The Transformation of Waterfront Landscape, Identity and Imagination Reflections on four coastal cities in the Straits of Malacca Singapore, Penang, Malacca & Johor
Project Curator: Ng Keng-Khoon | Tun Tan Cheng Lock Centre for Asian Architecture & Urban Heritage in Melaka | School of Design & Environment, Department of Architecture, National University of Singapore
“Waterfronts have been and continue to be spaces where an ensemble of actors, both societal and biophysical, and representing global, regional, and local forces, engage in intense struggles that change the urban.� Gene Desfor (et al.) 2011 'Transforming Urban Waterfronts: Fixity and Flow'
Contents 1.0
Project introduction |
2.0
Reinterpreting the Architectural of Four Coastal Cities in the Strait of Malacca |
3.0
The Emerging Waterfront Urbanism: New Landscape, Identity and Imagination |
4.0
Case Study 1: Singapore |
9-16
5.0
Case Study 2: Penang
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17~24
6.0
Case Study 3: Malacca
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25-32
7.0
Case Study 4: Johor
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33-40
8.0
Analysing Waterfront Urbanism through Relational Thinking |
9.0
Conclusion: Reflections on the Socio-environmental Transformation of Waterfront |
1~4
5~6
7~8
41-44
45-48
1.0 Project Introduction This travel-based research project focuses on the transformation of coastal cities in the Straits of Malacca. This project is neither a comprehensive study of port cities, nor it is detailed on a thorough historiography of coastal towns in Singapore and Malaysia. Rather, it undertakes an architectural survey to explore the recent waterfront developments along coastal area of the Straits of Malacca. Looking at four historic entrepĂ´ts - Penang, Malacca, Singapore and South Johor (Johor Lama), these four selected sites of study show a continual and dynamic impetus of waterfront urbanism in the Straits mega region. These case studies of invite us to reflect on the changing uses, meanings and identities of waterfront spaces across different localities. They transcend the legacy of colonial past, and continue to be primarily their own city transformation. This project would like to invite popular audience to think more critically about our city and waterfront spaces, asking: 1. What does waterfront mean to you? 2. In what ways can we understand waterfornt as a contested terrain of modernization? 3. How can we read waterfront spaces beyond bounded, if not place-based, condition of urban development? 1
Theoretical Enquiries Empirical study is conducted in these four cities to document the changing coastal landscapes and its iconic architectures. Each site has its unique trajectories of urban transformation, hence resulting a multiple form of waterfront developments and imaginaries. Apart from learning these cities as an independent case study, the project attempts to locate them into a larger regional map of coastal urbanism of the Straits region. In other words, it’s encouraging us to look at these coastal cities as a whole rather that as discrete areas. This perspective offers us more relational understandings about current practices of city-building and branding in the new maritime regions of Southeast Asia. Theoretically, this project is premised along the critical studies of architecture and urbanism. It problematises these new waterfront designs and imaginaries in relation to the politics of urban space and identity. There are two research enquiries. First, the project seeks to understand how waterfront developments have given impact to new political-economic configurations in these cities, as well as the regions. More critically, the second objective asks: in what ways can we consider that these developments have exposed our cities to a new era of privatisation and gentrification?
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“Urban waterfronts are interesting and complex spatial locations that, when studied with attention to broader transformative processes as well as the changes that occur within the scale of the urban waterfront, allow for new insights into the production of nature, patterns of social entanglement, and political–economic configurations in cities.� Susannah Bunce &Gene Desfor, 2007 'Introduction to political ecologies of urban waterfront transformations'
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Photographing the Transformation of Coastal Landscape In this project, photography was utilised as an investigation tool to locate sites, observe physical transformation and analyse socio-spatial development of the four selected coastal cities. The uses of pictorial image are served through its documentary function; more essentially, it performs as a visual stimulus that enables the audience to react and rethink their perceptions of waterfront environment. Photographic image is ‘a specific mode of knowledge’. The image is an imprint of real that portrayed by photographer’s subjectivity. It is also an imaginary media for the viewer to construct individual emotions and comprehensions.
This project focuses primarily on aerial photography of the waterfront landscape, in the four selected cities. The aerial photographs expose audience not merely atmospheric views of the changing coastal landscapes, but also urban transformation in each city. Notably, many of the the photographs reveal context that behind or beyond of the immediate waterfront site. These off-site views provide us more 'layering' understandings about our city - the spatial implications that often dispered from our eyesight. Photograph can serve as an analytical lens for us to understand the visions of national leaders, developers, planners and architects - about their utopia of waterfront city. In other words, the making of photographic images in this project is to mirror iconographic images that made by these urban experts. Therefore, this project hopes that the audience will echo to this series of images, by reflecting on how complex socio-political agendas and new urban ideologies are represented in these waterfront landscapes.
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2.0 Reinterpreting the Architecture of Waterfront Cities in the Straits of Malacca Architecture and urban design have had a long history of social interventions through the making and remaking of spaces, buildings, streets and cities. The desires of creating our human environment, as depicted by Lefebvre’s social observations and theories (1971), must be understood socially and dialectically as a series of ‘spatial ideologies’. His notion of ‘social production of space’ has tried to capture the multilateral forces of social control, in the principal sense of practised, conceived and lived. Michel Foucault (1977), situating architecture as a ‘political technology’ to reveal the spacial tactics of ‘control, surveillance, separation, and branding’ for exercising power in everyday environment. Along this premise, the elite’s production of urban design, planning and policy decisions, often involve a complex web of power relations. The conflicts over space and place are highly related to a series of civic issues, ranging from gentrification, privatisation, marginalisation and segregation.
Globalization and city-rebranding, and the integration of urban area and hinterland have redefined the functional role of waterfront in Southeast Asia cities. This study suggests that we shouldn’t be conceived waterfront merely as an orthodox urban form or city development, but to confront it’s meaning as a continuum of city landscape in the history and intensity of human invention. In other words, waterfront architecture should not be considered as a neutral or creative cultural form but rather as a social practice that expresses the close relationship between architects-urban planners and the agendas of the politically and economically powerful.
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The Vision of Landscape, Place and People 'Geographical representations - in the for of maps, texts and pictorial images of various kinds - and the look of landscapes themselves are not merely traces or sources, of greater or lesser value for disinterested investigation by geographical science. They are active, constitutive elements in shaping social and spatial practices and the environments we occupy. Reading landscapes on the ground or through images and text as testimony of human agency is an honourable contribution for cultural geography to make towards the humanities' goals of knowing the world and understanding ourselves: to the examined life.'
Denis Cosgrove, 2008 'Geography and Vision: Seeing, Imagining and Representing the World'
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3.0 The Emergent Waterfront Urbanism: New Landscape, Identity and Imagination In this project, ‘waterfront’ come to symbolise the changing histories and landscapes of cities. One the one hand, waterfront can be seen as a human legacy of urban development — an imaginative landscape that allows human to exercise their visions and ideologies of modernity. Meanwhile, waterfront has increasingly been portrayed as an icon of world-class city, regardless of the city’s socio-cultural backdrop, on the other hand. The use of iconic waterfronts to brand places and cities is a growing trend in architecture and urban design. On this front, this project would like to incur popular audience to reflect on what waterfront is meant for you? If one saying that each world class city should have an iconic waterfront, how far do you agree with this popular notion?
Along this premise, this project makes inquiry into three particular concepts namely landscape, identity and imagination, asking how waterfront urbanism is being produced to represent modernity within these three conceptual framings. With respect to the Marxist-inspired discourse of human geography and representational politics of architecture, these three terms express a series of critiques towards the unequal power of urbanisation. They reflect a dominant range of societal powers in reshaping our landscape and everyday life — to signify their ideals, concerns, and priorities — while marginal voices are literally written out of the landscape. In its extreme, waterfront urbanism reflects many of the tensions between elite and non-elite visions of urban space, life, and identity. This leads us to scrutinise what identity and value that are attributed to waterfront spaces in our city. Whose identity is being privileged or underprivileged?
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…We say, “landscape is nature, not convention” in the same way we say, “landscape is ideal, not real estate,” and for the same reason – to erase the signs of our own constructive activity in the formation of landscape as meaning or value; to produce an art that conceals its own artifice, to imagine a representation that breaks through representation into the realm of the nonhuman. That is how we manage to call landscape the “natural medium” in the same breath that we admit that it is nothing but a bag of tricks, a bunch of conventions and stereotypes. Histories of landscape, as we have seen, continually present it as breaking with convention, with language and textuality, for a natural view of nature, just as they present landscape as transcending property and labor. . . W.J.T. Mitchell, 1994 “Imperial Landscape” from Landscape and Power
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4.0 SINGAPORE 9
The Multiplicity of Singapore's Waterfront Singapore is an island-based city state. The diamond-shaped main island comprises of by 193 kilometres (120 mi) of coastline. There are also smaller islands located in the east and south, such as Jurong Island, Pulau Tekong, Pulau Ubin and Sentosa. The history of Singapore's urbanization cannot be understood without looking at land reclamation programmes. Singapore has been reclaiming land from the sea since the beginning of colonial era. From the 1960s until today, Singapore has grown in size by 24%. On these newly created land, a wide ranging need of development has been given to housing, resource and business, which are the top four priority for Singapore's urban growth. As a result, the reclaimed land has become not only as new land source for development, moreover, it offers new opportunities for politicians, architects and urban planners to reimagine the future of watefront spaces. Singapore's coastline consists a mix of land-use patterns, ranging from marine ports, airport terminals, mangrove national park, ecological reserves, military sites, water reservoirs, housing estates, touristy destinations, to community parks. This section intends to showcase a diverse function and meaning of waterfront spaces in Singapore. Singapore's waterfront cannot be understood simply as a postcard image of Marina Bay. Instead, Singapore's waterfront must be conceived as a socially constituted vision of modernity. By reading Singapore's waterfront as a series of modernisation actions , this section showcases four different stages of 'waterfronting'. These stages do not necessarily be viewed in a sequential order, but rather an overlapping process. Each stage reveals a shift of urban planning agenda in response to Singapore's worlding-city initiatives at large. More radically, we can discern how Singapore's waterfront is being shaped to accomodate a wide range of socio-economic intentions. While constantly changing, the planning of Singapore's waterfront becomes a contested landscape of so-called 'urban progress'.
The new East Coast reclamation project 'We have been changing Singapore's skyline. This project will change our shorelines and map.' Mr. Lim Kim San, Minister for National Development
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Stage 1: Acquiring and reclaiming land for nation-building projects
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Over the past half-century, Singapore undergone a series of large-scale urban transformations. While acquiring land from public, the shoreline of Singapore has been continuously expended in contributing to the creation of Modern Singapore. Marina South, Changi Airport, Jurong Island and East Coast Park are among the nation-building projects that built upon reclaimed land. These projects resonate to a principle of 'reclaim first and develop later' - a planning strategy that looking ahead for societal needs and economic potentials. Looking at this stage, Singapore's watefront is a never ending process of making and remaking, in response to a changing face of global society and economy.
It is truism to say that some of the most vital economic powerhouse in Singapore are placed along the shoreline. For example, Changi Airport, The Port of Singapore and Jurong Island's chemical & oil industries. Since 1980s, reclamation works have been started to provide land for industrial development and airport service. Despite their significance in Singapore urban history, however, the city state doensn't seem interested to include them as part of the legacy of Singapore's waterfront. While promoting Singapore as a sustainable green-city, the environmental concerns over industrial pollution and waste are often left behind the public debates. This stage of waterfronting provokes us to think about the undesirable, if not contentious, sides of Singapore's watefront.
Stage 2: The creation of economic powerhouse along shoreline
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Stage 3: The iconic waterfront: Celebrating Singapore’s globalized modernity
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Creating an iconic waterfront has been essential for Singapore to showcase its worlding-city passion. This is not merely important to attract foreign investments and tourists, more essentially, iconic waterfront can be seen as a model of global city in Asia. Marina Bay Sands is an integrated resort with a hotel, casino, retail mall, convention facilities and entertainment venues. Combining with a greenery project - Garden by the Bay, and a high-tech reservoir - Marina Barrage, the whole masterplan of Marina South has a vision in making this examplar of sustainable planning as truly a 'Singapore brand'. Despite Marina Bay masterplan has received many international recognitions and awards, but the local response remains rather hesitant and estranged.
Waterfront isn't only functioned as economic catalyst or city landmark, for a long time, waterfront spaces also devoted to touristy places (e.g., Sentosa Island), community parks (e.g., East Coast Park, Punggol Waterway Park), nature reserves (e.g., Pulau Ubin, Pulau Serangoon). Given a fact of fast pace urbanisation in Singapore, the loss of 'kampung life' and natural environments has been a pain for many local residents. Despite many leisure facilities have been created to serve local community, but how far can these man-made watefronts serve well for a deep sense of identity, memory and livehood. Singapore's waterfront is also meant for tropical tourism. The well-maintained sea view, white sand and tropical lush, are all attributed to the luxurious experience of waterfront.
Stage 4: Waterfront as urban nature: Serving community recreation and tourism consumption
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1: The coexistence of industrial ports together with theme parks and luxury resorts is unique to Singapore's experience of waterfront. Under the planning vision of 'Greater Southern Waterfront', current terminal land will be transformed into a new waterfront city that is seamlessly integrated with downtown and surrounding housing and businesses near the city. 2. This view is overlooking Jurong Industrial Estates from Jurong Hill. This massive industrial landscape, however, it may not seem appealing to all 3. It 's almost impossible to get rid of 'ships' from the seaview of Singapore Strait. Live with them is only the compromise, some believe so 4. The cleansing of Singapore River is told to be a series of public health initiatives, thus transforming Singapore into a modern city 5. How did Singapore transform from fishing village to trading port, and now becoming a global city? There is a lack of linearity in understanding 6. Some historic images of Boat Quay are displayed at Marina Bay Sands, to juxtapose with new achievements of Singapore's waterfront in the 21st century 7. An art installation in MRT station, showing kid creativity in response to Singapore seascape - shipping as its core 8. Marina Barrage organizes a gallery to showcase its thoughful considerations that given to the management of reservoir and water. In Singapore, water has been treated as part of the national pride, if you like
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The coexistence of nature, economy and city-image in Singapore's waterfront Singapore has a diverse typology of waterfront uses and meanings, which can be devoted to residential, industrial and experiential consumptions of space. One the one hand, waterfront is greatly exploited for economic gain. Waterfront also means a lot for contructing city-image, or a talent city planning, on the other hand. Reading Singapore's waterfront, therefore, requires multiple interpretations of urban development, and equally of urban nature. Getting a balance between public realm and private interest can never be an easy calculation in the planning of Singapore's waterfront.
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5.0 Penang
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Gurney Wharf, Penang’s new waterfront park-in-the-city 'This masterplan concept will create a new iconic waterfront destination for Penang and for the benefit of the people of Penang.' Mr. Lim Guan Eng, Penang Chief Minister
Penang's Waterfront in the remaking Penang is a stand-alone island with slightly one third the size of Singapore. As for the terrain, much of the centre of Penang Island consists of granitic hills covered by jungles. Due to this geographic condition, Penang's populated area is placed along the eastern and southern edge of the island. This has led Penang facing land scarcity. Most of the major land reclamation works have been undertaken since 1970s. Example of largescale projects are: Bayan Baru industrial estate in 1980s, Jelutong land reclamation for coastal highway in 1990s, and the recent Tanjung Tokong in 2000s for mix-use development. Since 2000s, the state government has approved and proposed a number of mega waterfront projects, under the structure plan 2005-2020. In contrast to the earlier cases, these new reclamation projects are bigger in size, focused mainly on luxury residential development and privately owned by developers. Penang's waterfront thus becoming a new source of capital, placing pressure on existing coastal community and livelihood.
This section is not to detail all the on-going projects along the Straits of Penang, but to highlight some concerns of identity, landscape and livelihood. In view of Penang's newly created waterfront, privatization and gentrification are two unavoidable consequences. Moreover, seeing a mix of development projects along the shoreline, Penang's waterfront becomes a site for developers to experiment their individual imagination of waterfront. Penang's watefront can never be signified by a single landmark or architecture. Many of these projects are learning the success stories of waterfront development from all over the world, especially Singapore, but how much do these projects listen to the ground of everyday people, of their need, benefit and future? By alluring to the status of 'Penang World-Class City / Penang Iconic Waterfront', we might have gone too far in catching up the desires of 'worlding-city'.
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Transforming Penang's waterfront and skyline
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Penang's waterfronts have been used for free trade zone (Bayan Lepas), beach resorts (Batu Feringghi), road networks (Jelutong coastal highway), waste disposal, and most recently for urban spectacle and lifestyle housing (Tanjung Seri Pinang, The Light Waterfront Penang and Queens Waterfront). As a result, the island state’s seascape has undergone massive transformation in the last two decades. In the hybrid but rather fragmented use of waterfront spaces, it remains as a challenge for the state, developers, non-governmental organisations, activists and communities to share a same vision and work along the same premise. Mistakes can be learnt from other waterfront cities, but must not be repeated.
As Penang’s first integrated leisure/retail/entertainment/business and cultural destination with an upmarket and luxurious waterfront enclave, 'The Light' is an iconic landmark to distinguish Penang as a world-class destination. The Light Waterfront Penang is a RM5.5bn mega development across 152-acres, owned by IJM Land Berhad and Perennial Real Estate Holdings Limited (a listed company in Singapore) with a 50-50 joint venture. There are two phases of development in general, residential in phase 1 (completed) and mixed developement in phase 2 (starting 2018). This mega project tranforms Penang's waterfront and skyline into a new face of luxury residences, but giving no consideration to the sense of place and identity.
'The Light Waterfront Penang' A mega iconic-waterfront project
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The man-made waterfront: Capitalizing land, view and property
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Seri Tanjung Pinang located on the northeast coast of Penang Island. It is the largest land reclamation to date for residential and commercial purposes. Seeing as a pride of Penang, the development has drawn together a cosmopolitan community from 20 different nationalities among its residents, as well as joining in the list of world-class waterfront living. The first phase brings to life the concept of a world-class waterfront estate on 240 acres of seafront land. The second phase will expand its land by reclaiming 3 more islands and making a total of 980 acres. A new waterfront park - Gurney Wharf will be created by the developer to offer 'a high quality public realm and accessible waterfront that respects the heritage of Penang' along the existing Gurney Drive. How true and integral can this be?
Penang's waterfront is also a homeland for local communities, such as Clan Jetties near to the city's core area, and Batu Maung's fishing villages in the south of Penang Island. These simple dwellings offer a glimpse into a community that boasts a unique social fabric in Penang. Unlike fortune that favored Clan Jetties as part of Penang's heritage conservation plan, communities in Batu Maung are more worrying about their future. A large-scale reclamation plan (4500-acre three islands) has been proposed to be undertaken near Permatang Damar Laut in order to fund the RM27 billion Penang Transport Master Plan (PTMP). This will affect adversely on marine environment and resource, meanwhile, destruction of coastal communities and cultures will also be a great loss to Penang.
A coastal town in South Penang: Embracing people and livelihood
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1: The southest part of Penang Island has a pristine seascape and living heritage 2. This map (the Penang Structural Plan) indicates potential sites and configurations for land reclamation in Penang Island and Butterworth 3. Land reclamation methods mainly from sea sand pumped from sea bottom. Beach erosion takes place as dynamic equilibrium disrupted. Reclaimed area often blocks flow of currents and sediment transport
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4. An indigenious Malay kampung in Permatang Damar Laut 5. Gurney Wharf will be Penang's first waterfront park. The designs have a well reference to international standards, but how well are these standards cater for local weather and communal needs? 6. The sales gallery showcases a model of villas by-the-sea 7. The Light Waterfront Penang, a gated residential development comprising 1,177 condominium units and luxury villas which have been largely completed and almost fully sold 8. A view seeing from the sales gallery. It offers potential buyers a glimpse of the Penang Strait. The waterfront land was reclaimed, fenced, occupied and delimited as a site for a distictive super-rich community
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Penang's indigenous waterfront: Recognizing local value and culture Penang's waterfront is becoming centres of economy and urban spectacle. While importing and referencing to many successful models of waterfront development, how much local value, identity and culture are being adopted in these mega projects? Many would see waterfront as a resource of new land, capital and urban growth, but we must also see waterfront as an integral part of our coastal heritage, landscape history and identity.
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6.0 Malacca 25
Malacca's new waterfront - Melaka Gateway In 1971, after Malaysia received the independence Melaka embarked on an extensive reclamation of seashore area near the Melaka waterfront (Figure 2). The reclamation which began as early as 1921 during the colonial era due to sedimentation problems change the physical character of the Melaka’s original setting where a Padang sets the setting of A’Famosa remains gate instead of the sea shore. Today the reclaimed area becomes a bustling commercial area and the historic centre and St. Paul’s hill were detached from the sea. In today's context of land reclamation, Malacca's waterfront will experience an even larger scale of transformation. 'Melaka Gateway' is an off-shore development of artificial islands (609 acres) on the coast of Malacca City. It will reportedly create Southeast Asia’s largest cluster of islands. The Malaysian authorities are talking up the game-changing Melaka Gateway deal between KAJ Developments and energy giant PowerChina International, which will form a joint venture and spend RM30 billion to reclaim three islands. The entire scheme is set for completion by 2025, but work has already begun on the bridge and island gateway leading to the cruise terminal pier. The Melaka Gateway will drastically improve Malacca’s maritime importance through the new Melaka International Cruise Terminal (Royal Caribbean Cruise). The Melaka Gateway development will also boast 15km of premier waterfront for luxury condominiums, marina villas with private jetties and the 80-storey-Gateway Beacon Tower which will contain a seven-star hotel, luxury apartments and a health and wellness development. The development is projected to attract an additional 2.5 million tourists to the locality over the next 12 years. At the same time, Melaka Gateway joint venture, which is part of a wider port alliance between Kuala Lumpur and Beijing to increase bilateral trade and boost shipping and logistics along China's Maritime Silk Road
'The development (of Melaka Gateway) should be seen in a wider context, either maintain the settlement as a museum, or develop the area so that the people will be able to benefit from it and enjoy the abundance' Chief Minister of Melaka, Datuk Seri Idris Haron
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'Melaka Gateway': Reimagining Melacca's Historic Waterfront
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The architect's design statement on Melaka Gateway highlights that: 'The master plan proposes to capture visitors’ imagination with spectacular features and create a strong sense of place for the local community. With ‘The Past Presents the Future’ as the overarching design intent, the historical city will embark on an evolutionary journey to reposition its maritime significance for trade and commerce, transforming the coastal state into a progressive international tourism destination.' However, reading this statement and the masterplan can be two different narrations. The heritage imperatives and values are rather mentioned, but can never be realized in the physical planning of this newly invented city. Melaka Gateway is a waterfront masterplan that can be implemented in any cities of the world.
Besides the mega development of Melaka Gateway, 'Harbour City Melaka' is another up-coming project that sits just 0.5km from the shores of mainland Melaka. Harbour City is an integrated hub of entertainment, retail and hospitality. The distinctive exterior resembles a vast and luxurious cruise ship. The built form is claimed as a tribute to Melaka’s maritime history, while the interior design comes with different oceanic themes to maximise visitors’ leisure experience. In addition to Harbour City, the developer Hatten Group will also be constructing a 66-acre coastal mixed development consisting of residential, entertainment, trading, financial district and a 38 acres of cultural district. Malacca's waterfront is transforming to become a coastal themepark - a landscape for tourism consumption.
'Harbour City' on Pulau Melaka: A New Iconic Waterfront Themepark
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Moving From Waterfront Regeneration to Waterfront City-Building in Malacca
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The phenomenon of urban waterfront regeneration and development has spread geographically since its origins in North America and Europe during the 1960s and 1970s. Waterfront regeneration is gaining momentum in urban regeneration that many cities around the world needed to bring back the abandoned or underutilised inner city or post-industrial harbours as a place to work, live and play. The main idea is to ‘re-join’ city and waterfront physically and functionally. However, looking at the current trend of waterfront development particularly in Asian cities, the practice of waterfront regeneration has lost its momentum. Instead, many cities are likely to reclaim land and build an entirely new city. While avoiding land acquisition issues, this attempt also seeks to neoliberalizing our city.
Due to the recognition as the UNESCO Cultural World Heritage Sites, the local authority of Melaka has outlined an action plan for conservation area which consists of specific guidelines based on the UNESCO’s guidelines on the heritage sites. However, when come to the area outside of the conservation zone, there is seemingly nothing is integral to the heritage principles. The land reclamation had changed the Mcity profile and overall setting of the historic city from facing the riverfront city to a sea front. The new development on the reclamation land breaks away from the historic townscape in terms of scale and proportion, grain and texture of the urban form where the new design is not in keeping with the architectural heritage of the colonial legacy.
The Conflicting Value of Heritage between Old and New Watefront
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1: An aerial view looking at the Dataran Pahlawan Melaka, part of the land that reclaimed after 1970s 2. An artist illustration of Melaka Gateway, showing a new cityscape that built upon Malacca water's edge 3. Today the reclaimed area becomes a bustling commercial area and the historic centre and St. Paul’s hill were detached from the sea, and blended into the cityscape 4. The approval of the waterfront projects has been snuffed the life out of the Portuguese Settlement by depriving it of its life, spirit and culture-sustaining sea
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Putting Malacca on the world list of iconic waterfront city Iconic waterfront city is a contemporary urban form that signifies global economy and luxury lifestyle. In view of the recent waterfront developments in Malacca, this city-state decenters itself from the historic core, while seeing its future of being an iconic waterfront city. While claiming for the benefits of Malacca people, the masterplan doesn't seem has included them. As one of the most fundamental need, the historic city of Malacca needs a recognizable public park with an easy access to the waterfront areas for the use of Malacca citizen. However, The missing of strong linkage between the old town center and the proposed waterfront city has made Malacca fragmented into two entities.
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7.0 South Johor
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South Johor and 'Iskandar Malaysia' Johor, has a very unique history and geography in the Southeast Asia regions, with its an special status of border city (to Singapore) that has largely been sustained through its own development soreignty and trajectories. Johor offers a gateway entry to the borders of Malaysian Federation, also to the borderlands of Johor state itself. The duality of national and subnational identities of Johor has made the city unique, but also contested in many ways. This project refers south Johor to the southern part of Johor or the city capital- Johor Bahru, bordering with a close proximity to Singapore. The two nation states are linked by two causeway, one was built in 1923, another in 1998 and known as Tuas second-link. Initiated in 2006, Iskandar Malaysia is joint venture collaboration between the federal government and Johor State government. Focusing on the southern part of Johor State while mimicking the success story of HongKong - ShenZhen twincity model, this regional development takes advantages of proximity and spillover effects of economy from Singapore, on the one hand; it also envisions to attract more direct foreign investments especially from China to Malaysia on the other hand. An international zone, namely Iskandar Waterfront City (IWC) has been created along the 98 km frontiers of the Straits of Johor. The planning of IWC has been refered to a few city-models as point of visionary departure, such as ‘Venice in the East’ and ‘Southeast Asia’s new lifestyle destination akin to Gold Coast’. A myriad of waterfront developments is executed at five specific locations that on both green and brown fields. The five major waterfront sites are: Danga Bay, Tebrau Bay, Tanjung Puteri, Danga Heights and Desaru Coast. This section examines how the execution of Iskandar Malaysia will have an impact on South Johor's waterfront, in both socially and environmentally.
Citing Dubai's success with 'Forest City' “Today Dubai has become a great metropolis and its people earn high incomes. If Dubai can succeed, we too can develop land,” Prime Minister Najib Abdul Razak
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The Core of Iskandar Malayisa: Nusajaya / Iskandar Puteri
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Within Iskandar Malaysia are five flagship zones, with Iskandar Puteri (formerly Nusajaya) being a new regional city - a masterpiece development showcasing 'The World in One City' that covers almost 9,700 hectares. It also functions as the administrative center for the government of Johor State, it earmarked as one of the investment destinations for both local and foreign investors in Johor. Nusajaya has seven precincts make up the city with Puteri Harbour forming the centrepiece. Puteri Harbour is a marina development that spans 687 acres on the Straits of Johor. Other major developments in Nusajaya include EduCity, and LEGOLAND. While Nusajaya celebrating its first 10 years anniversary, this new-planned city remains largely unoccupied and its public spaces are used chiefly by tourists.
By transforming South Johor into a new frontier of global economy, a wide spectrum of real estate projects has put ford by both local and foreign developers. The coastal land becomes a new resource of development, engendering a booming trend of second-home investment in the region. For example, ‘Senibong Cove’ is a gated housing project that developed by Australia's leading developer - Walker Corp., Likewise, this residential project is being the first property development by an Australian company in Malaysia. The project is modelled after Hope Island Resort on the Gold Coast, Rhodes Waterside and King Street Wharf in Sydney, in which the making of world-class waterfront residence and lifestyle has been highlighted in this project.
Enjoyong Luxury Waterfront with Close Proximity to Singapore
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'Forest City' - A Mega-Scale and Island-Based City Development
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Forest City, a US$42 billion futuristic "eco-city" of high-rises and waterfront villas, will sit on four man-made islands on the Johor Strait. Forest City will be built on four man-made islands with an area of 1,400 hectares, over 9 phases for a period of 20 years, set to be one of the largest real estate development projects in Asia. Forest City is Country Garden’s largest real estate project outside China, which bodes well with 30 years of experience influenced by China’s pace of internationalisation. The callings of a smart city will be realized by car free zone, luxury green living coexists with smart technologies and amenities, surrounded by the wonders of nature. this projects depicts Singapore as a symbol of globality, and a mode of ‘living next to Singapore’ is promoted as the lure and lore of property market in Forest City
The remaking of waterfront environment in South Johor relies extensively on a series of mechanical and technological manipulations of environmen. However, the interference of man-made interventions remains opaque or invisible in the marketing promotion of ‘pristine waterfront nature’. If we look carefully, indeed, the production of nature requires a series of intensive hydrological and earth-engineering works such as land reclamation, river widening, water purification, flooding prevention, man-made canal and beaches. The alterations and exploitations of waterfront land are often claimed to be environmental friendly; however, many of the socio-environmental controversies are still lacking to be further discussed and uncovered.
The Production of Pristine Waterfront Nature with High-Tech Architecture
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1: A new coastal front has been created in the southest part of Johor. Forest City has an ambitious plan to become a new model of future city 2. 5 minutes radiant is perhaps calculated right on the map, however, South Johor and Singapore can never be this close due to the heavy traffic load 3. Buying a second-home residency becomes a lure of property market in South Johor 4. New land has been reclaimed along the borders that nearby to the Causeway 5. Orang Seletar was an indigenous tribe who live along the Johor Straits. Their way of life had been threatened and marginalized 6. A sales gallery exhibits how 'proximity' can be imagined and capitalized for the sake of twin-city development 7. The advertisement highlights 'serene enclave; gated haven; live within nature's embrace' as exclusice selling points of the project; but Infact these terms can sound pretty bad to civil society
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South Johor as an Imagined Border Region There are three claims to the problematisation of waterfront developments in South Johor. First, these development attempts have transformed the indigenous livelihoods of aboriginal communities, by displacing them to a so-called modern land-base living but subsequently marginalised. Second, the opening up of a global real estate market has enabled transnational developers to procure political space and power for instituting their capital expansions and development inventions. Third, the dynamics of development as non-state incorporation are becoming pronounced in South Johor, where landscapes, livelihoods, and border perceptions have been dramatically transformed over the past decade. Plotted in these ways, the waterfront discourse reveals a series of border re-making intentions which is intricately embodied in built environment, community and power relation. Arguably, South Johor can never be a twin-city that neutrally collaborated with Singapore as many would have assumed, but rather an imagined border region that is bound to be friction, unequal and disintegrated.
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8.0 Analyzing Waterfront Urbanism through Relational Thinking As water, people and capital move at all time, our city and development can no longer be territorially bounded. There is a growing interest in explaining and documenting the ways that spaces and landscapes are constituted in motion and flow. This section analyses how the waterfront spaces and developments in these four cities can be understood in relational manners. Principally, the understanding urbanisation as a relational process requires a view of specific, material spaces as being switching points or containers of people and technologies that are inter-connected with other similar spaces many miles distant. Socially, it opens up questions about the nature of the transnational capital and knowledge flows at a regional scale.
Taking ‘waterfront’ as a context-specific but similar kind of built form along the Straits of Malacca, to what extent do we understand the relationship between these different waterfront cities. Instead of calling a direct comparison between these waterfront cities, a relational approach could attain more reflexive understandings by exploring the processes and agencies that involved across localities, but often less apparent to public. The employ of relational thinking allows us to explore the ‘other logic development’ that cannot be perceived in a single case study of city or architecture.
'Relations between people, firms, institutions, communities and buildings on the global scale ... may in many cases be more significant than their relations with urban activities or spaces that are physically adjacent.' Stephen Graham & Simon Marvin, 2001 'Splintering urbanism: Networked Infrastructures, Technological Mobilities and the Urban Condition'
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Waterfront as urban nature: The consumption of luxurious spaces, experience and culture More Southeast Asia cities are now approaching and envisioning their water's edge for the sake of national capital growth. With the springing up of transnational living and super-rich communities, waterfront has become a new frontier for attracting foreign investments. The presence of iconic architecture, gated compound, and high security are among the direct implications into our cityscape. Moreover, the local value and memory of waterfront will be overrided by this new landscape of luxury waterfront. The capitalisation of nature through materialisation of waterfront remarks a dialectical realm of urban development.
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Sea-based tourism: Cruising the Straits of Malacca
The cruise industry in Asia is growing rapidly. Southeast Asia has bountiful potential to be the next cruising playground of the world. Singapore has been the lead coordinator of cruise tourism in the region. While Malaysia is aggressively gearing towards developing and upgrading its hubs for cruise tourism. Cruise holiday not only changes the practice of tourism consumption, indeed, it has a far-reaching impact of city planning; more precisely, the uses of watefront spaces. The four coastal cities in this study show that cruise tourism is a big-agenda for their watefront planning.
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The knowledge flows and networks of waterfront design The travels of architectural ideas are driven by movement of capital, knowledge, images and practices. In this study, we can discern a close collaboration between architectural firms in Singapore and Malaysia. For example, Surbana is involved in masterplan design of The Light Penang Waterfront, DP Architects is the designer of Melaka Gateway, and Aedas is responsible for the masterplanning of Nusajaya Residences in South Johor. These Singaporean firms have established an expertise in waterfront design, based on their extensive experience of waterfront developments in Singapore. Knowledge exchange might be a benefit for Malaysia, but the mobility of architecture also results a homogenisation of waterfront cities and cultures.
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Waterfront residence: A new geography of capital flows and property investments Looking particularly at the economic interactions between Malaysia and Singapore, waterfront development is investment platform for both developers and home buyers from Singapore to venture into Malaysian states. Many coastal cities in Malaysia begin to offer a relatively cheaper option for Singaporean to own a waterfront property, with a close proximity to their homeland. Although Malaysia and Singapore are operated as two national entities, the long-standing cultural and familiar networks still play an essential role in structuring today's urban landscape. This new geography of waterfront residence in Malaysia, has much influenced by Singaporean interests and investments.
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Splintering waterfront: Reflecting on the autonomous city-planning in Malaysian states In the case Penang, Melaka and South Johor, each city has been developing its iconic waterfront to signify visions of urban progress, while attracting capital investments as main objective. Each city's waterfront masterplan is made to represent the local state identity and vision, instead of advocating the spirit of nation-state. It may not true enough to say that, Malaysian states have split into independent governance; however, what is seemingly convinced is that, each Malaysian states has a plan for the sake of local economy. The notion of 'splintering waterfront' suggests that Malaysia has gone into a stage of decentralized governance, given a fact that autonomous city-planning is now happening in many Malaysian states.
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China-based development in Malaysian States In recent trend of globalization, China appears as a powerful and resourceful nation that gives influence of development in Southeast Asia. Integrating with Southeast Asia is a key component of China’s multi-pronged regionalisation around its borders as its global rise continues. To scale-up trade activities, infrastructure developments and housing investments in Malaysia, China aims to manipulate its power in the regions. Not only at the nation-state level, many China-based developers also venture outside the country and seeking for foreign investment opportunities. In addition, the rise of China's middle class has brought a new wave of property buying in Malaysia and Singapore. By linking up Penang Port, Melaka Gateway and Forest City, it forms a contemporary silk road to connecting China into Southeast Asia.
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Natural Waterfront versus Iconic Waterfront ‘The idea of nature contains, though often unnoticed, an extraordinary amount of human history’ Raymond Williams, 1980 'Problems in materialism and culture: selected essays'
‘The history of how human beings have valued their natural world is long and intricate’ David Harvey, 1996 'Justice, nature, and the geography of difference'
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9.0 Concluding Remarks This project suggests us to see waterfront through the architectural discourse of postmodernism, not least by opening up waterfront spaces to a multiplicity of meanings and readings, and by reflecting a plurality of place identities and right to public space. The notion of multiples readings sought to challenge elitist conceptions of ‘iconic waterfront’ - which have become state's modernization project and urban form. This notion also suggests that by confronting the literal meanings and representations of waterfront, it leads us to read more critically on the conflicting values between people, architecture and development. Taken to its extreme, this suggests that our city and urbanism become increasingly homogenized and privatized, leaving no room for life of a plural society. Exploring further into a web of urban relations, it reveals to us that waterfront is not an isolated condition of development, but it has intertwined Malaysia and Singapore in many ways. This relational geography of waterfront development shows us some new trends, across the two nation states in design production, property market, tourism, foreign investment, and power relation. Given these relational factors and implications, a new architectural history of the Straits of Malacca has yet to come.
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'Oppression and liberation are forms of social practice which are mediated by built form. These practices ‘take place’: they frame and are framed by certain spatial structures and provinces of meaning. The nature of architecture and urban design, their silent framings of everyday life, lend themselves to practices of coercion, seduction, domination and the legitimation of authority.' Kim Dovey, 2008 'Framing places: Mediating power in built form'
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‘The production of modern cities has altered the relationship between nature and society in a series of material and symbolic dimensions. It is only by radically reworking the relationship between nature and culture that we can produce more progressive forms of urban society’
Matthew Gandy, 2002 'Concrete and clay : reworking nature in New York City'
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