Determinants of a successful public open space: the case of Dataran Merdeka in the city centre of Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia

Successful public open spaces are comfortable arenas where people of different backgrounds, genders and ethnicities benefit from miscellaneous opportunities. This paper seeks to determine the components of a successful public open space. First, a self-administered questionnaire survey identifies the users’ evaluations. Second, structured interviews explore the experts’ opinions about the relevant issues. The results show that social success is the most important factor in making successful public open spaces, while the physical attributes play the least significant role in such spaces. The paper presents a series of pragmatic suggestions that assist urban designers, landscape architects, architects, policy-makers and urban planners in creating lively communities in city centres, which contributes to the social sustainability of cities.