Petaling street urban studies

MAPPING THE TOWNSCAPE

ARC 61003




MAPPING THE TOWNSCAPE Final Report Mapping %e Colonial Kuala Lumpur

School of Architecture , Building and Design Tales of Three Cities ARC 61003 Module Coordinator : Dr. Suchirita Srirangam

TALES OF THREE CITIES

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MAPPING THE TOWNSCAPE

CONTENTS INTRODUCTION

01

MALACCA AND GEORGETOWN

02

KUALA LUMPUR

03

MAPPING THE TOWNSCAPE

04

TALES OF WISHES

05

CONCLUSION

1.1 1.2 1.3 1.4

2.1 2.2 2.3

Theorization of Colonial Malacca Theorization of Colonial Georgetown Comparative Study of Colonial Malacca and Georgetown Summary

Theories of Investigation Preliminary Studies on Urban Form, Activity and Movement Pattern Investigations

STUDENTS AIDA JUNITA ALAN KOO KA LOK FRANCIS YEOW KHOR HAO XIANG LEE YIH LIM SHEN LOH WEI SHUEN LOVIE TEY YIQING LOW EN HUEY LUM SI CHU NAAJID NASEEM NG ZEZE ZHENG TANG ZHENG TOH KEAN HOU TOH KEAN HOU WILLIAM GOH CHIN VIN YEN

FINAL REPORT

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DESCRIPTION Aims to explore the case study cities through the ideas and theories prevailed in historical and contemporary times. The objectives are to: a) critically think on various approaches of urban design and b) enhance prevailing ideas of urbanism to acquire prior knowledge for the site visit to the case study cities. There will be class discussions on the debates on factors that drive the urban form, where the usage of online sources would be effectively practiced.

Through online virtual studies on the case study city, students are expected to capture interesting and meaningful sketches and photographs related to social (urban life) and spatial (nodes etc.) contexts of these towns. It is imperative that the sketches should contribute to the understanding of urban patterns and spaces.

The solution is in content understanding employing critical approach to the notion of ‘content’ as a purposeful narrative to powerful questions relevant to the context (Low, 2010). To begin with, the question is: What are the tangible and intangible colonial characteristics still prevalent in the context of the city of Kuala Lumpur at street scale?

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01 Malacca and georgetown

Hidden Backalley

The perimeter block typology birthed both the striking front facades & intimate linear back spaces.

1.1 Theorisation of Malacca Urban Linkage

Five-foot walkways link the street with the rowhouse interiors, bridging the boudaries.

Diagram 1.1.1 Section of building showing five foot way

Adaptive Facade

Multiple colonisation efforts by others forces existing building to adapt, creating a multi cultural heritage.

Diagram 1.1.2 Hidden Backalley

The Portuguese, Dutch & British brought their architectural styles over & localised them. Each time this happens, the people tweaked their facades to suit the current authority.

Harmonious Streetscape

Shifting architectural styles all conform to the same shophouse layout & faรงade.

Re-occurring Node Religious institutions act as nodes along the street.

As none of the old rowhouses were demolished for redevelopment, the culmination of architectural styles created cultural diversity.Although the styles vary, they still conform the basic design of rowhouse.

Diagram 1.1.3 (from left to right: Tamil Methodist Church, Kwan Yin Tong, Xiang Lin Si Temple, Cheng Hoon Teng Temple, Kampung Kling Mosque, Sri Poyyatha Vinayagar Moorthi Temple, St Francis Xavier Church)

Transparent Interiority / Exteriority

Rowhouse entryways provide passerbys a clear view inwards.

The width of the five foot walkway increases the level of interaction between the pedestrian & the building occupant, providing a sense of transparency & openness between the interior & exterior.

Organic Diffusal

The linear street grid expands organically outwards as the town grows.

Initially Malacca was composed of linear streets parallel to each other. As time goes by, Malacca expanded organically due to the topography of the land & river.

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Inter-Generational Interaction

Narrow streets impede vehicular speed, allowing young & old to interact safely with each other.

During colonial era, the narrow streets were suited for pedestrian access. After the invention of vehicles, the authorities designated them one-way streets, thus making the streets safer for pedestrians.

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Surprising Hierarchy

People of similar status or trade congregate in the same street, creating unique street characteristics.

Social Segregation

Colonial era Malacca was divided into zones according to social status & building activity.

Shophouses during the colonial era were taxed according to their street frontage plot. Trading products & services were taxed differently as well. As a result, building activities were divided into different zones.

Axial Dominance

Governmental & residential zones were connected along an axis.

Shophouses during the colonial era were taxed according to their street frontage plot. Trading products & services were taxed differently as well. As a result, building activities were divided into different zones.

Diagram 1.1.4 Surprising Hierarchy

Disordered Linearity

While linearly arranged, each rowhouse has differing architectural styles.

Diagram 1.1.6 Axial Path Diagram 1.1.5 (from left to right: early shophouse style, Dutch style, Southern China style, Art Deco style)

Spatial Redefinition

As new buildings take root, they redefine the surrounding spaces.

The streets are infilled throughout the centuries with new buildings, changing the urban form, movement patterns & space usage.

TALES OF THREE CITIES

Outstanding Universal Value

The colonial influences made Malacca unique due to its townscape & architecture.

A combination of Portugese, Dutch & British influences, plus the adaptation of the various architectural styles towards South East-Asian climate gave rise to a urban response unique to Malacca globally.

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01 Malacca and georgetown

Welcoming Facades

1.2 Theorisation of Georgetown Adapting to Control

Building owners circumvent the authorities' taxation laws through innovative architectural measures.

Taxation & land cost are decided by building plot width during the colonial era. Land owners built shophouses with greater length than width to save costs.

Shophouses share the same faรงade design, creating a pleasant streetscape.

The five foot walkway connects the street to the rowhouse interior, giving pedestrians a sense of welcome.

Dominant Rulers

Colonial buildings lack human scale, creating a sense of disconnection between them & the people.

Vibrant Townscape

As a heritage site, Penang serves as a vibrant & living 'museum'.

Different ornaments & carvings from the shophouses showcase the multitude of architectural styles, cultural influences & diversified identities of Penang.

Diversified Typologies A road with point form building blocks bisect Georgetown into two distinct urban typologies Diagram 1.2.3 Overwhelming Scale Disproportionate to Human Scale

Enclosing Edges

Distinctive terrains surrounding Georgetown limits the expansion of its boundaries.

Paddy fields & higher terrain to the west of Georgetown, along with the sea on the east act as natural town boundary restrictors.

Diagram 1.2.1 Space Typology

Engagement Pattern Various nodes along the street influence pedestrian movements, forming an engagement pattern.

Invisible Boundary Religious buildings have spheres of influences, creating invisible boundaries on the urbanscape.

Diagram 1.2.2 Nodes Influencing Engagement Pattern

Frames of Directional Quality

Contrasting streetviews split along the main road due to differing urban typologies.

The loose typology on the west of Jalan Masjid Kapitan Keling has both fine & coarse grain urban blocks, the grid typology on the east consists of merely coarse grain urban blocks; providing differing frame views.

TALES OF THREE CITIES

Diagram 1.2.4 Invisible Boundary

Representational Organisation

The physical forms of ornaments reflect the characteristics of the urbanscape.

Faรงade ornamentations depict the influence/affluence of owners, economic disparities between social classes as well as the evolution of the built environment under a multi-ethnic community.

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01 Malacca and georgetown 1.3 Comparative Study of Colonial Malacca and Georgetown Morphological Comparison Analysis Urban Linkage

Both towns have this design feature as an architectural response to the tropical climate.

Adaptive Facades Harmonious Streetscape Vibrant Townscape

Multiple colonisation efforts influenced the development of architectural styles,yet they never deviate from the basic building form.

Transparent Interiority / Exteriority

Both towns have the five foot walkway serving the same function, bridging the interior & exterior, providing transparency.

Organic Diffusal

Malacca expanded organically along several key street lengths, while Georgetown expanded sideways from one main street - each side using different methods to achieve expansion.

Adapting to Control

Both towns used massing form manipulation as an answer to restrictive rulings regarding building plot areas.

Table 1.3.1 Comparison of Morphological Analysis between Malacca and Georgetown

Social Comparison Analysis

Perception Comparison Analysis Disordered Linearity

Both towns have buildings aligned linearly along grids, yet each faรงade has differing architectural styles, creating disorder within a pattern.

Frames of Directional Quality

Both towns have great contrast among their streetscape; Malacca along hierarchical streets, Georgetown along axial pathways.

Welcoming Facades

Both towns share the same basic faรงade design layout throughout their building blocks, creating pleasant streetscapes.

Dominant Rulers

Both towns have colonial buildings that do not relate to the human scale.

Table 1.3.2 Social Analysis Comparison between Malacca and Georgetown

Functional Comparison Analysis Spatial Redefinition

Both towns have new nodes built as time passes, redefining the urban fabric in the process everytime.

Social Segregation

Both towns were divided into zones according to ethnicity, race background, social status & activity zones.

Enclosing Edges

Both towns have surrounding terrain that restricts their expansion plans; river for Malacca, sea & padi fields for Georgetown.

Hidden Backalley

Both towns have this characteristic due to their elongated rowhouses with their prominent front facades & quiet backalleys.

Invisible Boundary

Both towns have religious nodes exerting spheres of influence, forming invisible boundaries.

Re-occurring Node

Both towns have religious buildings act as nodes along circulation pathways.

Representational Ornamentation

Both towns have unique ornaments decorating their buildings that display the cultural aspects of their heritage.

Inter-generational Interaction / Engagement Pattern

With prominent landmarks acting as nodes, there are plenty of congregation points to encourage social interaction among people.

Surprising Hierarchy

In Malacca, streets are characterised by trade or social class;

Axial Dominance

Diversified Typologies

Malacca has one defining typology - organic growth; Georgetown has two - loose & grid typology.

Outstanding Universal Both towns were unique in regards to their integration of various Value architectural styles & urban response to local site context.

Table 1.3.4 Functional Comparison Analysis between Malacca and Georgetown

Temporal Comparison Analysis

Table 1.3.2 Social Analysis Comparison between Malacca and Georgetown

TALES OF THREE CITIES

Both towns have govermental & residental zones connected along an axis.

Table 1.3.5 Temporal Analysis Comparison between Malacca and Georgetown

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01 Malacca and georgetown 1.4 Summary of Comparison Study between Malacca and Georgetown It is clear that both towns share similar urban characteristics due to the influence of colonial architecture. Yet they were fundamentally different from each other on one aspect - their design solutions towards geographical issues. Restricted by the local topography, Malacca & Georgetown devised unique solutions to address the problems they faced - parallel streets according to zones in Malacca, multiple grid systems for Georgetown. The architectural tools & principles may be the same, yet their approach all start from the terrain - thus resulting in entirely unique urbanscapes.

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02 KUALA LUMPUR

MAPPING THE TOWNSCAPE

ARC 61003

2.1 Theories of Investigation

FORM Kuala Lumpur is an organic cityscape with Petronas Twin Towers as the landmark of the city. Kuala Lumpur consists of linear form and point form which each district are organizes itself with its distinctive cultural and functional value. Linear form usually refer to shophouses and terrace houses while point form are refer to government buildings, commercial blocks, transportation hubs and cultural building like religious building and educational hubs.

FUNCTION The commercial are largely occupies in Kuala Lumpur although partially of the the function are tourism. Beside that, religious building can be found in between the commercial and tourism buildings. In addition, the administration building are more cluster from the tourism building. Hence, the function of Kuala Lumpur are a mixed use of tourism, administration, religious and large number of commercial buildings.

MOVEMENT PATTERN The activeness of road in Kuala Lumpur are based on the accessibility factor. Main roads are usually active due to its connectivity to other majority place in Kuala Lumpur. Some minor roads are congested with vehicles due to the activities and functions offered by the nearby buildings.

FINAL REPORT

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02 KUALA LUMPUR

MAPPING THE TOWNSCAPE

ARC 61003

2.2 Preliminary Studies on Urban Form, Movement and Pattern

HIGH RISE, MID RISE, LOW RISE Low rise and mid-rise buildings in Petaling Street are mostly traditional colonial shophouses that still functioning with its original purpose and retaining its cultural value. The high rise buildings are rebuilt of colonial shophouses due to the increasing demands in the area.

ARCHITECTURE STYLE Architectural style of Kuala Lumpur is a blend of colonial influences, Malay Islamic Inspiration, modern and postmodern. Most of the colonial buildings are built toward 19 th and 20th century. The colonial buildings in Kuala Lumpur have been modified to cater the use of local resources and local climate.

ACCESSIBILITY Petaling Street is accessible by several public transportation as it acted as one of the major transportation hub in Kuala Lumpur. The organic city scape of Kuala Lumpur caused the emerge of different road width that have various level of vehicles congestion. Petaling Street market was accessible by vehicles until it became a popular tourist spot.

PEDESTRIAN MOVEMENT The setback of modern buildings creates pedestrian walkway in Petaling Street. The five-foot walkway that exists in the colonial shophouses gives a memorable street network to Kuala Lumpur. The lack of connectivity between pedestrian walkway and five-foot walkway consumed the sense of continuity of the street.

NODES In Pasar Seni, the intersect of LRT, KTM, and bus station form a node and act as a ponder area for traveler. Therefore, the nodes in Kuala Lumpur can be identify by transportation hubs. Beside that, religious building and tourism attraction are also act as a node in Kuala Lumpur.

DISTRICT In Kuala Lumpur, district are separate by the different function and activity of the area. Hence, there is five district can be identify in Kuala Lumpur.

LAND USE The land use in Kuala Lumpur are mainly commercial usage. Beside that, administrational and institutional are less in Kuala Lumpur. Although shophouses are shifted into commercial usage, the religious usage are still retaining since the beginning.

FINAL REPORT

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02 KUALA LUMPUR 2.3 Summary

Colonial cities

Qualities

Prevailing

Welcoming facades

Representational ornamentation Georgetown

• • •

Dominant rulers Frames of directional quality

• •

Invisible boundary Diversified typologies

• •

Harmonious streetscape

•

Adaptive facade

• •

Transparent interior / exterior Adapting to control

• •

Disordered linearity Surprising hierarcy Urban linkage Melaka

• •

Organic diffusal Axial dominance

• •

Social segregation

• •

Hidden backalley Reoccuring nodes Intergeneration interaction Spatial redifinition

Faded

• •

Vibrant townscape

Enclosing edges

Modern Kuala Lumpur Fragmented

• •

Table 2.3.1 The inheritance of Colonial Cities -Georgetown and Malacca’s Qualities in Modern Kuala Lumpur

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02 KUALA LUMPUR Discussion on Kuala Lumpur Permeability

The spaces between forms in the random and inconsistent urban configuration make up alley paths which in turn facilitates pedestrian movement thus increasing permeability within the city area

Enduring Transparency

One of the aspect which remained with the colonial Kuala lampur was the level of interaction between private/public. By the use of fivefoot walkways, the petaling street retains the transparency between inside and outside, thereby increasing interaction between a public pedestrian and a private house owner. This gives an added transparency to the street.

Space Infill

The pavement along the petaling street was wide and larger intended for people walking and meander along the street in the morning and afternoon.However,during evening and night,more stalls started to occupy in the middle of pavement causing the space to become smaller and cozier while allows user to shop and discover more selling items while meandering through the narrower pavement.

Urban Linkage

Petaling street is a very saturated place where concentrated with peoples. Hence, the accessibility of people is very important toward this places. In-order to fit in this volume of people.The linkage of petaling street have to be systematic enough to prevent accessibility failure occur. Base on my observation the main access way to petaling street is vehicle road and five foot way. Due to my opinion without any urban linkage non of a place will be activate.

Souless

Having a very uniquely old facade but the contain of the shop had been driven away as they leading people into the street with the stalls. The streetscape mainly uses the stall on the street as a main attraction tourist barely notice the shop and the shops barely serve a purpose.

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Entrapment Node

The street features mainly traditional Chinese shoplots with a narrow yet symmetrical facade as influenced by tudorbethan style. The older buildings are ornamented and intricately chiseled to resemble nature and culture. Even the colour scheme of the shophouses provide a layer of meaning to the style of the street, to bring about a plethora of moods among the pedestrians.

Faded

As the street flourishes, more shops and stalls are taken over by foreigners, the original familiarity had faded. Most of the buildings styles such as art deco, utilitarian and neo-classical style had been taken down to be replaced with new modern buildings. Buildings today are free from ornamentation and the design had become more minimal.

It is obvious the the sense of place in Petaling Street had faded.

Permanent Nodes

While the surrounding urbanscape may have changed due to changing movement patterns & shifting grain blocks by urbanisation, the streets retain their flow patterns. Key buildings & unchanging entry points set the directional cues guiding pedestrian movement patterns, much like in the past.

Thickened Facade

Temporary market stalls adhered to five foot walkway formed a second thickened layer of facade on the exterior of building, detaching public pedestrian from shophouse owner. Walking along Petaling Street, this eye catching immediate surrounding created interaction with pedestrian while blocking entrance into the neglected shophouse. Perpendicular movement across Petaling Street is minimum as slits of openings between stalls, acting as threshold into shophouse are hardly noticeable. Sense of hereness to thereness (perpendicularly) is a strong contrast hence discouraging the forming of relationship between both, whereas linear motion is emphasised in Petaling Street.

Visual Distraction

The directional sense in Petaling Street are disturbed by the activities happening in the market. The variety settings and size of vendor stalls distracted users' focus on the buildings and road in Petaling Street.

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Mapping the townscape (Colonial Georgetown , Colonial Melaka, Modern KL)

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Figure ground (left) Colonial Georgetown, (middle) Colonial Melaka, (right) Modern Kuala Lumpur Colonial Georgetown

Modern Kuala Lumpur

Two typologies are seen in the urban configuration in the area, which are organized and eccentric arrangements. First of all, government and religious buildings are seen in point form as these buildings need to show their significance and high status position.

Other than that, governmental buildings are not meant for the public, which point form configuration can achieve. On the other hand, shophouses are organized in linear configuration and identical to each other. Due to its commercial purpose, linear configuration shophouses are more open to public which will help attract people to walk along the 5 foot walk way and shop for goods.

The organized and eccentric configurations are preserved in the Kuala Lumpur context which conserved the diversified typology pattern. This is clearly seen on Petaling Street which is famous for its linear shopping street as two rows of shophouses and market stalls selling various items facing each other are along the entire road. Other than that, eccentric configuration can be seen on point form arrangement of religious buildings, industrial and some office buildings as these are also private buildings which are confined to certain setbacks rather than just to show its significance.

Colonial Georgetown

Colonial Georgetown

Due to the west part of Jalan Masjid Kapitan Keling being in an old development area, the buildings are built in unorganized arrangement, which causes diversity of road width and random arrangement of coarse and fine grain building that blurred the sense of direction on the site. The site consisted of fine grain and coarse grain which also caused many dead ends to emerge. But, the newly developed east part of Jalan Masjid Kapitan Keling have a clearer sense of direction due to its constant road width and organized arrangement of fine grain buildings which allows users to frame the street view from one end to another.

Due to morphological changes, many building developments have confined to different building setbacks based on function and land use planning permission. This have caused the framing of directional qualities to be fragmented as from the street level, a clear vision of what is at the end of the street is obstructed by buildings front, therefore losing the framing quality of the street. Other than that, these variations of building setbacks also caused the pedestrian to lose the sense of linearity on the road walking towards the end hence losing sense of direction towards what is at the end of the street as well.

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Colonial Georgetown Plot widths of shophouses were controlled by the ruling government as shophouse owners were taxed according to the width of their shop along the street front. This motivated local shop owners to take advantage of a loophole to avoid extra tax payment and land costs by making their shops as narrow as possible but going as long as they could lengthwise while still being functional. Consequently, this set the tone for local building typologies and the future of the built environment.

Modern Kuala Lumpur The modern buildings in Kuala Lumpur today are obliged to comply with the duty to satisfy the needs of the public. An effective infrastructure, particularly the public transportation system, has become the main drive to expand the urban network. Resultantly, a change in function of the buildings and activities in an area must be able to suit and adapt to the needs of the users. Within the area of city centre of Kuala Lumpur surrounding Jalan Petaling, major public transportation links can be identified – Pasar Seni LRT, Masjid Jamek LRT and Plaza Rakyat LRT, along with multiple bus stop points.

Colonial Melaka

Modern Kuala Lumpur

Linkages between the major roads – Jalan Tun Perak (station Masjid Jamek), Jalan Tun Tan Cheng Lock (station Pasar Seni) and Jalan Hang Jebat (station Plaza Rakyat), where transportation hubs are located, and minor roads leading towards Petaling Street create movement pattern and axes. The nature of the grid pattern and location points of the transportation hubs allow for provision of urban linkage into Petaling Street. Transit usage and restraint to private vehicles in certain areas in Petaling Street, are encouraged, to give priority to pedestrian movement and help facilitate their movement at activity centres.

The general populace area in downtown Malacca contains the common boundaries of two bodies, spaces or phases, also known as the interconnection between two systems.

From the street planning, the building connections between buildings, define the linkage for pedestrian movement. This is further achieved through the five-foot walkway which provides human access in front every façade.

The wide pedestrian street and the alley path between the shophouses also encourage access as well as urban linkage.

Colonial Georgetown

Modern Kuala Lumpur

Higher topography bounded flat paddy field from Eastern part of Georgetown with hills and forests landscaped view. Therefore, the hills became edges disconnecting development in Georgetown from other parts of Penang.

Colonial development tends to lean towards Western Part of Georgetown as more flat lands are at that area. This clear boundary sets limitation to the local where the ‘end’ of Georgetown is clearly revealed since most of the government administration buildings are located there, which are confining their daily activities and depth of views towards the surrounding.

In the Kuala Lumpur context, the enclosing edges are preserved, but it is formed solely based on function of the buildings instead of topography. For instance, an invisible boundary has formed in Jalan Petaling because most of the buildings in the area are for commercial purposes, which makes it a commercial zone.

On the other hand, further up north from Jalan Petaling gathers more of banking and financial building. These edges are formed due to governmental land use planning permissions and prohibition through the process of dividing land in a municipality into zones in parallel to morphological development of Kuala Lumpur.

Colonial Melaka

Modern Kuala Lumpur

The fort had marked a significant navigator to the locals, traders and European government. It connected the giganic fort and the intimate shophouses, brought business opportunities to the streets that derived from the fort, attracted diffrent user groups such as traders, slaves, locals, businessman in this area. The identify of the fort was so prominent that it created a contradicting relationship with the shophouses, dominance in the context.

The importance of Jalan Sultan as the main road is being shifted to Jalan HS Lee. The period shift of Jalan Sultan has brought a lively experience to Jalan HS Lee. The continoues linear driveway encourages the vehicular passing by, no stopping point whereas Jalan Sultan provokes a more walkable a situation.

The sacrification of shophouses in Jalan Sultan perhaps to build the new MRT project perhaps will bring back the vitality of the road.

Colonial Melaka

Modern Kuala Lumpur

The existence of the religious buildings like Cheng HoonTeng Temple, Kampung Kling Mosque and Sri Poyyatha Vinayagar Moorthi Temple along the street since colonial period becomes a very significant features for the street. They naturally defined the public and private realm along the street which makes them a node in Harmony Street. With the nodes formed by these religious buildings, the connecting alley ways to adjacent street (Jongker Street) have supplementary factors that cause it to form nodes as well since it is easily accessible from the Harmony Street and it provides other functions such as food stalls and variety of shophouses.

The existence of the religious buildings like Petaling Street itself is a node due to it being a tourist attraction hotspot, therefore people tends to gather at the start or at the end of the street before entering the shopping street. With this strong node point, many other points have also become a node due to its function that compliments the street. For instance, a node is formed when people gather around the junction of Jalan Tun Tan Cheng Lock for public transportation, or in the junction of Jalan Hang Lekir whereby food stalls are located have formed a nodes as supplement to Petaling Street. Therefore, it is shown that reoccurring nodes pattern are preserved in Petaling Street.

Colonial Melaka

Modern Kuala Lumpur

The use of five footways is common in most of the streets of Malacca, whereby a setback of around 1.5m is found at the entrance of shophouses. By functioning as public covered walkway, this narrow five foot way increases the level of interaction between the public pedestrian and the house owner as it draws distance between two users closer. close Thereby, the use of five footway in the streets of Malacca provides a sense of transparency between inside and outside through visual relation and intimate distance.

Presence of five foot walkway in shophouses along Petaling Street is a less prominent feature, serving as a grey zone between public visitors and private shophouse owners.

Temporary market stalls flanked on both side of street block direct access to the five foot walkway whereby only access is through unorganised gaps between the stalls. Evidently, linear permeability between interior and exterior of Petaling Street decreases into to fragmented points of permeability through the informal gaps between stalls.

Colonial Melaka

Modern Kuala Lumpur

Back alleys behind shophouses along Petaling street is no longer community oriented. Instead, intimate and dark shades in the narrow alleys intimate users as the function transformed into unorganised service alleys such as trash collection, outdoor air conditioning units. The back alleys are losing its liveliness and is becoming an eyesore to the society where people intend to avoid due to its negative first impression.

Back alleys behind shophouses along Petaling street is no longer community oriented. Instead, intimate and dark shades in the narrow alleys intimate users as the function transformed into unorganised service alleys such as trash collection, outdoor air conditioning units. The back alleys are losing its liveliness and is becoming an eyesore to the society where people intend to avoid due to its negative first impression.

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Colonial Melaka Modern Kuala Lumpur Being categorised under ‘commercial zoning’, spaces of Petaling Street are redefined to fit profit-oriented purpose and is pre-determined by government without providing freedom to be personalised by the community themselves.

Usage of spaces in Petaling Street are monotonous and formalised with similar functions where unexpected surprises are hardly found on the street. Informal spaces around the street are abandoned, turning into an eyesore rather than being used as everyday life spaces.

Being categorised under ‘commercial zoning’, spaces of Petaling Street are redefined to fit profit-oriented purpose and is pre-determined by government without providing freedom to be personalised by the community themselves.

Usage of spaces in Petaling Street are monotonous and formalised with similar functions where unexpected surprises are hardly found on the street.

Colonial Georgetown

Modern Kuala Lumpur

Buildings in Georgetown, particularly the shophouse typology, uses ornate facades to create a sense of welcoming to the people on the streets to converse at the continuous walkway. In this case, the shophouses utilise facade ornamentation and vibrant colours to create a welcoming facade. In contrast, the government buildings have a less welcoming facade to show dominance and authority between ruler and the people.

In contrast with Georgetown, the facades of buildings in Kuala Lumpur ranges from geometric and rudimentary features to ornate facades - combination of Neoclassical, Art Deco and Utilitarian style facades. In recent years, the development of buildings in Kuala Lumpur in their facades has become monotonous, even for the shophouse typology.

Therefore, it can be deduced that the welcoming facades in Kuala Lumpur is fragmented.

Colonial Georgetown

Modern Kuala Lumpur

Shophouses in Georgetown share general consistencies in their features and characteristics across the architectural style periods with minimal variations. The significant distinction between the architectural styles lies in the ornamentation of the façade of the shophouses.The facade ornamentation is used to depict the influence and affluence a of building owners or occupants as well as levels of wealth and status of the community at the time.

As shophouses in Georgetown uses facade ornanmentation as levels of wealth, the buildings in Petaling Street have different storey height. The significant distinction between the architectural styles lies in within the building height. Most of the low-rise shophouses ( 1-2 storeys) had preserved the ornamentation, as compared to the medium-high and high rise that uses minimal ornamentation.

MAPPING THE TOWNSCAPE

04 tales of wishes

“Georgetown is a town that is full of surprises. It is also well-known for its time-worn shophouses that are recognised as the Unesco World Heritage Zone that will spark the inner desire of my heart to visit the maze of chaotic streets, narrow lanes and past shrines that are discovered. The indegenous colonial architecture that had stood up as a living museum reminds me of what had happened to the town, encouraging me to appreciate and urge me to understand the importance of preserving a historical town.”

- Lovie Tey Yiqing-

“ Walking at the pedestrian street of Melaka, the shadow of unevenness case by the diversity building makes me wonder the how a city can be retain after colonies by several times. In my opinion, Melaka would be my most favourable city out of the three is because the diversity of different period of colonies building can be found in a city. From example, walking along the the Street of Harmony, dutch shophouses, british shophouses and different religious temple can found in a street. Its give a sense of harmony and strength of the city that sustain and retain for living in the different period. Hence, the beauty of diversity create Melaka city their own indentity and makes the city so unique from the others.”

-Chin Vin Yan -

"George Town, Penang - a city that has its own unique urban identity, is my city of choice. This city, which embodies the character of its culture, offers a much more modest and organically driven architecture and urban configuration. George Town has a balance between cultural heritage and modern urban schemes. One of George Town's humble building typologies, the traditional shophouses, are both accessible and easy to adapt - which gives it much potential to be a model for building blocks in the future that can thrive and adapt to social needs and create cultural centres. This creates a basis for a flexible and diverse community, with consideration for national identity and effective urban development in times to come."

- Aida Junita -

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“ In my opinion, I think that Georgetown is a better city not just because of its rich cultural background and the preservation effort by multiple parties as compared to Kuala Lumpur. One of the most distinctive quality is that most of the public open spaces are well maintained and equipped with events or streetscapes that made the streets and alleys welcoming.Unlike in Kuala Lumpur, the back alleys are commonly used as service spaces or unused spaces raising secuirty issues to the city. Thus this has created a city of sharing whereby the demarcation of public and private is criss crossed, providing endless possibility to the users to use the city.”

- Low En Huey -

“ Being conquested by few European maritime nation, Melaka has leave a vibrant and rich mixture of different cultures and ethnicity. The asssimilation of different cultures creates an unique characteristic that is not parallel with others. Although the fort had been destructed due to war, but it still shows a strong sense of direction to the locals and tourists till now. The unobstructed skyline creates a harmonious balancing hence aided the strategic location of St. Paul's hill. The qualities of colonial cities should be the considered into the urban planning without sacrifising the nature elements, as it serves as a reference point, to avoid creating a monotonous, rudderless townscape. The directional qualities in modern Kuala Lumpur has been took over by vehicular route rather than natural landscape, pedestrian floating around the city aimlessly. whereby the demarcation of public and private is criss crossed, providing endless possibility to the users to use the city.”

- Loh Wei Shuen -

“Georgetown, Penang in Colonial period remained as my favourite city among three. A strong sense of community is prevailing and is strengthened as the the British Colony took over Georgetown, enforcing act of division between local races and from the government.

Oppositely, sense of unity among the community is fortified as they were given freedom in customising spaces allocated to each race. Scale of Chinese shophouses were humanised, along with public realm which is shared by the community are commonly found in between buildings, and at the entrances.”

-Lee Yih-

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“ I would prefer Kuala Lumpur because this city is a blend of modern and traditional. The sense of hierarchy from traditional shophouses to modern high rise buildings are stronger than other city in Malaysia. The dynamic of variety of road width and height offer a distinctive sense hence able to frame different images while traveling in Kuala Lumpur” -- Ng ZeZeZheng Tang Zheng- -

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“Despite how the rows of buildings have different set backs and unorganised grid form shown in Kuala Lumpur, it is still my personal preferred city. This is because the deformed townscape contains surprises and a sense of curiousity of what's ahead while walking at the street level as many obstructions of buildings in front obscure the distant horizon. This has formed an interesting townscape whereby every corner and alley has its own unique story behind it, creating Kuala Lumpur as it is today, a city with an illustrious and vibrant history” -Khor Hao Xiang-

“ I believe that Melaka is a better city compared to Kuala lampur mostly because it retains its cultural identity due to well preserved cultural buildings. Therefore Melaka has a strong cultural background, whereas the cultural identity of Kuala Lampur in my opinion is fading due to less emphasis on building preservation. In addition, Melaka has well organized city planning, with the main street (Harmony street) linking residential and commercial zones enabling easier circulation within the city and emphasizing urban linkage - Naajid Naseem

“ I would prefer Petaling street. Petaling street has been a hub for businesses since the late 1800s. Its Cantonese name, “chee cheong kai”, means starch factory street, referring to a time when tapioca mills dominated the area. Today, it’s a famous tourist area brimming with makeshift stalls selling a variety of wares and tons of local food.With the advent of modernisation, Petaling Street and its decaying surroundings have not escaped from the throes of urban redevelopment. Rest assured, those of us looking for a good fill will still be able to savour a slice of the old and new coexisting in KL’s Chinatown” - Alan Koo -

“ Based on city I have studied from tales of city, the most preferred city for me is Melaka city.

Due to the heavy density of culture from the previous great history of Melaka. From the place they do have heavy culture stuff such as mixing culture masjid the fusion of Portugal and Malay and created a religion where they can participate together. Furthermore, the city is completely protected the previous stuff as they remain the original face of the Melaka city. As they remain the stuff our younger generation will get more benefit and knowledgeable to our past where the most interesting history where only Melaka city have it. As conclusion, the most favourite part for me toward Melaka city is the originality of Melaka face. “ - Lum Si Chu -

“Kuala Lumpur is a city that balances both old and new, separated by a fine line of difference between harmony and aggresion. It is a city that accomodates such a high amount of foot traffic daily yet it is temporary, and ever changing. The roads intersect with streets and the streets intersect with alleyways and the system repeats itself at such a high frequency that it feeds traffic and pedestrians into itself constantly. I believe that Kuala Lumpur is the definition of a urban city in the context of a developing country and therefore, is my prefered city” - Francis Yeow-

“ Penang is more in tune with its local surroundings, intergrating colonial influences & regional styles together for a holistic urban design approach. As urbanisation progresses, the way the authorities handled modern day amenities & heritage conservation is sensitive & effective.

Without resorting to constructing high-rises in bulk, Georgetown managed to preserve the cultural essence of the past as well as keeping up with the times. Through appropriate measures like retaining the old district zones & historic conservative efforts, colonial Georgetown continues to live on” - Lim Shen -

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“ Petaling Street will be the city that I prefer to live in because of the rich of the human culture while bringing in more tourists and making a very significant node in KUALA LUMPUR which created a New culture that has been brought in overtime. Despite of fading the historical culture there are still partially remained as a historical part of the city which also make the city seem more organised. Having to remain the cultural part and also bringing a new culture will lead into a new cultural place that had uniquely presented PETALING STREET as it is today.”

-Toh Kean Hou -

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05 conclusion STREET

BUILT FORM

FUNCTION

MOVEMENT PATTERN

Jalan Masjid Kapitan Keling (Georgetown)

Mix of different scale of buildings which consists of shophouses and public buildings.

Religious Street

Linear to diffused

Harmony Street (Malacca)

Mix of different architectural styles buildings with narrow street frontages due to different colonialization. Religious Street

Disordered Linearity

Petaling Street (Kuala Lumpur)

Mostly shophouses with active store fronts

Central focus

Commercial and tourist spot Table 5.1 Comparison

ASPECTS Topography Grid System

GEORGETOWN Surrounded by hills and ocean

MALACCA Bordered by ocean and flat land Fish bone pattern

Axiality Open Spaces Permeability Scale of Built Form Accessibility

Axis formed by colonial government buildings Public building's setback

KUALA LUMPUR Flat Land Deformed Multiple axes Wide Pedestrian Street

Multiple access points Intimate

Distant Direct access from Road

Front access only

Access from front & back

Table 5.2 Comparison

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CITIES

KUALA LUMPUR

GEORGETOWN

MALACCA

Morphological

Social

Perceptual

Functional

Mixture of building types as develoments are based on public transportation accesibility. For Advanced urban lifestyle instance, places that are easily due to rapid development, accesible for public transportation with little cultural and will attract more commercial historical background that buildings as compared to places that are hidden and burried by are difficult to be accesed by public modern developments. transportation

From the rapid urban development, skyline is decorated by many skyscrapers as vertical built forms are seen as the solution to limited land area, which also causes a deformed urban grid pattern

Commercial activities have dominated the streets with only a few religious buildings to disrupt the monotonous townscape.

The development of georgetown expanded sideways from the main street, while retaining the frames of directional quality whereby the streets are facing towards the colonial governemtnal buildings

Significant buildings such as The streets share the governmental or trading ports are The streets have no same basic facade located near the sea as development specific classification of designs without any order of Georgetown expands from the social class, instead it is of social class or function, sea which is the first contact point for by zoning based on therefore formed a more the traders from outside of function and significancy vibrant streetscape Georgetown

The development expanded organically along several key streets from downtown Malacca, for instance the Harmony street have infuenced the adjacent street to develop in parallel to the main street

The street activities are chracterised by trade or social class

The streetscapes are based on hierarchical order, which forms a series of streets with different functional order.

Temporal The Kuala Lumpur development is rapidly adapting to modernity as it is the main city of the country, therefore fast paced development is needed to not fall behind of time internationally in terms of country's status position globally.

Therefore, preservation of historical streets are slowly fading to give way to future developments.

The Georgetown development are slowly adapting to modernity as many skyscrappers and large scale commercial buildings are being developed, at the mean time preserving little historical and cultural streetscape

The development based on hierachical For Malacca, the St Paul civic zones order will be diminished slowly as many are seperated from the residential of the streets are well preserved. zones by the river as they stand in a Therefore, the Malacca developments higher terraine, which is intended to will focus more on refurbishments and overlook the residential zone from a improvements of existing historical high ground. streets with a change of function.

Table 5.3 Comparison

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CONCLUSION :

PARALLEL CITY Invisible edges are formed on both sides of Petaling Street by temporary markets stalls flanked on sidelanes of the road, immediately blocking direct access to the shophouses. Hence, one directional axis is prominent whereas multiple layering of perpendicular axes along Petaling Street are becoming vague, as a result of market stalls forming the new unwelcoming facades into the buildings along the street. As a result, main pedestrian pathway is squeezed in between this narrow street, well shaded by acrylic roof, like a contemporary representation of a typical Malacca’s hidden back alley, replaced with commercial activities. Closely packed market stalls appear to be in immediate distance, enveloping the pedestrian experience while offsetting away from the buildings on sideways. To sum up, a parallel relationship between the shophouse owners as well as public pedestrian is formed where intersection between both are hardly visible.

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