Past literature has indicated a lack of visual privacy in the design of terrace housing in Malaysia, especially for Malay Muslim families, owing to specific Islamic regulations and principles governing the modesty of self, family, and house. The main objectives of this paper are to analyse the definition of visual privacy from Islamic perspective or Muslim visual privacy (MVP), and to determine the factors that influence its perception among Malay Muslim communities who are living in terrace housing development in the Klang Valley, Malaysia. The study involved a survey interview of 441 respondents and 10 case studies. Findings indicate that in adapting to the contemporary urban environment of today’s terraced housing, Malay Muslim families are shifting away from the traditional Malay as well as previous Islamic concept of visual privacy. Analysis indicated that the Malay Muslim families required a balance between visual exposure and visual access in order to achieve an optimum level of visual privacy to enhance daily comforts, while still being informed by Malay culture and Islam. It is the balance between visual exposure and visual access which influences the four identified factors influencing Muslim visual privacy which are protection of aurat, security, community interaction and hospitality to guest.

This paper proposes a conceptual framework illustrating the application of Muslim Visual Privacy (MVP) of terrace housing by Malay occupants living in urban areas of Malaysia. Malay occupants are central to this study due to their specific views and requirements on visual privacy defined by religion and cultural norms. The study employs a thorough analysis of empirical data and review of past literatures in order to discuss vital and relevant theories. The findings of this study suggested a conceptual framework incorporating the sources of MVP elements as well as other important variables influencing the Malay Muslim occupants in terms of how they apply, regulate and modify the visual privacy levels in their respective terrace houses. The proposed framework might only represent a small portion in the entire effort, nevertheless it remains a significant contribution towards arriving at a more valid definition of MVP for Malay occupants in terrace housing. A clearer definition will then assist architects, developers as well as home owners’ themselves in terms of how they design and manipulate physical elements of the house to achieve more functional visual privacy levels as per religious requirements. Keywords : Malay, terrace house, Malaysia, Muslim Visual Privacy, Islamic, conceptual framework