B.A (hons) in Interior Architecture “Kisah Kepong Baru” 18-19 May 2019
Another successful public engagement event from B.A (hons) Interior Architecture. The exhibition of the Interior Architecture Design studio 3 on Kepong Baru project. The Kepong Re-imagine Exhibition was honored with the presence of YB Lim Lip Eng, Member of the Parliament of Malaysia for the Kepong constituency in the Federal Territory of Kuala Lumpur. The students have taken this opportunity to explore the culture of the locals, proposing various programs that would revive the identity of Kepong as the Garden Town.
Taman Kepong Baru is developed in the 1960s under the new housing development scheme that aims to modernise KL city in the post Merdeka period, as an effort by the city council the encourage to live in the city, at the same time clearing the settlements that were rapidly growing out of control. A typical residential area developed during that era, widely known as ‘ Taman’, consists of a large amount of terrace houses,a relatively small but clearly zoned commercial area and open spaces that come with a children playground and simple sports facilities. Although Taman Kepong Baru had witnessed big and small urban changes for seven decades, it remains its sense of place that reminds one of the1960s 1970s. The residents of Taman Kepong Baru welcome every day with the hustle and bsutle of a typical lively neighborhood along Jalan Bangau and its vicinity. Every Morning, people walk, shop, eat and gather at different at different spots along the street at the commercial zone, which is made up of permanent shops and temporary stalls that creates healthy symbiotic relationship. The microeconomic benefits not only the community but the macroeconomic at large. Recently, Kepong town has transformed and is included as a part of the greater KL development, introducing mixed-use high rise buildings, hypermarkets and shopping malls to the local community who would otherwise remain its archaic lifestyle. People now prefer to have modern facilities, aminities, alternatives in transportation medium and requirement in privacy, bringing new spatial experience alongside such demand. In respect of the development of living pattern in Taman Kepong Baru, this exhibition showcases a design project that asks, how can future development of Taman Kepong Baru fit into these contemporary forces of the 21st century? Can place identity and sense of community go along with the development of the greater KL city imagery?