Chapter 03 Contextual Engagement

Contextual Engagaement

Figure 3.1: Annual Crime Safety Report from 2010 to 2017

3.1 At-risk youth in Malaysia

In Malaysia, the youth who age between 15 years old and 25 years old was about 5.2 million in 2010 which is roughly 19 % of the total population (Department of Statistics Malaysia 2020). Based on the World Youth Report (2005), estimated that 25% of the youth population would be classified as at-risk youth.

According to the report of the delinquency issues among juveniles, it is increased from time to time (Kassim, 2006). Kuala Lumpur is perceived as home and at the very heart of Malaysia’s rapid urban development. However, according to the Annual Crime and Safety Report, Kuala Lumpur was listed as a high-threat location for crime (OSAC, 2020). Crime is an issue of concern in the country and often finds the attention of the media. Over the past decades, urban communities have experienced unprecedented social, economic, and political transformation. Global capitalism has contributed to the exodus of jobs, higher levels of inequality, and the urban poor’s marginalisation. Urban youth have been significantly affected by this transformation and the concomitant social and economic conditions (Ginwright & Cammarota, 2002).

3.2 Site selection criteria

Figure 3.4: Urban Morphology of Chow Kit, Kuala Lumpur. In 1908, the general area of Chow Kit is low dense and is relatively low density residential area. Right after the National Independence Day, the area started to be developed as a higher density neighbourhood, larger numbers of building mass is constructed along Jalan Tuanku Abdul Rahman. Currently, sudden high rise buildings had started appear surrounding the medium-low density area creates a fragmented image of the area. Commercial land use being the most in the area creates an imbalance of city structure.

Figure 3.5: Key plan

Figure 3.6: Location plan

3.3 Macro context analysis

Chow Kit is a sub-district of Kuala Lumpur, not far from the Golden Triangle area. In 1908, the general area of Chow Kit was a relatively low-density residential area. The area started to be developed as a higher-density neighbourhood right after National Independence Day. Then, vast amounts of buildings were constructed along with Jalan Tuanku Abdul Rahman. Currently, sudden high-rise buildings that appear in the medium-low density area create a fragmented image of the area.

Commercial building use being the most in Chow Kit, which creates an imbalance of city structure. Chow Kit as a whole has long had a reputation for being a place that is not family-friendly due to the imbalance of the resident population. There were many drug addicts in this area, mainly due to the homeless who became involved in drugs, and the place was known for its ‘red light’ area and entertainment outlet. The low-rise commercial district is the core of Chow Kit, which acts as a radical development pattern. Residential zoning is marginalised a certain distance away from the primary traffic. Many of the outsider tenants inhabit the commercial district, which is reported as a high-risk zone.

Figure 3.7: Neighbourhood context in Chow Kit

Figure 3.8: Population of Chow Kit in 2020

3.4 Underprivileged Youth at Chow Kit

At-risk youth at Chow Kit was exposed to negative social upbringing either accidentally or unknowingly, having been forced into these predicaments (Aliaas et al., 2012). The children and young people with the undocumented birth certificate who grew up at Chow Kit facing such challenges that had long existed within their daily living environment. Lack of documentation causing local authorities’ difficulties in identifying the difference between local children of illegal immigrants, refugees, or asylum seekers (Aliaas et al., 2012). The ineffectiveness of identification includes lost, trafficked children or young people brought in from many different areas globally, either as sex slaves or cheap force labour (Paradigm Shift Project, 2010). This dilemma quickly denies them from receiving fundamental social rights and privileges (Patt, 2010). Lack of capability to foresee their future had become the main factors causing them to engage in illegal behaviour like drug use and prostitution.

Figure 3.10: Proposed site analysis study with the socio-ecological framework.

Figure 3.11: The Social-Ecological Theory by Bronfenbrenner & Ceci (1994). Alternate perspective perceives young people in terms of their relationships with their immediate social environment

Figure 3.12: The Social-Ecological Approach interpreted from Bronfenbrenner & Ceci (1994)

3.5 The socio-ecological framework

The social-ecological framework provides an alternate perspective that perceives young people in their relationships with their immediate social environment. From this framework’s standpoint, youth’s actions, interactions, and identities are formed by factors and processes operating at various levels, simultaneously and across time. An environment for young people is a sole setting and a constellation of interconnected settings. Their development unfolds and is shaped through progressively closer or more in-depth engagement with others (France et al., 2012). Bronfenbrenner (1994) described the regular interactions with the youth in meaningful ways and fostered a relationship that grows through increasingly complex interactions or networking. The theory identified the importance of deep interactions among youth and the local community that could effectively direct youth development and affect the outcomes such as youth’s social-behaviours.

Moreover, it offers a practical perspective to explore and understand the implications for effective ways of working with youth. A relationship-focused approach was used to support positive youth development within the environment. According to Bronfenbrenner (1994), the social-ecological theory offers a practical framework for perceiving a young person in the process of youth development, as embedded within a set of five interrelated ecologies or “nested” systems. Bronfenbrenner (1994) describes the social-ecological system as below:

1.Microsystem - The Immediate Environment consists of activities, social roles, and interpersonal relations that the individual directly experiences in a given setting.

Figure 3.13: Local social support services

Figure 3.14: Potential partners or collaborators in Chow Kit

Figure 3.15: Potential clients 3.Exosystem – Connections or interactions between the settings that surround the youth. An external environment that indirectly influences the individual’s life, such as a neighbourhood.

4.Macrosystem – A social-cultural setting and comprehensive patterns that embed the microsystems, mesosystems, and exosystems of the environment. It provides availability of resources, opportunities, and options to youth.

The Social-ecological approach was perceived as an extension framework of the theory to examine youth’s social-behaviour. It recognises that behaviour change can be achieved through static activities that target four levels: individual, peer networks, community, and social structure, which reflected the Microsystem, Mesosytem, Exosystem, and Macrosystem, respectively. This framework was conducted as part of the site investigation to analyse the effectiveness of different social environments that influence youth engagement within the local community at Chow Kit, Malaysia.

3.5.1 Social structural environment

Although Chow Kit is an urban area with a higher social issues rate, multiple social support services focus on addressing the local social issues within the social structure context level. It increases the collaboration possibilities and potential in the local community. However, several challenges faced by local social support services:

1.Lack of Information Exchange: Local NGOs tend to work among themselves, and lack of collaboration and sharing of resources among NGOs creating less bounding within the social structure.

2.Lack of Funds: NGOs had no longer received funding from the Federal Government to aid its efforts in 2015. Sustainability is crucial in ensuring the continuity of activities in a program or an organisation.

3.Shortage of Resources: There are multiple social issues in Chow Kit. Lack of manpower and civic amenities which causing certain informal social services ineffectively.

3.5.2 Community environment

Figure 3.16: Active Zoning in Chow Kit

Figure 3.17: Urban form of Chow Kit

Figure 3.18: Building Use in Chow Kit largely neglected the youth’s active zone. The main activities are located at the centre of Chow Kit. During the night, the high-risk area around Lorong Haji Taib threatened the local youth and was deemed “at-risk.” The networking between youth and community is isolated, causing the youth’s active zone to be marginalised and unsupervised.

Low rise commercial district are the core of Chow Kit which act as radical development pattern. Residential zoning is marginalised certain distance away from the main traffic. High density of outsider tenants inhabit within the commercial district which is reported as the high risk zone

Furthermore, the residents in Chow Kit spend a significant amount of time in the neighbourhood area and often identify more strongly with those specific areas than the city as a whole. Based on active zoning analysis conducted from 09 November 2020 to 12 November 2020. Most of the youth at Chow Kit, either during the nighttime or daytime, are mainly gathered at Jalan Chow Kit and Sunway Putra Mall area. These two spots are retail spots that offer entertainment and commercial activities to catch the attention of passers-by. However, it is a certain distance away from the local community activities such as the local night market. The local community lacks social bonding and interaction due to the lack of shared activities.

Issue: The networking between youth and community is isolated which causing the youth active zone is marginalized and unsupervised.

3.5.3 Peer network environment

A local activities analysis was conducted through the site observation, according to Jan Gehl’s three categories of outdoor activities (Gehl, J. 2007). According to Jan Gehl’s three outdoor activities, outdoor activities can be classified into necessary activities, optional activities, and social activities. Necessary activities are the activities that people have to do on the street, such as walking. Optional activities are those people pursue only in favourable conditions and only if time and place allow it, such as stopping, sitting, and waiting. Then, social activities are activities that depend on the presence of others for social interaction. It is fundamental to the social needs of people in the streets.

The local activities offered insights into the processes of interaction between people and between people and their environment. The outdoor activities are evident in socio-

Figure 3.19: Local activities analysis in Chow Kit

Figure 3.20: Walkway density analysis in Chow Kit.

Figure 3.21: Active time zonning in Chow Kit

Figure 3.22 Community Oriented Social Support. physical relations to physical designs, such as landscape features, walkway interface, and shophouses’ visibility. They are also apparent in spatial relations, which connect the urban network. Different types of activities required different physical settings to facilitate, and the physical environments needed for different types of activity are significantly different from each other.

Furthermore, the movement patterns resulting in the walkway density analysis showed Chow Kit as a transition area currently. Most of the street was mainly occupied for necessary activity without providing enough public spaces to enhance social interaction value. The physical networking lack of promoting the engagement of the local community. The urban fabric of Chow Kit shows less connectivity between the districts. High-density area mainly located along the Jalan Raja Laut but lack quality public space features to fulfil optional activities and social activities. Experiences on the street are less appreciated due to certain physical conditions, the weather, and urban design features of the local contexts. Chow Kit has a few diverse communities, and their way of life is somehow different from each other, and they are quite segregated from each other.

The various communities identified on-site are the local communities, the foreign workers, and the tourists. The pedestrian behaviour and movement pattern study found that the urban public space’s living quality in Chow Kit is relatively low, lacking enough common social activities.

3.6 Urban socio-puncture strategy

Forming the networking among the local NGOs and local organisations to elevate natural surveillance among the local community. Resolving the local social issues through the local community empowerment and collaboration. Providing a social service base within the neighbourhood area to promote the engagement of residents and disadvantaged youths. Reforming local identity towards community-led revitalisation. A socialfriendly neighbourhood which is surrounded by high rise business district.

3.6.1 Socio-ecological programme framework

Throughout the understanding of the social-ecological theory, youth’s behaviour is affected by various factors, both at the individual and beyond. Not only is human behaviour influenced by the environment we live in, but also we adapt to the environment around us for the betterment of human welfare (Lindheim & Syme, 1983). 32

Figure 3.23: Preliminary program study.

Figure 3.24: Idea development of socio-ecological program strategy Reinterpreting the socio-ecological approach from the linear form of direct impact to a circular form of interactive implication. Each of the social environment is correlated that actively engages youth’s social-behavioural needs within the local community. The idea development of reinterpreting the socio-ecological approach provides a study framework in justifying the preliminary programs. Every program is manipulated in reflecting diverse youth’s social environment. The framework offers every program’s direct influences and creates informal impacts to fulfil youth’s social-behavioural needs.

The building programs proposal focuses on three different target users, the local community, youth, and local social support community. The socio-ecological approach offers the program strategy in forming various interactive activities for different target users. On the other hand, the proposed programs enable the collaborations between the local community and local social support programs, promoting active engagement of community-led social support services. Hence, the approach aims to build a positive relationship between the local community and the local marginalised community.

Figure 3.26: Proposed building programs with local social support needs driven.

Figure 3.27: Local Youth Programmes:Youth Experimental Theatre. The youth from local youth center drew upon their own experiences and their friend’s to convey the message of child abuse in the experimental theatre show, 7 Voices. It is a local advocacy programmes on child abuse and children’s rights. It created a channel to deliver the message from the local youth to the public in raising the awareness of the local social issues

3.6.2 Proposed program intention

The proposed programs intends to integrate the local needs by bridging the gap among the communities. Three different ways of activity interaction will be carried out to form the social networking with the building programs.

1.Informality

A youth-oriented programs which focuses on elevating the exsiting youth programs such as local youth theatre performances and extra-curricular classes provided by the local youth support organisations. The purpose of the building programs is to provide a social friendly environments between the local youth and general public to practice positive social environments that affects youth’s individual and peer network environments.

2.Formality

An information exchange platform provided for the local social support services and communities. The civic amenities is important in creating the active environments to practice community oriented social services. An alternated platform for the local marginalised community who able to communiticate with the social services instructor and seek for infomation from the proposed social platform actively.

3.Interactivity

A community oriented activities to practice social support programs among the local neighbourhood and marginalised community. The proposed activites tend to cultivate a friendly social structural environments that focuses on assisting the local food giving programs to attract the local residents take part in the urban farming actyivities. The local resident is welcomed to take part as the local social support committee.

Figure 3.29: Restore Oakland, California by DJ+DS

3.7 Case studies

3.7.1 Case Study 01:

Restore Oakland, California by DJ+DS

- Restorative Justice -

Restore Oakland is a community advocacy and training centre designed by nonprofit architecture and real estate development firm Designing Justice + Designing Spaces. Restore Oakland form a typology and infrastructure that facilitate restorative justice and advance economic opportunity, and it’s providing an innovative model for a baseline approach to ending mass incarceration. Such empathic spaces offer a paradigm shift in how environmental design address crime and offer access to resources.

It is a new type of community where local victims feel heard and supported, conflicts are resolved, and communities are strengthened. The design developed a community engagement with restorative justice practitioners and the youth that the facility serves by offering conflict resolution outside of the carceral system.

The design objective is to provide a new local economy and justice system where everyone belongs and thrives. The design approach is rooted in restorative economics— the model that all residents, including people who have been incarcerated, working people, immigrants and people of colour, must shape and benefit from economic development for our communities to truly prosper.

Figure 3.30: Red Cross Volunteer House, Copenhagen by COBE

Figure 3.31: Food Port for West Louisville, Kentucky by OMA Red Cross Volunteer House, Copenhagen by COBE

- Community Social Support -

The Red Cross Volunteer House is intended for involvement and commitment and is an important meeting place for anyone wishing to help people in need. The building is a celebration of the overarching goal of creating incentives for civil engagement in the world.

The shared goal for everyone involved in the process was to end up with a building that gave back new quality to the street, the park and the surrounding urban space by adding something extra. The outside of the building is transformed into a vibrant public space for the local neighbourhood to meet up informally. The roof of the building is now the Red Cross’s face to the world and a unique meeting place that acts both as a terraced stand and as stairs while also offering an attractive and inviting space to the many thousands of volunteers and, equally, to passers-by and the rest of the city. Urban life is invited up and into the building, where the inside’s activities are put on display through carved-out openings in the large roof surface.

3.7.3 Case Study 03:

Food Port for West Louisville, Kentucky by OMA

- Neighbourhood Food Production -

The food port acts as a catalyst to activate the surrounding neighbourhoods, exemplifying one of the complex urban relationships between architecture and food. It integrates several key programs that serve and provide for all the food chain stages that will engage directly and informally with the public.

The design proposes a new model for the relationship between consumer and producer that several key programs serve and provide for all stages of the food chain, including a kitchen incubator, urban farm, recycling facility and programs that will engage directly with the public, such as classrooms, a demonstration farm, and local retail. Outdoor spaces include a market plaza, a food truck plaza, and an edible garden. The building is organised to allow for systematic expansion in the future. The program’s diversity reflects the entire food chain and a new foodscape of public spaces and plazas where producers and consumers can be together.