Question

Kajang has transformed itself from a small old town to a big modern town by designing and

developing new township such as Bandar Baru Bangi and Bandar Seri Putera as well as

extending its CBD (central business district) such as extension to Sungai Chua. However, its

centre is inadequately transformed and most of its residences are working in Kuala Lumpur

and other external areas. Write your vision and plan for Kajang to transform its town centre

and to be a self reliance town. You may use sketches to enhance your vision and plan.

INTRODUCTION

A notable feature of the crisis racing through Kajang has been its overwhelming impact on

the vast population, subjecting it to unprecedented economic and social dislocation. Many

areas are finding it difficult to cope with the decline. The situation has been worsened by the

increasing inability of the town to respond effectively and adequately to the crisis.

Self-reliance has been advanced as a viable alternative strategy to dependant development

and donor-led structural adjustment in developing countries. Self-reliance is considered not

“merely a necessity but a matter of survival” (Galtung et al., 1980). It advocates the need for

people to improve their condition using initiatives and resources in their own hands.

OBJECTIVES

The main objective for this plan is to make Kajang as a town where the residences enjoying

the benefits of a sustainable environment. In order to transform Kajang town centre into a

self-reliance town, these objectives below are to be followed;

i) To ensure new development upgrades facilities in the town centre, in a meanwhile

improves the sustainable of the environment

ii) To ensure that new development is well related to existing areas and does not give

any rising to urban sprawl.

iii) To ensure that the alternations and extensions to existing buildings generally will

improve the quality of surrounding environments and also reinforce the sense of

place.

URBAN RENEWAL

Urban renewal is all about urban structure and by structure; it does not leave the mean to the

buildings only but the plan as a whole. The structure includes centre city, activity centers,

corridors, developed areas (inner city and established areas), developing areas (planned and

future Greenfield), open space, and industrial areas.

By the renewal, the plan should involve a more compact urban form with reducing rate of

outward growth. This is to safe the spaces for other development. It should also be a balanced

growth between developed and developing areas of city. The growth should go to the

strategic areas, primarily activity centers and corridors.

The activity area would include major area, the community, and the neighborhood.

Meanwhile for corridors, it should include the urban area and the neighborhood. Both of

these must meet certain policies and they are;

i) A compact, mixed use for the land and high quality development

ii) Meet the residential and employment thresholds for each type of activity center

and corridor

iii) Support concentrated built form that optimizes public investment and

infrastructure

iv) Provide a range of housing types, tenures, unit sizes and affordability

v) Walkable and have excellent connectivity

A primary transit network would satisfy those policies. A primary transit network is a

network of high frequency transit services hat operate every 10 minutes or better, 15 hours a

day, and 7 days a week.

The planning process should identify these elements;

i) Jobs and population ratio

ii) Planning area boundaries

iii) Location of activity centre and corridor

iv) Population and job growth within walking distance and transit

The plan must consider in locating high density developments and transit supportive uses in

activity centers and corridors along the primary network. Development densities should be

increased near transit stations on the Primary Transit Network within 400 m. Next, it is must

be ensured that the design and mix of land uses in these areas emphasize a pedestrian oriented

environment and support transit. The plan should locate job near housing and housing near

job where it means that the land use will be utilized efficiently. Lastly, the plan will ensure

that there is adequate access to employment opportunities within the hierarchy of activity

center and corridor areas.

The ability for residents, workers, and visitors to easily move into and out of a downtown is a

key component in the vibrancy of an urban environment. Multiple factors, including public

transit, land use, parking, and walkability, impact a community’s transportation

infrastructure. In addition, external factors, like High Speed Rail and Interstate highway

travel can directly impact how individuals move into a Downtown. When these infrastructure

assets are well-integrated and combined with a sustainable land use plan in Kajang—often

through the employment of Smart Growth principles, they can have a positive impact on

public health and even reduce the tax burden for community residents of Kajang.

The naked streets concept, also known as “shared space”, is a very promising approach to

both pedestrian safety and improving the vitality of a town as practiced in Putrajaya. Naked

street schemes place importance on how drivers make decisions about their behavior,

recognizing the importance of how they perceive their surroundings. It’s a significant

departure from attempts to control behavior through interventions like road humps, or

engineering pedestrians out of our streetscape through subways or guardrail. Its sound

impossible to be done in Malaysia since culture and attitude are different from western

country. But, this can be taken as first step to change our country become a world class. What

we can do to is giving drivers and pedestrians equal status. Road humps, chicanes and other

physical measures designed to reduce the speed of vehicles would be removed and the

question of who had priority would be left open deliberately, making drivers more cautious.

Traffic lights have been uprooted and drivers must negotiate their way across junctions,

forcing them to slow down and establish eye contact with pedestrians.

Conventional public transport systems in Kajang such as metro, commuter, tramway and

others have been used and implemented in urban areas and cities with high population density

for many years as the use of public transport is an efficient solution for the complications and

disadvantages associated with private cars. Air and noise pollution, congestion in urban

roads, safety issues and accidents, high consumption of energy and many others are the real

concerns and most of the large cities and metropolises suffer from the mentioned

complications as a result of automobile dependency; but conventional public transport

systems have a lot of deficiencies that lead to poor function and insufficient potential to

satisfy the users. Bicycle is the best solution for this problem.

Recreational space could be considered both as activity center and corridor where the area

could be the active transport zone (cycling and walking) and also as a relaxing place with

good value of environment. This space can be considered as green space where it could

balance the air gases content (CO2 and O2).

Construction, operational and management measures which are energy efficient are playing a

much greater role in conserving resources. Such measures include:

high shading coefficient and high thermal resistance glazing material is used to

minimise heat transmission;

triphosphor lamps are used instead of the conventional fluorescent tubes;

metal halide lamps to replace tungsten halogen;

circuit management of the lighting zones;

photo-cell control for external lighting;

automatic on/off when the ambient illuminating level is required;

power factor correction system;

building services (including air conditioning) which are fully programmable and can

be updated to suit any changes to the building and maintain high energy efficiency