Theorizing Architecture (Denai Alam Master Planning by Ar. Mustapha)
Theories of Architecture & Urbanism (ARC 2224)
Essay & Diagram
Ong Wei Hoow (0304468) Tutor: Pn. Norhayati
Introduction Ar. Mustapha Kamal was born on 1964, in Ampang, Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia. He was the eldest of 3 children, including one younger brother and sister. He grew up in a city which surrounded by nature since he was child. On the way growing up, everything in Ar. Mustapha‟s life also will relate to nature. This probably makes Ar. Mustapha Kamal to have deep appreciation to the nature, which can be seemed in his architecture.
Besides nature, Ar. Mustapha also already
exposed to architecture and construction during his childhood. Unlike other architects, Ar. Mustapha Kamal prefers to “build it up” instead of “draw it out”. This can be traced back during his childhood; Ar. Mustapha started to construct a tree house with his friends around age of 10 and this act as the starting point of architecture in his life. From Ar. Mustapha, the understanding of balance, structure, span and support can be learned throughout the construction of tree house. As a result, the exploration and discovery in the natural world shapes Ar. Mustapha Kamal to be a successful architect that creates supportive and harmonious spaces for people.
Design Principle & Philosophy Ar. Mustapha Kamal is an architect who aspires towards architectural designs that promote harmony between the natural environment and the built environments and; the engender positive accords between man and the physically and socially-molding man-made environments. The designs should be aesthetically pleasant functional and at same fulfill clients‟ requirements. In Ar. Mustapha‟s philosophy, a good design should fulfill the dimensions of harmony and vitality. It looks at the future in the context of our past and the present. It aims to help maintain a balance between man and the nature. He also emphasize that, “Beauty is its inspiration; function is its mandate.” Great architecture comes from a combination of talent, experience, and an understanding of the nature of the issues involved in the project. A good designer can combine traditional concepts with new visions to create exceptional projects.
Denai Alam
Denai Alam Master Planning is one of biggest projects for Ar. Mustapha Kamal. It is located at located approximately 10 km north of the Shah Alam city centre alongside the Guthrie Corridor Expressway. Denai Alam prides itself to being right at the heart of accessibility. The Guthrie Corridor Expressway interchange lies strategically at its entrance linking to other major highways, namely the NKVE, Elite and Shah Alam Expressway. The widening of the Sungai Buloh trunk road connects the township to Mutiara Damansara with ease and to Kota Damansara is just a short 6km drive. In addition, Denai Alam Master Planning is awarded the 2003 Planning Innovation Award by the Malaysian Institute of Planners.
Climate
The first factor to be considered for Ar. Mustapha while doing Denai Alam planning is about climate in Malaysia. User comfort is the top priority for Ar. Mustapha in designing either a small unit or a big master plan. Ar. Mustapha pointed that, a good architecture in Malaysia should always respond to tropical climate and reduce the embodied energy in a long terms. Theoretically, the longer faรงade of a building should face North-South direction and shorter faรงade face East-West direction. However, when comes to master planning, Ar. Mustapha has different way to design and orientate the houses. Since it is a master planning, for sure there are few rows of terrace houses which contain hundreds of unit involved. Therefore, Ar. Mustapha has to consider as a whole and orientate the front and rear elevation which is shorter to face North-South direction. This is due to most of the houses in Denai Alam are intermediate and does not exposed to sunlight. Hence, Ar. Mustapha rather orientate the only exposed elevations (front and rear) facing North-South direction. Parcel i-8 is one part of Denai Alam with 17.26 acres that designed by Ar. Mustapha. It consists of 132 units of 2-3 storey link houses.
The diagram above shows that only the corner units are exposed to the east & west sun. However, there are hundreds of intermediate units are shaded from east & west sun as their front and rear elevations are facing North-South direction.
Not only that, Ar Mustapha which has deep appreciation to the nature also included some natural elements into Denai Alam Master Plan as much as possible. Since Malaysia is a hot and humid country, natural elements such as greenery, lake and river may act as the passive design to achieve human comfort and sustainability in Denai Alam Master Planning. For example, Denai Alam neighbourhood are surrounded by greenery to create the freshness to the people around. The trees around Denai Alam have played an important role to purify and provide fresh air to the neighbourhood. In addition, the man-made lake and also the river can cool the prevailing wind from outside into Denai Alam neighbourhood. Indirectly, the implementation of the natural elements can raise the awareness of environmental consciousness among the neighbourhood of Denai Alam.
The diagram above shows Denai Alam neighborhood is surrounded by natural elements such as greenery, lake and river.
Functionality The next factor to make a master planning on Denai Alam is functionality. According to Ar. Mustapha, functionality keeps architecture alive. He emphasized that functionality is a key element in layout planning as it is the quality of being suited to serve a purpose well. A well-organized architecture is able to make people to spend more time inside. This can be shown in the Denai Alam master plan by Ar. Mustapha Kamal. Denai Alam is the township planning with hundreds of residential unit. Ar. Mustapha understood that nowadays everyone is busy and in tension for life. He believed that a lushly landscaped oasis can improve the life quality of the neighbourhood and make them relaxing. To let the residents can easily embrace the nature, Ar. Mustapha located all the units along the existing greenery. In addition, there are some water elements (man-made lake) can be found in each residential area, even they are scattered around.
Thus, the
serenity of the natural elements attracts the residents to take a stroll along the public realm and even the man-made lake. The residents can have a variety of recreational preferences at the tranquility oasis.
The diagram above shows that each of the residential area are featuring with the greenery and water elements.
The figure above shows the serenity of the lushly landscaped oasis in Denai Alam. Therefore, people would like to spend more time here because of the charm of its breathtaking surroundings.
Furthermore, Ar. Mustapha also designed the Denai Alam layout based on the idea of “neighbourliness spirit”. As described from him, he wanted to make Denai Alam to be is an innovatively-planned development that incorporates the traditional „Denai‟ or footpath concept which not only segregates pedestrians and motorized vehicles completely but also helps faster the unity and harmony among the residents. Because of the „Denai‟ or foothpath concept, the residents can use that pathway to travel around and link them to the entire neighbourhood.
The figure above shows the “Denai” or footpath that link people to the entire neighbourhood, either is public open space or private residential area.
Architecture Theory
Lastly, architecture theory will be the another external contributing factor that shapes the master plan of Denai Alam by Ar. Mustapha. What is architecture theory? Architectural theory is the act of thinking, discussing, and writing about architecture. Architectural theory is taught in most architecture schools and is practiced by the world‟s leading architects, and it same goes to Ar. Mustapha.. As mentioned above, Ar. Mustapha is a nature lover and he likes to implant natural elements into his architecture, no matter in a small unit project or in a huge master planning. The architecture theory with the title “The Phenomenon of Place”, written by Christian Noberg-Schulz is one of the theories that relevant to Ar. Mustapha‟s project. Norberg-Schulz, C. (1995) argued that, architecture should have the ability to make the environment meaningful through the creation of specific places. Back to the planning of Denai Alam, Ar. Mustapha Kamal
aspires to turns the green public realm into a brand new “genius loci” in Denai Alam. He utilized the advantages of existing natural elements like greenery and lake and thus turns them into a spiritual place for the neighbourhood in Denai Alam. With this, Ar. Mustapha successfully creates the linkage between human and nature environment through Denai Alam project. Hence, lushly landscaped oasis with the tranquility lake will be the main feature or a “genius loci” of Denai Alam.
The diagram above shows the “genius loci” of Denai Alam that links human together with the nature environment.
Other than that, what make Ar. Mustapha so different from other architects? It is the way how Ar. Mustapha designing his project. “Individuality” is the main idea that he always use for his every single project, included Denai Alam project as well. Most of the houses in Denai Alam are mostly terrace houses. Generally, those terrace houses share the same façade. While in Ar. Mustapha architecture, he managed to offer different permutation of latest design for each unit. This means that each of the units is having its own “identity” and also different from the adjacent units.
The figures above show that the terrace houses in Parcel i-8 which has its own “identity” in the façade.
Conclusion
In a nut shell, Ar. Mustapha Kamal is an architect with further vision. He always treats user comfort as the top priority while he is designing. He mentioned that, “Architect is a problem solver.” As a professional architect, he found that he has the responsibility to solve the user‟s problem while designing a certain project. For every single project, Ar. Mustapha Kamal would like to look for user‟s need and the user comfort as well at the beginning. In addition, Ar. Mustapha always refers to greenery and sustainability to achieve user comfort. For him, this is the best and simple way to apply on his every single project.
Based my deep analysis, Denai Alam Master Planning is designed on the fundamental of those three external contributing factors: Climate, Functionality and Architecture Theory.
Firstly, the way Ar. Mustapha Kamal orientated the houses in Denai Alam Master Planning is different from the typical method, which is orientated the shorter façade should face East-West direction and the longer façade should face NorthSouth direction. However, Ar. Mustapha Kamal had made a breakthrough on the orientation of houses. Considering as a whole, he had orientated the front and rear elevation which is shorter to face North-South direction. In addition, he took the advantages of existing natural elements as the passive design to achieve human comfort and sustainability in Denai Alam Master Planning.
Secondly, it is about functionality. Ar. Mustapha Kamal located all the houses along the existing greenery and man-made lake to make the residential area to be more alive and freshness.
Therefore, the users can have a variety of
recreational preferences. Besides that, his „Denai‟ or foothpath concept on Denai Alam project successfully links the users to the entire neighbourhood and also creates the harmony among them.
Lastly, the architectural theory can be learned from Ar. Mustapha are the linkage between human and nature and also the idea of “individuality”. Ar. Mustapha used nature elements to create the “genius loci” of the place and provided the place for the user to embrace nature. In addition, he designed different facades for different units to create “individuality”. Perhaps, all of these might be the Ar. Mustapha Kamal‟s own unique architectural style to design all the projects all over these 20 years.
Reference Bonta, J.P. (1979). Architecture and its interpretation, Rizzoli, NY.
Curriculum Vitae of Ar. Mustapha Kamal provided by Ar. Mustapha.
Face to face interview with Ar. Mustapha Kamal on 3/10 and 30/10/2014
Norberg-Schulz, C. (1976). The Phenomenon of Place. In Architectural Association Quarterly 8, no.4 (1976):3-10. London
Project drawings provided by Ar. Mustapha.
Unwin, Simon (2014). Analyzing Architecture, Taylor & Francis, NY