Medan Pasar (Old Market Square)

Historic Street Essay Asian Architecture March 2017 ARC 60403 / 2234 Asian Architecture

MEDAN PASAR

Wong Wan Jiuan

327173

Sukeshshef Ramachandram

327162

Teo Chia Yee

324705

Harashadeep Kaur

325069

Allen Tan Hoang Yeap

329459

Lee Ho Jun

1007P10652

Tutor : Mr Koh Jing Hao

Contents

Introduction

1

History of Medan Pasar

3

Sociocultural Study

9

Traditional Trade

12

Significant Architecture and Important Events of the Past

15

Conclusion

20

References

21

1

Introduction1

Figure 1 : The skyline of the globalized Kuala Lumpur, Garden City of Lights

Kuala Lumpur, the capital of Malaysia and it has always been known and publicised internationally for its skyscrapers. Despite this it has conserved historical buildings which can be found in the city centre. Among all the historical streets, Medan Pasar, used to known as Old Market Square, is one of the earliest settlement area in Kuala Lumpur where all the trading activities happened. Once a well-known area of brothels and illegal gambling dens by the Chinese community when the place was lead by Kapitan Yap Ah Loy, Medan Pasar is now a popular sight-seeing attraction for the tourists. Most of the owners of the traditional shophouses are still running their businesses while banks are built in high-rises around the area.

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Site Boundary

Our site lies within Kuala Lumpur city fairly close to the Klang River. The Medan Pasar Street runs through the square as shown in the map, when in reality the road is not reflected on the paved areas ; which are not open to vehicles, only padestrians.

The iconic cocktower is found in the middle of the square and the pavement is rendered in a central pattern to accentuate the centrality of the tower as seen in the satellite image on the image on the bottom left.

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History of Medan Pasar History records that early days were plagued with disease, floods, and fires. Various factions muscled in on the tin production, and disputes were common. These culminated in the Selangor Civil War (1870-1873), but life became a little more ordered when a leading player, Kapitan Cina (headman) Yap Ah Loy, asserted his dominance.

The first markets had been established where the boats offloaded their goods from their journey from Port Klang and the outside world. Naturally, this became the economic hub of the new settlement, and historians suggest it would have been the first part of the burgeoning town to be rebuilt after the civil war.

By this stage, Yap Ah Loy had become the most powerful man in the community and his house on Market Street was close to all the action. He was born in Guangdong in 1837 and moved to Malaysia in 1854 becoming a tin miner and petty trader in Malacca. Known as the founding father of Kuala Lumpur, he also owned the land and market where he operated a piggery, abattoir, and workshop. The area in front of Yap Ah Loy’s house became known as Market Square (Medan Pasar) as it was the town centre.

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Figure 2 : Yap Ah Loy c 1860

Figure 3 : Frank Swettanham

He established a town administration and a small force to maintain law and order with the help of the local Malays and British. After a disastrous fire in 1881, the then-British Resident Frank Swettenham mandated that buildings were to be constructed from brick, tiles and thatching (atap) roofing was subsequently banned.

Figure 4 (RIGHT) : Kuala Lumpur in Transition (c 1884) attap shanties in foreground and brick buildings and jungle in background.

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Figure 5 : Old Market Square - The first shophouses built in brick by Yap Ah Loy, noticeably lacking the ornate fronts of later shophouses. Bullock carts were used on the lanes during this time

Figure 6 :View of the old Market Square (Medan Pasar today) c 1960 from what would have been Yap Ah Loy’s residence

In the late 1800s, Yap thrived in building his empire on the many tin mines in Kuala Lumpur.

However, Frank Swettenham demolished the market in 1882, citing health reasons, and that the site was state land. Yap rebuilt the market place using proper construction materials and resumed his reign until his death in 1885.

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The flourishing market was then relocated by Swettenham to where the current Central Market is.

After Yap Ah Loy’s death, the old market place was transformed into a new trade square.

The three-storey shop houses in Medan Pasar were built in 1920s & after the relocation of the market; cafes, trinket shops, cheap boutiques and mobile phone stalls take occupancy.

The HSBC building and the clock tower are two landmarks that are associated here. The road has always been a centre for banks. On May 1913, the local branch of the Mercantile bank of India Ltd. opened its doors to the public stood at the intersection of Market Street and Roger Street, facing into Old Market Square.

Figure 7 : Hong Kong Bank c 1914 by architect Philip Russel. Demolished in early 1970s and now called HSBC Bank. Photo retrieved from HSBC group archives.

Figure 8 : Clock Tower c 1940s

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The clock tower was erected in 1937 in commemoration of the coronation of King George Istill found today in the middle of the road. The tower’s plaques which glorified colonialism, were removed after Malaysia’s independence.

The name of this bank was later changed to The Mercantile Bank Limited. In 1959, it became a wholly owned subsidiary and was integrated under the banner of The Hongkong and Shanghai Banking Corporation in January 1974.

Figure 8 : Mercantile Bank in Market Square c 1913 from afar. Photo retrieved from HSBC Group Archives

Figure 9 : Mercantile Bank in background (south) with the Paterson Simon building in foreground next to vacant site for HSBC bank. Photo retrieved from HSBC Group Archives

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Figure 10 : View of Medan Pasar area, showing the clock tower in the center and the old Mercantile Bank which was still under construction (left) and completed (right). Retrieved from New Strait Times

9

Sociocultural study

Figure 11 Front view of Medan Pasar from entrance

Situated in the middle of central places in Kuala Lumpur city, Medan Pasar (Old Square Market) is surrounded by some hierarchical nodes and acts as integration hub for local life and activity and therefore highly influential to the surrounding context and activities. The sociocultural features of this place are to be discussed in terms of built environment activities taking place within it.

Figure 12 : Local user stopping by bench / seatings provided in the square

The environment of Medan Pasar tends to serve open area for public use through its central open square, landscaped seating, timer fountains, or even through the clock tower and its exclusive

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architectural style of shophouses that reflect its unique and soulful cultural assets, while welcoming the visitors and providing opportunities for social interactions between visitors and locals.

Figure 13 : Neoclassical style shophouses clearly reflected on local history and its footprints through its architectural elements

There is high interaction and movement of people as this place acts to bond hierarchical nodes in KL city (Merdeka Square, Central Market, Petaling Street, Klang river, Masjid Jamek) via easy accessibility with busy vehicular and pedestrian road access which brings other challenges like high density traffic. Further heightened by bypedestrian crossings, vast amount of bus stops.

Figure 14 : Public buses stopping by roads worsen traffic congestion, along with concentrated circulation by users in designated crossing zones.

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In terms of traffic safety, motorcycles threaten pedestrian-rich roads causing inconvenience.

Homeless people and pollution from massive number of vehicles worsens the traffic. This has also been a place for traders until today and hence a lot of facilities like banks and merchandise shops are located drawing in large numbers of people.

Figure 15 : Landscaped seating in the centre of the swaure trees by the edge of street produces social interaction.

Even today, Medan Square plays multi-functional role from place to do business or to have social activities. It has high potential to contribute to the urban environment, local communities and visitors from outside comple. Although the roads no longer plays role as the city’s busiest market, Medan Pasar is still buzzing with activities as it is now one of the main hubs enlisted by new RapidKL for public transports acting as the main stop for private and public buses. Howver, infrastructure and services are not efficient thus failing to create comfortable activity to the local urban context.

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Traditional Trade The history of trade in Kuala Lumpur starts in1850 where Kuala Lumpur is a Malay State which lead by King Abdullah ; the Medan Pasar then a small Malay village by the Klang River. The main economic activity of the village is farming. King Abdullah hired Chinese laborers to open a bigger tin mine. Migrants arrived and set up a new tin mine at Klang and Gombak River and settled nearby.

The civil war and other issues like floods as discussed under ‘History’ , Kuala Lumpur still rose to become a bustling tin-mine town in the 1870s during the peak of Kapitan Yap Ah Loy’s reign.

Figure 16 : Year 1800 of Kuala Lumpur is a Malay Village.

In 1880 the capital of Selangor had relocate from Klang to Kuala Lumpur ; around when Medan Pasar become a place of tin trading center but also a gambling hub, thus known by the old Chinese community as ‘Macao’ street or ‘Hokkien’ street ; named after places infamous for gambling. This has some impact on trading activities at the time

Yap Ah Loy rebuilt the marketplace with more modern construction under duress by Frank Swettenham around 1882 as discussed under ‘History’ which increased trading activities. After Yap

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Ah Loy’s death in 1885, Frank Swettenham then urged buildings to be built by brick which imported the electric architecture style. The marketplace was then relocated to this new site, close to where the current Central Market is. In year 1920, the three-storey shophouse were built to accomodate services like banks, textile shops, grocers, and traditional medicinal halls. The aquare accomodated the crowds of people who wanted access to these services.

Figure 17 : Medan Pasar Bank c 1900.

Figure 18 : Medan Pasar Bank c 1980.

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The bank at the medan pasar was rebuilt in 1970 and 1980. The current HSBC bank tower is the 3rd version of the bank building.

All the traditional trades such as textile shops, grocers, and

traditional medicinal halls have been replaced by smaller business like houses cafes, cheap boutiques, mobile phone stalls and money changer. Hence while there are some economic activities occuring here, they are by no means unique or essential to the people as there are larger shopping and service providers throughout the city.

Figure 19 :The progression of the economic activities that occured within the site since its conception in the 1850s, the tin trade in the late 1800s and the transition of the stores between 20th century and now.

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Significant Architecture and Important Events in the Past

Figure 20 Façade of this block was influenced by Neo-classic movement.

Figure 21 Shophouses start with Kafe Old Market Sqaure at the corner, was built by Loke Yew. To adapt the climate of Malaya , distance of five feet walkway (also known as kaki lima) was required to add on at the ground floor of shophouses as shading walkway by Raffles.

Colonialism and migration Generally, architecture styles of Medan Pasar are influenced by colonial architecture, environment’s need and political issues - most of which revolving around the British people’s culture. It mainly involves four stages of architecture movement from era to era. They are classified into Utilitarian (1800s-1900s), Neo-classical (1900s-1930s), Art Deco (1930s-1940s) and Modern movement which mainly shown on the façades of both buildings and eclectic shophouses. .

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Figure 22 Typical Neo-classical shophouses in Medan Pasar

The reason of Medan Pasar famous for it Neo-classical style was resulted by the influence from western on mid 18th century on chophouses. The layout of shouphouse was build traditionally, but its facade had been implemented with the ornate of Neo-classical designs such as decorative plaster garlands, roof top gables, balustrades, semi-arch windows, and roman or greek columns.

Figure 23 Kafe Old Market Square is famous for its Dutch gables or flemish gables, it also known as Vatican at the past. Besides,the position arrangement of the pilasters and semi-circular windows with keystone formed an intricate details on the facade made it more outstanding.

The most significant Neo-classical shophouses in Medan Pasar is Kafe Old Market Square (also known as Sin Seng Nam Restaurant). Three units of shophouses were designed by Abdul Kadier Moosdeen, an Indian-anglo architect, and constructed by Loke Yew in 1906. It originally named as Red House due to its exposed red brick and was repainted after restoration.

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Figure 24 Art Deco clock tower in Medan Pasar

The clock tower with its geometrical shape and rectilinear lines as decorative was shown on the structure. Besides, notable sunburst design on the doors at the bottom was the motif of Art Deco.

Figure 25 Medan Pasar c 1950 it was still Neo-classic Figure 26 UOB building in Medan Pasar is the style before the formation of the modern highrise building combination of Modern and Art Deco styles.

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The British also imported Moorish Revival and Mughal architecture which originated from their conquests in India as seen in the Sultan Abdul Samad building built in 1894.

Figure 27 The Sultan Abdul Samad is well preserved today. The British had impoted western architecture as seen in the clocktower which resembles architecture of the big Ben in addition to the Islamic elements like elaborate arches and onion-shape domes

Figure 28 Another Art Deco style in Medan Pasar is the continuous units extended from Kafe Old Market Square. Originally, this row of facade were build in Neo-classical style. However, only the first three units had been retained because of its artistic value. For other facades, they either being replaced by Art Deco facade or totally reconstructed into a modern building to fulfill the compact activities in the center of Kuala Lumpur nowadays.

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Great Fire of 1881 When Yap Ah Loy Old Market Square, his township was built with timber in Utilitarian style which provide the basic living shelters to tin miners and business activities. However, after massive fire in Kuala Lumpur during 1881, Frank Swettenham required Yap Ah Loy’s township to be demolished.

Yap Ah Loy had to rebuild his market according to the requirements of materials and building system which had been announced by the resident general. With the architectural influence from Southern China, Yap Ah Loy was able construct more floors by incorporating southern chinese shophouse architecture with Frank Swettanham’s instructions to build with more updated construction methods that are safer which involve using bricks instead of timber.

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Conclusion The skyscrapers of Kuala Lumpur seem to be forboding as they engulf the surrounding of the medan, which has unique character with its colourful eclectic architecture ; a portal into the past.

This contrasts these generic postmodern high-rise buildings. In addition do this, out-of-place elements like curtain walling split-air-conditoning are being implemented within the square. The small businesses that run here are often temporary and there is a risk of there being no sense of accountability for the conditios of individual buildings on site. The vulnerability of the site should be recognized and it requires proper preservation. Facilities and infrastructure surrounding the area should be updated in order to maintain safety and comfort of users. Rules regarding access of motorbikes onto site should also be stricter. Perhaps plans to incorporate additional shaded spaces within the aquare also draw in users short and long term. Preserving sites like these can differentiate our city from verious other globalized cities which are increasingly homogenous.

Word Count From Introduction to Conclusion excluding captions : 1973

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