SCHOOL OF ARCHITECTURE BUILDING & DESIGN

BACHELOR OF SCIENCE (HONORS) IN ARCHITECTURE

THEORIES OF ARCHITECTURE & URBANISM (ARC61303)

PROJECT:

LIFE BETWEEN BUILDINGS: USING PUBLIC SPACES

A COMPARATIVE ANALYSIS ESSAY

ONG EUXUAN 0319050

TUTOR: AR. PRINCE FAVIS ISIP

TABLE OF CONTENT

1.0 Introduction

1.1 Quiapo, Manila

1.2 Jalan Tuanku Abdul Rahman, Kuala Lumpur

2.0 Comparison: Urban Patterns

3.0 Comparison: Human Activities

4.0 Comparison: Contact Points & Intensity

5.0 Conclusion

6.0 References

1.0 INTRODUCTION

1.1 Quiapo, Manila (Philippines)

Located in the very center of the city of Manila, Quiapo is referred to as the “Old Downtown of Manila’, and has made a name for itself as a place for marketplace bargain hunting.

Historically, Quiapo is known to locals as the center of activities for Manila’s social elites, as

well as trade, fashion, art and higher learning with its surrounding vicinity. Over the years,

public transport was introduced to the city, and many beneficial infrastructure was installed,

causing the trapping of smog and vehicular emissions, which resulted in the gloominess left in

the streets, inducing crime and violence in the area. Eventually, most establishments within

Quiapo has vacated, and in the 1980s, the vibrancy of the town has been diminished, with the space to be filled by makeshift markets to accommodate visitors to the Quiapo Church.

The marketplace of Quiapo mostly comprises of fortune tellers and herbal product stores

around the church. There are also ongoing sales of illegally copied media, as well as thievery within the district.

1.2 Jalan Tuanku Abdul Rahman, Kuala Lumpur (Malaysia)

Located in the heart of the city of Kuala Lumpur, Jalan Tuanku Abdul Rahman was often

referred to as the “grande dame of Kuala Lumpur shopping’ in the days before the existence of shopping complexes in KL.

Over the years, the pre-war buildings with shophouses facades that line both sides of the

street have been preserved and readapted to accommodate contemporary local businesses.

Many established shops decided to move out of the town when the modern shopping malls took over the KL metropolitan city, and only a few remained.

The marketplace of Jalan TAR mostly comprises of retail shops that offer a wide range of

textiles, fabrics and clothing. There are also shops that sell imported leather goods and

luggages, as well as sports good and winter wear. The alleyways in the area also serve as the

ground for vendors and traders to set up miscellaneous roadstall markets that usually operate

during the night.

2.0 COMPARISON:

URBAN PATTERNS

The streets of Quiapo are irregular. Due to the lack of land planning in the past, the streets are not well-planned, and form a rather messy, suburban grid, producing many irregular webs.

And while over the years the land use developed quicker than the street infrastructure, human

activties have taken up the spaces, causing minimum space for the developers to improve the vehicular paths in the area, resorting only to narrow pedestrian streets between buildings.

As opposed to the streets of Quiapo, the streets parallel to Jalan TAR was formed pre-war,

and when the Malay and Indian community pioneered the development for settlements

around the area, it causes a segregation between street patterns on two sides of Jalan TAR. While the streets in the middle form a linear pattern, the streets to its right fomed a more

complex, interconnected webbed pattern. And like Quiapo, the lesser planned roads on its left formed loops and dead-ends.

Over the years, the infrastructure of the city has improved, and pedestrian walkways are paved on the sides of the vehicular paths.

3.0 COMPARISON:

Human activties

In the chapter Prerequistes for Planning of Life Between Buildings by Jan Gehl, it is

mentioned that public spaces such as open squares, balconies, verandahs, front yards and

gardens may invite public social activties. An instance that was given by Gehl was

Copenhagen cooperative housing project that introduced communal spaces.

Roadside Vendors

In the case of both Quiapo and Jalan TAR, both areas are heavily populated by vendors day

and night. Nightmarkets line the streets of pedestrian ways and alleys, allowing more business, as well as interaction and social activties for the inhabitants.

Open squares/Plazas

Based on my observations, the local communities of Quiapo and Jalan TAR lack spaces

(especially in houses) to carry out most activities. Plazas and open spaces are designed in spaces to allow interactions between people.

Quiapo

Jalan TAR

In Quiapo, the most prominent plaza in the area is Plaza Miranda, followed by Plaza Sta Cruz and Plaza del Carmen, both located in front of religious buildings.

In Jalan TAR, the leading square would be the open space next to the Coliseum Theatre by the street. It houses a public toilet, as well as park benches for the visitors.

4.0 COMPARISON:

Quiapo

Jalan TAR

Contact points & intensity level

In Jan Gehl’s Life Between Buildings, he noted that human contacts come in different

intensities, offering different opportunities of social activities between human during mundane

activities, based on the environments. The engagement to these activities are primarily based on the intimacy of human relationships between one another.

4.1 Contact Points

Quiapo holds a fairly busy urban environments that hold opportunities for meetings and daily

activities. The crowded streetscapes are made lively by the high frequency of human contact. The contacts point can be identified within crowded areas of the city:

Plaza Miranda in Quiapo bear strong points that could potentially draw in social activities.

Located in front of the Quiapo Church, the plaza doubles as a park that is also regarded as a

center for fortune telling. Irregular arrangement of street vendors and stalls may attract traffic

that intensifies interaction between human between the area.

Muelle Del Banco Nacional is a stretch of road located along Passig River. It features a

vehicular path and a pedestrian boardwalk that typically draw crowds during the day due to its

unpredictable intervals of soft and hardscape of the river and street. The wide negative

spaces would coerce the pedestrians to move and linger along the bank of the river, hence creating social interactions.

Plaza Lacson is known to many as an intersection point for the pedestrians who chance upon

the area for errands at nearby businesses and buildings. Located in the midst of tall buildings

that would potentially draw in busy crowds, the plaza is decorated with a statue that are surrounded by shallow and wide steps that double as a supplementary seating for the public.

Similarly, Jalan TAR is also surrounded by busy urban environments that drive daily activities for the locals. The contact points within the area may also be identified by the public spaces:

Open Space located next to the Coliseum Theatre by Jalan TAR would typically attract social

activities during the day. The space resembles a square that allow gatherings, and

occasionally large event tents would be pitched for events and caterings. It also carries park benches for seatings, and strategically-placed public toilets for convenience.

The square in front of SOGO is also one of the high frequency spots in the area. It is highly

atmospheric, especially by night. The area tend to attract the younger crowd of the community.

Teenagers and young adults linger around the area, busker musicians and artists would

gather there to draw crowds that appreciate their talents.

Jalan Masjid India is a stretch of road that is lined with pre-war shophouses on its sides, and

are typically heavily occupied by vendors and food stalls during day and night. Accessible by

ajoining alleyways, the area draw in busy crowds to its nightmarkets, enhancing the social activities on the street.

4.2 Intensity Levels

In The Geometry of Feeling by Juhani Pallasmaa, the author implies that sentimentality and

the multisensory experience that an architecture gives is the key to design. Experience also

holds the intimacy level of interaction between human. Nonetheless, interaction comes in different levels of intensity.

Passive Contacts

Muelle del Banco Nacional and Jalan Masjid India

These unarranged interactions typically happen in wide crowded spaces. Quiapo and Jalan

TAR alike, these meetings are more likely to happen within areas with pedestrian movement, for instance Muelle del Banco Nacional (Quiapo), and Jalan Masjid India Jalan TAR).

In narrow spaces like the markets and a pedestrian boardwalk, eye contacts are usually

initiated, and often followed by a nod of acknowledgement.

Chance Contacts

Plaza Miranda and Jalan Masjid India

The passive contacts of eye-contact interaction may also grow. Eye contacts may evolve into short passing conversations without being planned.

Places like Plaza Miranda (Quiapo) and Jalan Masjid India (Jalan TAR), where mushrooming

stalls and vendors inhabit the area, brief conversations are usually initiated between the

vendors and the buyers.

Aquaintances

Brief passings between established contacts may also happen within crowded familiar areas

of Quiapo and Jalan TAR. For instance, places where landmarks are located allow frequent visitors to intiate interaction with passing contacts.

In this case, Plaza Miranda (Quiapo) allows frequent pilgrims of the Church Quiapo for brief

conversations, and the open space in front of SOGO (Jalan TAR) allow frequent visitors of

nearby buildings to interact.

Friends

Interaction between friends are usually planned, and would typically happen in spaces that

could potentially slow down the movement of busy areas. Quiapo and Jalan TAR alike, both areas are heavily surrounded by buildings of businesses.

In this case, Plaza Lacson (Quiapo) and the open space next to the Coliseum Theatre (Jalan

TAR) attracts goers to the retail and and commercial shops to slow down their pace, allowing them to ease up on the movement while interacting with one another.

Close Friends

Similarly, interactions between already established contacts are usually planned, and customarily happen on a decided location that would provoke further interaction.

For instance, Muelle del Banco Nacional (Quiapo) and the square in front of SOGO (Jalan

TAR) allow close friends to interact with one another by chatt ing and relaxing over drinks and snacks. Close friends also tend to gather around the area and enjoy the busking music.

5.0 CONCLUSION

In a nutshell, I grasped that Jan Gehl’s ideology was to design and create spaces between

architecture to engage the community in social activities that would allow them to interact with

one another.

Human activities is the main role in all the aspects of design. The spaces that are planned out

and designed define the movements and patterns of the community and the life of a city.

5.0 REFERENCES

Gehl, J. (2011). Life between buildings: using public space. Washington, DC: Island Press.

Pallasmaa, J. (2011). The embodied image: imagination and imagery in architecture.

Chichester: John Wiley & Sons Inc.

Zialcita, F.N. (2006). Quiapo: Heart of Manila. Manila: Cultural Heritage Studies Program,

Dept. Of Sociology and Anthropology, Ateneo de Manila University