MAPPING THE TOWNSCAPE

TALES OF THREE CITIES [ARC 3113]

PETALING STREETPetaling Street, the centre of Kuala Lumpur's original Chinatown, maintains much of its traditional atmosphere, particularly at night when vendors fan out their merchandise along the street. While you can shop for anything from gems to t-shirts, the true allure of this night market is in wandering about and enjoying its sights, sounds and energy. Food is plentiful with many scrumptious varieties to choose from; some of the restaurants here have been in business for generations. Locals flock to Petaling Street primarily for bargain accessories and great Chinese food.

FIGURE-GROUND STUDY

CHARACTERIZE THE URBAN FORM

■ URBAN GRID SYSTEM

• Non-grid system. • All the buildings are built

randomly without proper urban planning.

• Small / big road are not well organized.

• Formal pedestrian pathway is incomplete

• In order to travel from Central Market, pedestrian need to walk through narrow alleys and junctions to reach Petaling Street.

FIGURE-GROUND STUDY

■ DISTRICTS & ZONING

• Central Market and Petaling Street are separated by the main road, Jalan Pudu.

• Jalan Pudu act as an edge that define the border between the two districts

• Upper part defined as high-rise building zone (offices, hotels, bank towers), bottom part defined as commercial shop lots.

FIGURE-GROUND STUDY

■ BUILD FORM & SCALE

• Clear transition of urban form between upper part and bottom part

• Buildings in upper part are massive & tall with different architecture language

• Urban form in bottom part are smaller & more humanized, commercialize buildings

FIGURE-GROUND STUDY

■ ARRANGEMENT OF BUILDINGS

• Upper part is built randomly with different orientation.

• Bottom part is arranged in a linear layout.

• Upper part (coarse gain), voids are positive space.

• Bottom part (fine grain), solids are positive space, voids become the negative space

FIGURE-GROUND STUDY

OPEN SPACECHARACTERIZE THE URBAN FORM

USABILITY OF OPEN SPACE

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The fine –grained urbanism within China town features shops built at close proximity, providing a variety of activities like food, imitation goods, floral shops, book stores and many more. This diversity of activities along the street has become a local culture which is also an attraction to tourists. The public and private spaces are clearly defined. Storefronts are lined with stalls that are opened to the public whereas private spaces used only by the owners of the shop houses are carefully tucked behind or located on upper levels of the shop houses.

USABILITY OF OPEN SPACE

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Crossing Jalan Pudu, the coarse grain part of the city reveals, whereby foot print of the buildings increase, with larger proximity in between them. Moreover, there is a sense of privatization as shops are located in large scaled buildings, as contrast to the stalls laid out in the open in China town. This causes a blurring of local identity as the buildings slowly generalize into similar forms and activities.

CULLEN’S SERIAL VISION

ESTABLISH THE SIGNIFICANCE OF LAYOUT & DESIGN

PETALING STREET1. Station LRT Pasar Seni >

Central Market >Jalan Tun Tan Cheng Lok

2. Jalan Tun Tan Cheng Lok > Petaling Street

3. Station LRT Pasar Seni > Petaling Steet

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COMPLEXITY

The path approaching Petaling Street is unexpectedly tranquil in comparison. The only clue of proximity to Petaling Street is the vehicular movement in a single direction.

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COMPLEXITY

Walking down Petaling Street, a row of stalls line the street which blocks off pedestrians’ view towards the existing shop houses, creating a sense of complexity which is further intensified by the irregular building heights. The skyline becomes a perceptual directional element.

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COMPLEXITY

Pedestrian flow increases as the path continues. This is the intersection point at the core of Petaling Street where it becomes a node as formation of crowd is at its peak. The multi layers of activity become more apparent as they converge at this point. Activities can be seen behind the stalls, on the higher floors of shophouse and in the backstreet.

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Upon reaching the end of the path, the crowd disperses into pathways that branches out from Petaling Street. Locals can be seen roaming floral shops and traditional bakeries. The pace of activity disminishes yet does not break, instead continues in several directions.

COMPLEXITY

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Further down the path with a slower pace, the entrance from history to modernity is experienced in a gradation, eventually leading yet another hot spot. Looking back from afar, the vibrancy and intensity of activities in the Petaling Street can be clearly distinguish.

SURPRISING

1. The conjunction of pedestrian movement and vehicular movement in a narrow street, allowing drivers glimpses of city’s dynamic at a more intimate level

2. The opportunity of this interaction and interstitial space is exploited and directly influence the dynamic of movent in the city

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SURPRISING1. As the journey towards the

Central Market, the surrounding high-rise building present the modernity of the city

2. Approaching Central Market, the intensity of activity and movement gradually increases. The high-rise urban form assimilates with shophouse and form an interesting skyline of both contrasting elements.

3. Exit from the Central Market leads to a pedestrian walkway towards The sudden diminish of activity and change of pace come at a surprise.

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SURPRISING4. Occasionally, high-rise building is encountered on the journey. The intervals of the two contrasting urban form create a sense of rhythm with high-rise building as a milestone in pedestrians’ perception

5. Approaching the entrance of Petaling Street, the changes in architecture language and spatial experience is vivd. The humanizing scale of shophouse are more welcoming. Again. The high-rise building in the backdrop acts a perceptional and directional indication.

6. The intensity and pace of movement in the Petaling Steet increase exponentially.

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SURPRISING1. A linear view of the Petaling

Street’s entirety.

2. The publicly exposed facade in the multiple underlying layers of activities

3. The hidden layer of activities with an element of surprise 1

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SURPRISING4. Transition from the busy street to the contrasting backstreet

5. A further exploration of deeper layers reveal an isolated and quiet backstreet that contain sign of activities at different time.

6. The branches of backstreet leads to unexpected exit of The Petaling Street at random point

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COLLAGE CITYILLUSTRATE THE URBAN DISTINCTIVE CHARACTER

DYNAMIC

The Petaling Street area is a famous tourists’ spot that is constantly under development. The interaction between urban form and locality create a dynamic interplay of movement and activities in the city.

SCALE

PERMEABILITY

OLD & NEW

VEHICULAR MOVEMENT

INTERSTITIAL SPACE

DYNAMICSCALE■ Modern development dotted

medium-rise to high-rise buildings among the wide span of shophouses

■ The difference provides intervals and rhythm to the continuous chain of activities in the city

DYNAMICOLD & NEW■ The new buildings mostly

concentrate around the threshold of the city

■ Spatial experience of modernity and history is perceived in a gradation

■ The transition between the old and new establishes a network of movement as the urban form breaks down.

DYNAMICINTERSTITIAL SPACE■ The interstitial spaces between

various buildings posses different spatial experience and thus, facilitates different activity in accordance with its spatial requirement.

■ The interstitial activity instills dynamic in the network of movement at different time by dictating the pedestrians’ choice of path and subsequently the movement pattern.

DYNAMICPERMEABILITY■ The network of movement and

activities directly influence the development of formal pedestrian pathway

■ The pedestrian movement is virtually divided into a few regions that orbit around the two focal points: Central Market & Petaling Street

DYNAMICVEHICULAR MOVEMENT■ Despite the state of constant flux,

the vehicular movement through the city is kept as simple as possible.

■ Vehicles are navigated through the narrow streets in conjunction with the pedestrian movement, providing glimpses of the city dynamic at interval

VITALITY CITYILLUSTRATE THE URBAN DISTINCTIVE CHARACTER

FORM•Different modern buildings in term of scale, architectural style and materials used.

•The humanizing scale of these old shop houses create a friendly gathering space to the pedestrians.

•This forms a sense of complexity as sign boards overlap, stalls cramped side by side, selling rows and rows of goods.

•The immense building height interacts with the irregular skyline to facilitate a system of perceptual direction which create a sense of rhythm.

ACTIVITIES•Diversity of activities happen in Petaling Street where tourists come to experience local food and culture.

• Artists produce and sell drawings at the central market while locals open up stalls at nooks of back lanes selling local favorites. This variance in activities gives a sense of complexity.

•By the dynamic arrangement of the activities and combination of senses, the movement pattern become wider and more energetic.

•Activities in interstitial spaces also navigate people through the city using the cause and effect theory.

MOVEMENT PATTERN•No clear definition for the usage of pathways within Petaling Street.

•This complexity of movement patterns gives a sense of vitality within the street.

•Come and go of pedestrians bring in movement pattern.

•The hidden food stalls become a node which lead the pedestrians from the main road to the back street.

•Movement pattern promote vitality on the site where pedestrian is everywhere on site. Moreover, the movement in the city began a series of chain reaction that pulling more movement into the network of pathways, the foundation of the city dynamic.

COMPARING THE THREE CITIES

THREE CITIES: TALES OF WISH

COMPARING THE THREE CITIESINTANGIBLE PETALING

STREETKUCHING GEORGETOWN

Functional dimension -Variety choice of public transportation to reach to Petaling Street-Bus & LRT are fast and efficient.

-Quiet and less crowded-Clean environment

-Small and compact city, well planned city-Lot of spaces and urban greenery

Morphological Dimension -Organice urban planning with central core

-Deformed grid of city development-Irregularity in pedestrian movement.

- Well-planned urban grid-Emerging high-rise and vertical built forms.

Social Dimension -Built environment encourages social interactions with open public realms

-A cluster of diverse neighbourhoods

-Mixed use to preserve unique urban character

COMPARING THE THREE CITIESINTANGIBLE PETALING

STREETKUCHING GEORGETOWN

Perceptual Dimension -Complex diversity of culture and history-Diversity of economy-Pollution issue

-City filled with heritage and cultures generates a sense of significant identity -Diversity of economy -Overall well organized city

-Increased pollution

Visual Dimension Blending between history and modernity

-Richness of heritage and cultural identity

-Sprawl of traditional shophouse creates an interesting city view.

Temporal Dimension -Mixture of old and new, high-rise and shophouses

-Relatively lower buildings -Contain a deep historical and cultural merit. -Heritage buildings.

COMPARING THE THREE CITIESINTANGIBLE PETALING

STREETKUCHING GEORGETOWN

Built Form -The traditional buildings are in contrast to the modern buildings in term of form, scale, and colour. -Humanized scale and proportion of shophouses give a sense of welcoming.

A historical city with heritage buildings. -high density city, with less breathing void. -Humanized building to human scale ratio.

-The humanizing scale of building create a sense of homey.-Preservation of townhouse

Activity/Function -Diversity of activities and culture don the city with vibrancy and excitement.

Harmonious multiracial populace -Tourists hotspot

-Markets become nodes for people to gather-Local food as an attraction for both locals and foreigners

Movement Pattern - Narrow road streams through the city. Pedestrians and vehicles used to travel randomly in this old-developed area

-Decent vehicular-Shop lots alleyway used as pedestrian main path.

-Interweaving movement pattern of pedestrians and vehicles on a path.-Narrow but intense

MOST LOVABLE CITYTHREE CITIES: TALES OF WISH

Nicolas WongGeorgetown is my first choice for living. Georgetown is rich with their cultural and heritage, Penang government managed to preserve all the historical buildings until now. This make Georgetown different from other downtown. The built form is linear which used to be more humanized as compared to Kuala Lumpur which is surrounded by massive building. Georgetown managed to separate their solid and void effectively. There are more greenery and open spaces as compared to Kuala Lumpur, which is seen as a concrete jungle.

Chung Wei JinCentral Market remains my favourite city as I am attracted by the rich culture cultivated within the streets, giving it a unique identity. Moreover, the buildings are also built at a more humanized scale, giving a sense of familiarity as compared to the high rise which promotes social exclusion. However, although it remains as an old-style city, the transportation system connecting Central Market and its surrounding is convenient enough to cater for the large crowd visiting this city. Overall, it has a harmonious relationship between new and old, modern and traditional.

The city that I would wish for is George Town due to its harmony relation between the new development and preservation of the history and culture. The modern buildings are manage to integrate themselves into the existing context. Instead of living in a city that full of coarse gain, I prefer living in a city that full with fine grain which promoting interaction among the residents. Most of the buildings in George Town are fine grain and have a humanizing scale which create a sense of welcoming and homey to the pedestrian.

Peng Yep SiangGeorgetown is my first choice for living. Georgetown is rich with their cultural and heritage, Penang government managed to preserve all the historical buildings until now. This make Georgetown different from other downtown. The built form is linear which used to be more humanized as compared to Kuala Lumpur which is surrounded by massive building. Georgetown managed to separate their solid and void effectively. There are more greenery and open spaces as compared to Kuala Lumpur, which is seen as a concrete jungle.

Lim Yee Qun

ENDTALES OF THREE CITIES [ARC 3113]

NICOLAS WONG 0314377CHUNG WEI JIN 0313789LIM YEE QUN0319121PENG YEP SIANG 0315259

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