness. People in Kuala Lumpur are wrestling with everyday stress in term of limited job opportunities, high living cost, congestion and polluted environment. Without realizing, they need restorative environment to help them restore their mental to face their everyday routine. Pocket park, Laman Standard Chartered, Kuala Lumpur is chosen for this study since it is located to dense urban area near to Kuala Lumpur City Centre (KLCC) which is one of the main attractions in the city and a place of quiet refuge and escape from the busy city life surrounding them.
Highlights
Providing successful pocket parks and recreation space for inner city residents is increasingly challenging by the limited amount of available park space in urban areas
Being negligent on the importance of urban green space and park area which is often perceived as luxuries and captured in entailing the balance of social needs towards themselves [14], Malaysians are exposed to the risk of declining mental health which will lead to other illnesses such as weakened immune system, obesity, high blood pressure and other risk of infections
This paper reports an understanding on visitors’ awareness of pocket parks’ importance in term of restorative environment and to determine if the pocket park at Laman Standard Chartered Kuala Lumpur meet the restorative environment characteristics (Figure 2)
Summary
Providing successful pocket parks and recreation space for inner city residents is increasingly challenging by the limited amount of available park space in urban areas. Pocket park in urban area is one of the initiative taken to connect people with nature to help people to reduce stress living in the dense city [11] Another issue being discussed by Gurmit Singh, the chairman of Centre for Environment, Technology and Development, Malaysia (CETDEM) which claimed that even though they have developed parks, but they hardly have people visiting them [5]. This situation signals that people are still not aware or unnoticed on the benefit of pocket park scattered in the middle of the city in term of mental restoration. A substantial number of experiments have shown that natural environments tend to be more restorative than urban or built environments [13]
Sign-in/Register to view highlights & summary Sign-in/Register to access full text options 
Free) 
Talk to us
Join us for a 30 min session where you can share your feedback and ask us any queries you have
Schedule a call
