Theories of architecture and urbanism: comparative essay

THEORIES OF ARCHITECTURE AND URBANISM (ARC 61303/ ARC 2224)

PROJECT PART 2:

A COMPARATIVE ANALYSIS ESSAY

Name: Muhammad Nabeel Ali Joomun Student ID: 0320583 Tutor: Mr. Ahmad Nazmi Anuar

Jalan Petaling is located in Kuala Lumpur in Malaysia. The place started to grow when traders and workers started to go there for the tin mining industry. The development started near the river as it was the main source of water. The street morphology is in an organic shape as at that time the construction of houses were not carefully planned. Later with the arrival of cars, streets were made bigger so as to allow transportation circulation. The modern buildings had to follow the same type of organic urban layout but all while following the urban building bylaws. Most of the original shophouses were kept and maintained but few were replaced with buildings. Some large areas were cleared to accommodate parking lots, as the number of vehicles started to grow. Soon after, with the growth of tourism, more hotels and places of interest were build. The place is mostly popular because of the flea market, along Jalan Petaling, and the central market.

Fig. Urban morphology of Petaling Street.

The 6th Avenue in New York will be used to compare with Jalan Petaling since they both have the same type of setting, with a specific street in an urban environment. New York became one of the most important port by 1810 after it recovered from the war. In 1811, the "commissioner's plan"established a grid type of morphology for the underdeveloped parts of Manhattan north of Houston Street. Later on, the rise of motor vehicles required roads to be build. This happened together with the modernist era where high-rise buildings were built. The road and building type when combined together led the city planners to keep using the grid type of layout for the city planning.

Fig. Urban Layout of New york City. Source: https://encounteringurbanization.wordpress.com/2011/03/01/urban-formin-shanghai-vs-new-york/

The following texts will be analyzing and comparing, in more detail, the contact points in Jalan Petaling and New York.

The contact points in Petaling Street are irregularly distributed and have great contrast in intensity. Along the 6th Avenue in New York, the contact points are more evenly distributed and follows the same pattern as the urban grid layout. The most intense contact point in Petaling Street is the flea market street. The intensity is much greater than other contact points as this is the main landmark of the area which attracts a lot of people. In this place, it is mostly optional activities that happen since this place mostly focus on shopping.

Fig. Contact points in Petaling Street

Fig. Contact points along the 6th Avenue

The shops are found on the side of the market street and the middle is used by people circulating through. There are also more shops behind in the shophouses. If we compare the 3 settings (middle of the street, shops on the sides and shops behind in the shophouses) we get 3 different pace and intensity of contact. The middle of the street is usually used by people who intend to go at a specific place or shop which make their path more straightforward. With the large crowd flowing through this place, the walking pace is much faster due to the uncomfortable feeling in the chaotic setting. Those who are walking by the shops at the side of the street usually walk slower as they are interested in browsing and discovering the items that are sold. They are usually in clusters around different shops. The shops found inside the shophouses however have less customers. This is due to its position which is visually blocked by the shops on the side of the street. The intensity of contact there is much lower with a slower pace also.

Fig. The lea market with the shop stalls at the side of the street.

There are different landmarks along the 6th Avenue in New York. These therefore distributes the crowds in clusters along the street. The shops in New York are found inside the buildings and are scattered all around the place. Most of them have their display an entrance facing the pedestrian walkway which is a strategy to attract people. This creates passive contact and chance contact where people might socialize when being in the same space. The intensity and interaction of people is much lower than in Petaling Street. The reason is due to the built-

form type where in New York, the shops are only found inside buildings whereas in the Petaling Street, the shops are more open and found on the street.

In Petaling Street, there are two different type of walkway; one is the usual open walkway and the other one is the combination of the covered five-footway and the open walkway. The five-footway is used in the shophouses and modern buildings, found in infills between shophouses. Pedestrians are most likely to use the open walkway when walking without many stops (shops, or other activity). The reason is because the five-footway is quite narrow and make people feel limited, in motion, compared to the open walkway which is open to the outside without many boundaries. However most of pedestrians will not use the open walkway due to the hot sunlight or when it is raining but instead use the covered five-footway.

These are also used by people who intend to go through certain shops or buildings. The type of contact point happening inside the five-footway is passive contact where people just walk pass each other without any interaction other than seeing and hearing. Along the flea market of Petaling Street the circulation of people is quite chaotic due the massive amount of people walking in different directions. This situation is quite uncomfortable for people and compels them to leave the area as quickly as possible unless they intend to stop at the shops there. The type of contact point of the circulation there is passive contact.

Fig. Five-foot way in Petaling Street

Fig. Crowd circulating in The Petaling Street's market. Source:http://www.gokl.my/petaling-street/

In New York, the walkways are wide and open which make it comfortable to walk along.

However if we take only the 6th Avenue into consideration, the street is just a straight line which makes the motion of pedestrians more linear. This linearity can be considered as monotonous since it has a straightforward focused vision unlike the streets of Jalan Petaling which are more organic in shape and have more balance between focal point and periphery. As Juhani Pallasmaa(2005) mentioned "The loss of focus can liberate the eye from its historical patriarchal domination." Which shows how balance of focus and periphery results in more experiences and "discoveries".

Fig. New York's pedestrian walkway

The streets, in both Petaling Street and New York, cross each other thus forming junctions. Contact points are usually formed at these junctions especially at the pedestrian crossing where people amasses to wait to cross the road, which is considered as a necessary activity. This Is one form of chance contact where pedestrians may initiate a conversation with each other. In Jalan Petaling, the junctions and pedestrian crossings are irregularly spread which results in higher concentration of people at certain junction/ pedestrian crossing like the one at the Petaling Street entrances, the pasar seni station and the central market area. This higher concentration happens due to the circulation pattern of people going to these specific places.

In New York, the junctions are more or less evenly spread along the 6 th Avenue, due to the grid type of urban layout. This makes the flow of people evenly distributed, in low intensity, at each junction as well, compared to the high intensity points at specific intersections in Petaling Street. Due to the repetitive junctions and a lower waiting time for crossing, people are less motivated to initiate a conversation with each other which makes the intensity of the contact less than in Petaling Street. There were some unusual cases also where a person would do a quick street performance at the pedestrian crossing near the Petaling Street entrance. This initiated a 'mini' placemaking event which attracts not only the pedestrians who will be crossing the road but also the people walking around. This situation increases the chance of contact between the people.

Fig. Pedestrian crossing at junction in Petaling Street

Fig. Pedestrian crossing at a junction in New York

Food stalls are quite popular in both places. In New York it is mostly consists of a diverse food culture whereas in Petaling Street it is mostly the local food which are sold. The position of food stalls in New York have been thought of as they are mostly found at the junctions. The main reason was that people who are waiting might be interested in having an "on-the-go" snack. This is combined with the crowd at the pedestrian crossing which mixes the chance contact with acquaintance contact, found at the food stall. The customers at the food stall usually will be standing on the side of the walkway or near the food stall. As soon as they are done eating, they will get moving since there is no comfort or motivation in standing in this area together with other people who are constantly circulating nearby.

Fig. Foodstall in New York. Source: https://www.theimagefile.com/?Action=VF&id=6506548202

In Petaling Street, the food stalls are found on the side of the streets and in the flee market street. They are placed in cluster where sometimes there is a group of foodstalls together or individual food stalls at some places. The one which are most likely to attract people are found in the flea market street, near the Pasar seni station, along Jalan Sultan and in the central market street, since these are the densest place. The difference with New York's food stalls is that they provide seating for the customers. This make people spend more time at the food stalls, especially those at the dense areas as the seating space faces the activity and movement of people. As Jan Gehl(1987) mentioned "Benches that provide a good view of surrounding activities are used more than benches with less or no view of others". This has a friends and family contact, passive contact, chance contact and acquaintance contact. Some food stalls make use of the shophouses' five-footway by placing the seatings there. People are most likely to sit in the five-foot way as it is shaded and at the same time they have a visual of the activity and movement of other people.

The buildings in Petaling street are mostly shophouses. The low height of the shophouses make the spaces in between (street) feel more proportional to human height.

However this is disturbed by modern high-rise building which are out of proportion. The difference about the pace of people through the two type of built-form can be noticed. Along the low-rise shophouses, the pace is slower since the pedestrians have a more open view to the outside and feel less "overpowered" than the high-rise building. The architecture also has an impact on the pace. The shophouses have more ornamentation and different spaces (walkway and five-footway) which gives more experience when pedestrians go through the spaces. Unlike the modern buildings which have this plain glass, steel and concrete look which doesn't have much effect on the senses of people. Therefore contact points are most likely to happen at the low-rise shophouses.

Fig. Built form relation to human size in Petaling Street

The pace of life in New York is much faster as there are mostly high-rise buildings along the street. The pedestrians are 'squeezed' between the overshadowing building and fast moving vehicle which makes them to want to move out of the space much faster.

FIg. Built form relation to human size in New York

However, the 6th Avenue has a few open spaces along the street. This creates breakpoints between buildings which slows down the pace of pedestrians. The main open space and also the most famous landmark along the 6th Avenue is the Bryant Park. This park has a wide open green space, seating spaces with table, cafes and benches and is used by all groups of people including those who work in New York. Depending on the weather condition, the place usually is full of people who carry out optional and social activity including sitting, resting playing and more. There are also yoga classes which are provided to the public. This initiates placemaking in Bryant Park and this creates socialization and interaction between people since they are doing the same activity together. These activities made the park successful just as Fred Kent(2000) said, in an interview: "The best type of public spaces are ones where various activities are combined or triangulated".

In Petaling Street, there are no public open spaces or any park. The only open spaces available are used as parking for vehicles. The reason for this lack was probably due to the careless planning and lack of thought about the public behaviour. Other than the cafes or food stalls, there are no bench or any other type of seating spaces that can be used by the public for sitting and resting. This is different in New York where public benches are found along the walkway. However placemaking activities like the public yoga class, in Bryant Park, will not work in Petaling Street since the culture itself is different.

References 

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Project for urban spaces. (2000, April 1). An Urbanist Says a Sense of Place is More Important than the Design Itself. Retrieved from http://www.pps.org/blog/architectural_record_4_2000/ Gehl.J & Koch.J. (2011). Life between buildings: Using public space. Washington, DC: Island Press Lockton.D. (2011 September 12). Architecture, urbanism, design and behaviour: a brief review. Retrieved from http://architectures.danlockton.co.uk/2011/09/12/architectureurbanism-design-and-behaviour-a-brief-review/ Pallasmaa.J. (2005). The eyes of the skin. Great Britain: Wiley-Academy Serfaty-Garzon.P. (1988). Urban open space. Newcastle. Canter.D, Kramper.M and Stea.D Project for public spaces. (n.d). What makes a successful place. Retrieved from http://www.pps.org/reference/grplacefeat/ Snyder.T. (2014 Oct 16). Livable Streets or Tall Buildings? Cities Can Have Both.

Retrieved from http://usa.streetsblog.org/2014/10/06/livable-streets-or-tall-buildingscities-can-have-both/ Preservation Green Lab. (2014 May). Older, Smaller, Better Measuring how the character of buildings and blocks influences urban vitality. Retrieved from http://www.preservationnation.org/information-center/sustainable-communities/greenlab/oldersmallerbetter/report/NTHP_PGL_OlderSmallerBetter_ReportOnly.pdf