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Theories of architecture and urbanism (ARC61303/ARC2224)

Project Part 2: Comparative Analysis Essay

Name: Ivy Voo Vui Yee 0319534

Tutorial Group: 4-6pm

Tutor: Mr. Nazmi

(Semester 5, August 2016)

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Contents

1.0 Introduction Pages

1.1 Introduction of Jalan Petaling, Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia --------------------- 3-5

1.2 Introduction of Newbury Street, Boston, United State ---------------------- 6-8

2.0 Contact Points

2.1 General comparison on activities -------------------------------------------------- 9-10

2.2 Table of contact points --------------------------------------------------------------- 11

2.3 Intensity of Contact Points --------------------------------------------------------- 12-16

3.0 References

3.1 Information references --------------------------------------------------------------- 17

3.2 Figure and Image references -------------------------------------------------------- 18

4.0 Appendix ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 19-21

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1.0 Introduction

1.1 Introduction of Jalan Petaling, Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia

Figure 1. Jalan Petaling is highlighted in yellow color and Chinatown is highlighted in red color.

Jalan Petaling is located at city center of Kuala Lumpur which still maintains much of its traditional

atmosphere. It is a long street from North-west to South-east. Jalan Petaling is working in tin mines

which early settlers came to Kuala Lumpur for wealth because of this industry in the 1800s.

Chinatown is a famous and well-known landmark, Chinatown placed at the center of the street

which is a famous tourist’s attraction nowadays. This landmark has created a lots of nodes around

it and make it has a high density of people and always crowded especially at night. Jalan Petaling

consists of traditional shop houses with eclectic architecture style but mostly are Art-Deco and

Baba and Nyonya style. Abundant of food stalls, restaurants, trading and budget hotels can be

found along Jalan Petaling.

The common sights of Jalan Petaling are the haggling, illegal parking (double-parking), homeless

sleeping at the 5 foot walk way, informal circulation like shortcuts, not using zebra crossing etc. At

night, hawkers will move their stalls to the 5-foot walkway to continue their business and turned

the street become overcrowded and congested (Figure 4). I believed these scenes are mostly affected

by the culture of Jalan Petaling and the education level of the users. Although Kuala Lumpur is a

developed state compare with the others but there are also a lots of abandon shop houses can be

found along Jalan Petaling due to the urban decay.

The men in Jalan Petaling are mostly Chinese, Cantonese and Hokkian especially the hawkers and

the traders. Due to the changes of time, traders are mostly foreigners today and severely affecting

Jalan Petaling lost its originality. People started moving out from Jalan Petaling because of the

decay in economy, degrading of living condition and environment, huge amount of foreigners

migrating into Jalan Petaling for business and little amount of outsiders and customer.

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Figure 2. The scene of old Petaling Street, a typically street full with Chinese traders and people.

Figure 3. Chinatown in Jalan Petaling is a highway at the past and the hawker stalls were set beside the road. Since 2003, the road has been closed, hawkers and vendors started moving out their stalls to the

middle road.

Figure 4. Today’s shop-houses in Jalan Petaling.

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Figure 5. Traditional 5 foot walkway can be found in Jalan Petaling. 5 foot walkway is a significant element of Baba and Nyonya Style.

Figure 6. The bustling moment during night. Hawkers extended the seats and space for business. Many people especially tourist will come here for dinner and enjoy the night life.

Figure 7. Abandon shop-housess are the good evidence to show that the decaying of Jalan Petaling.

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1.2 Introduction of Newbury Street, Boston, United State

Figure 8. Newbury Street is highlighted in red color.

Newbury Street is located at Boston, Back Bay area. Before 1800s, Newbury’s origin begin under water and now it a 2 mile long stretch as the part of Boston Harbor. Newbury Street is from east to west. Newbury Street is famous of its ‘high-end boutique’, besides that, there are also a lot of restaurants, cafés and office area along the street. With these features, Newbury Street has become a popular destination for tourists and locals. The building in Newbury Street are mostly brownstone but some building has renovated with large glass bays on the ground floor which generate a nice urban landscape. Most users who visit this street have specific destination rather than aimless shopping. Landmarks were majority created by exclusive stores at this street which usually visited by regular customer.

There are staircases up and down to access the buildings and I was attracted by these up and down staircases because this will never occur in our country and this make the journey more interesting. People can just simply have their window shopping when they walk along this street as some shops have show windows or show rooms which facing the walkway with large glass to exhibit their clothes or product to attract customers.

Besides that, cafés and restaurants at this street extend their seat to the sidewalk within their boundary in a very organized way. People can just sit within the boundary, enjoy the view towards the sidewalk while having foods or drinks at. Vegetation is planted at the two side of the street which used to promote the urban landscape. United State is a country 4 seasons, so the environment of Newbury Street will look different according to the season. For me, I like the winter scenery of Newbury Street. Newbury Street develops itself in a very outstanding and magnificent character and turn itself from a harbor to one of the nicest shopping street from in Boston. With these features, I found that Newbury Street has shown an individuality and uniqueness which lacking in many other commercial districts.

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Figure 9. The current scene of Newbury Street, Boston.

Figure 10. The most common activity and sight along Newbury Street which is the pavement café.

Figure 11. The shops are renovated to large window glass and facing the walkway. People can simply have their window shopping and interaction from outside to the shops.

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Figure 12. The typical up and down staircase make the circulation of the street become more interesting. Plenty of vegetation can be found along the street.

Figure 13. The most common activity and sight along Newbury Street which is the pavement café.

Figure 14. A staircase used as a boundary from inside and outside can be found at Newbury Street which cannot simply found in Jalan Petaling.

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2.0 Contact points

2.1 General Comparison of Activities

Figure 15 (Left). I found there are 3 different contrasts in Jalan Petaling, so I separated it into 3 part, upper part (has more landscape), middle part (Chinatown, tourist attraction) and the bottom part (the decay

part).

Figure 15 (Right). Newbury Street has quite constant environment and activities along the street compare to Jalan Petaling.

When we talk about Jalan Petaling, Chinatown will first come in mind and this has become the main purpose why people visit to Jalan Petaling. It started to transform into a historical place instead of a commercial area. Jalan Petaling mostly is used to serve the local communities like the local residences, students, office workers, foreigners and foreign workers. The shops are mostly trading and little café and restaurants but due to the culture itself, hawkers tend to sell food and do their business beside the road and back alley. In the other side, Newbury Street has transformed itself from a residential area to a commercial area which consists a lot of high-end retail shops, café and restaurants. User groups usually are the outsider like shoppers, residences from other neighbour street and tourists.

The upper part of Jalan Petaling has more landscape. Compare to Newbury Street, it has a lot of vegetation along the street, even the owner of the house of shop will plant in front or around their space. Newbury Street has only little public seating area like benches but the facilities along the street have more possibility to use as informal seating area like the planter box, staircase at the frontage and shopfront area. There are some benches provided only at the upper part of Jalan Petaling. 5 foot walkway in Jalan Petaling usually occupied by the homeless and beggars. To solve this problem, the local residences will use their own chair and sit at the 5 foot walkway.

(Figure 16)

Upper Part

Middle Part

Bottom Part

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Both streets have provided side parking along the street. Due to the overcrowded at Chinatown (middle part) and the huge amount of vehicles, people tend to double park which could be the reason of making the street jam and congest. Double parking is quite hard to find in Newbury Street. To control solve the traffic jam along Newbury Street, they are promoting to use bicycle on every Sunday and through this event, the amount of using vehicle has decrease.

Back alleys at Newbury Street is organized and used well. Services like solid wastage, garbage collection and fire escapes are placed and used at the Newbury back lane. In the opposite side, back alleys are misused as illegal parking, illegal activities like drug selling and prostitution, shortcut and used at restaurant’s kitchen. Add on, Newbury Street has more street lights than Jalan Petaling. Street lights at Jalan Petaling are either not working or unavailable at a certain point. All of these factors are affecting the image and the security of the sites. A street with bad image and low security, people will no longer visit to this street.

As my conclusion for this general comparisons, I found that the speed of the people walk in Jalan Petaling is faster than the people in Newbury Street due to all the factors above. Newbury Street has more interesting things to focus and pay attention compare to Jalan Petaling and this issue has become my design studio’s research topic that I wish to slow pave human movement in Jalan Petaling.

Figure 16 (Left). Vegetation and benches provided at upper part of Jalan Petaling only.

Figure 16(Right). A girl is seating on the steps outside a hotel. (Informal seating area)

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2.2 Table of contact points

A table of contact points that could occur according to the activities at these two streets which discussed above is provided below. Based on the “Life between buildings’ by Jan Gehl, contact points could take place in 3 different types of outdoor activities, Necessary activities, Optional and Social activities and Resultant activities.

Contact Points Jalan Petaling, Kuala Lumpur Newbury Street, Boston

A. Necessary Activities

1. Heading to a destination -5 foot walkway + 1m pedestrian walkway which promoting ‘people gather people’ effect.

-Narrow sidewalk (left) which promote the ‘people gather people effect’. -Wider sidewalk (right) which providing larger space for interaction.

2. Crossing Junctions (Zebra crossing)

-connected with daily activities

-interacted with people who also used the particular junction daily

High chances -People will use the zebra crossing.

-People (Pedestrians) will wait for the traffic light at the junctions.

Average Chances -People tend to use alley as shortcuts.

-Informal walking pattern -Not common to use zebra crossing.

3. Weekly worship NO

-No religious building along the street but available at neighbor street.

YES

-2 churches along the street.

B. Optional & Social Activities

1. Pavement Café or Restaurants

Average -Extended and arranged in their own way (not organized well and messy) -Become obstacles along the street

High -Well planned and organized (within their own boundaries) -Facing pedestrian walkway but not blocking

2. Sitting Area (Gather spot) Average

-5 foot walkway -Misused (homeless sleep everywhere)

High -Staircases, planter box, frontage

3. Social Updates YES -Not organized well (stick everywhere)

-Messy and too pack

-Not updated recently

YES

-Shaded space

-Promoting interaction and conversation

C. Resultant Activities

1. Street Observing Abandoned and unmaintained shop houses

Shopping area (Window shopping)

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2.3 Intensity of contact points

For the intensity of contact points, Jan Gehl did a list which is about the vary degrees of contact intensity is the basis of the following simplified outline of various contact forms.

Figure 17. Different type of people meet in different intensity of contact points.

Back to the table, Jalan Petaling has a constant 5 foot walkway in front the shop houses with 1meter extra pedestrian walkway which still consider narrow compare to Newburry Street. Newbury Street has one narrow and one wider walkway at the left and right side of the street. For narrow sidewalk, it creates a ‘people gather people’ effect. Although it will creates a high visual connection but it has a low intensity of contact points which is the ‘chance contacts level’

(Refer to Figure 17.) as the people going to meet in a narrow sidewalk will be the spontaneous. For a wider sidewalk, it will also provide a high visual connection but the intensity will higher than the narrow sidewalk as it provides a larger space to people to interact with each other and the chances to meet friends is higher. As Jan Gehl mentioned,’ Spontaneous contact is incited when

forms of human activity appear as it is a contributing factor that leads to contact.’ (Figure 18)

Figure 18 (Left). Jalan Petaling’s narrow sidewalks limit the interaction and chances of contact points.

Figure 18 (Right). Newbury Street’s wider sidewalk provided higher chances for contact points.

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At Newbury Street, people willing to use zebra crossing and wait for the pedestrian traffic light to cross the road. Compare to Jalan Petaling, most of the people are not willing to wait for the pedestrian traffic light maybe because it is not functioning or their own behavior and they tend to cross the road whenever they want which created an informal movement pattern. For this situation, intensity at Newbury Street is from low to high as the chances to meet spontaneous to close friend is higher when people are waiting at the junction or frequent bump in a same junction due to daily activities. People can just have interaction and conversation around there. Jalan Petaling has lower intensity because people are just keep walking or stop at some random point but of course people in Jalan Petaling will still get the passive contacts and chance contacts

in this situation. Obviously, the visual connection on both side are quite high. (Figure 19)

Figure 19 (Left). Low intensity and lower cances of interaction will occur at Jalan Petaling.

Figure 19 (Right). Low to high intensity will occur in Newbury Street junctions.

There are two churches located at Newbury Street, due to their religious culture, people will hang around and chit chat at the steps in front the churches before their worship. People tend to do this because staircase has creates an open public space for them to hang around instead of gather inside the sacred church. Add on, the staircase can be their sitting area too. For this, the intensity is high because people who go for worship of course they will meet with their friends, people who come here purposely for seating area of course they got the chances contacts and the acquaintances contacts. This situation does not take place in Jalan Petaling

because there is no religious building at Jalan Petaling but is at neighbor street. (Figure 20)

Figure 20. People will gather outside the church before and after the worship. It creates a high intensity of

contact point.

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Restaurant and café at Jalan Peatling will extend and move their extra seat to the pedestrian walkway especially during night. At Newbury Street, the pavement café is permanent located on the walkway which still within their boundaries. This action has encourage a wide mix of people to traverse the street. For this contact point, both side has the highest intensity and highest chance to meet people as the seats are facing the walkway, people could see and notice what is happening along the street. People who walking along the street could also have visual connection with the people seating at the pavement café. I have to admit that Newbury Street has done better than Jalan Petaling in this situation at least the seats should not disturbing the

circulation. (Figure 21)

Figure 21. Higher chances to interaction with friends and people as the seats are open spaces and facing

the walkway.

At Newbury Street, facilities like planter boxes, staircases and the frontages have created possibilities to act as a seating area. This can be concluded by the lack of proper seating areas along the street. For Jalan Petaling, facilities at Newbury Street are less can be found, people usually sit at 5 foot walkway or the steps inside the 5 foot walkway. Staircase in front the building can be only found in front a college along Jalan Petaling. Based on Jan Gel’s theory, the possibilities related to the low-intensity contact forms offered in public spaces perhaps can be best be described by the situation that exits if they are lacking the activities between. For overall, both sites have the low intensity but for Newbury Street, it has a higher intensity than Jalan Petaling. At Newbury Street, people still can get a chance contacts and passive contacts at this public area but at Jalan Petaling, maybe because the 5 foot walkways are misused by the homeless and the prostitution business, people normally will avoid staying or walk through there, that’s why people in Jalan Petaling will only get the passive contact which is the ‘see and hear’ in this situation. For the staircase infront a college, people who used the steps as seating area will be the students itself and some foreigner workers while waiting their transport. They are mostly being alone and being together which create a

boundaries between isolation and contact become shaper. (Figure 22)

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Figure 22 (Left). 5 footy walkway has the possibily to become a good contact points but it is misused in Jalan Petaling.

Figure 22 (Right). Chances of meeting and interact with people is so strong in Newbury Street.

Newbury Street provided a shaded space with a proper board for advertisement and social updates. Contact is at a modest level such as visual contact point and chance contact. The advertising boards along Newbury Street allows private conversations to occur beneath the shading device. It remind me about Jan Gehl’s theory, he mentioned that ‘in addition to imparting information about the social world outside, the opportunity to see and hear other people can provide ideas and inspiration for action.’ The intensity at Newbury Street is low, but the visual connection and chances contacts still will occur at the spot especially the passive contacts. In the other hand, Jalan Petaling does not provide a spot to let people gather for the social updates and the advertisement are too spread and messy, people could not really gather.

So for this situation, I think Jalan Petaling has no contact point in this activity. (Figure 22)

Figure 23. A proper advertisment board is fitted benath a shading device which could let people gather.

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Lastly is the street observing which consider as resultant activity.Peope tend to stop and look at the shop exhibits on Newbury Street and this may lead from visual contact to friend contact. It create situations that results in a direct relationship to other people and to the surronding social envirnoment. Window shopping can also occur in Jalan Petaling but there are too many similar trading along the street, people will get dull and boring. Some trading, they will extend their cabinet to the 5 foot walkway to catch customer’s eyes and let customer get the product in more easier and faster way. This action could create a good contact points which is quite different with Newbury Street’s window shopping. In this situation, intensity at Jalan Petaling is higher than Newbury Street. People could from passive contact to acquaintances contacts. The opportuities

being able to meet, see and hear is higher than Newburt street. (Figure 24)

Figure 24 (Left). Business dealing and haggling occur outside some of the trading which create a good contact points and with higher interaction chance.

Figure 24 (Right). Intensity of contact point during window shopping along Newbury Street might not higher than Jalan Petaling.

From these comparisons above, I found that Newbury Street has more contact points and possibilities to become a good contact points compare to Jalan Petaling. I also agree that, Jalan Petaling’s contact points are really work and successful like Newbury Street. I think the main reason of Jalan Petaling has lesser contact point and less people gather or visit the street is because of the security and the image of the environment which causes by the illegal and negative activities along the street. So, as an architect, we should take Newbury Street as a good example and learn from it then apply to Jalan Petaling which I believed these contact points could bring back the crowds and turn Jalan Petaling to be livelier than now. Although most of the contact points at both sites have low intensity but according to Jan Gehl, low intensity contact is also a situation from which other forms of contact can grow. It is a medium for the unpredictable, the spontaneous and the unplanned. Last but not least, people and human activities are the greatest object of attention and interest which could create a strong intensity of contact point. We should achieve the life between buildings especially in the outdoor area rather than just create a dull and boring space that make people choose to stay at home instead of coming out to enjoy the surrounding or context.

(2630 words)

-End-

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3.0 References

3.1 Information References

A Short History of Newbury Street. (n.d.). Retrieved November 13, 2016, from http://www.newbury-st.com/Boston/History

Chinese village in the city petaling Street kuala lumpur malaysia. Retrieved November 13, 2016, from http://tourvacation-world.blogspot.my/2011/07/chinese-village-in-city-petaling-street.html

Gehl, J. (1987). Life between buildings: Using public space. New York: Van Nostrand Reinhold.

H. (2011). Jalan Petaling - Lemonicks. Retrieved November 27, 2016, from http://www.lemonicks.com/Travel/asia/malaysia/jalan-petaling/ Newbury street boston. (n.d.). Retrieved November 20, 2016, from http://xn--80aalewbjz9aa3im.xn--p1ai/200-newbury-street-boston.php Petaling Street (Chinatown), Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia. (n.d.). Retrieved November 20, 2016, from http://www.backpackingmalaysia.com/things-to-do/petaling_street_chinatown/kuala-lumpur Tam, S. (2012). Petaling Street. Retrieved November 13, 2016, from http://www.thestar.com.my/travel/malaysia/2012/02/15/petaling-street/ Welcome to Newbury Street, Boston. (n.d.). Retrieved November 13, 2016, from http://www.newbury-st.com/

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3.2 Figure and Image References

Figure 1: Prepared by author

Figure 2: https://s-media-cache-ak0.pinimg.com/originals/d0/68/cf/d068cf34e0299d0db36b80d1ca859bd6.jpg

Figure 3: http://tourvacation-world.blogspot.my/2011/07/chinese-village-in-city-petaling-street.html

Figure 4-7: Capture by author on the site.

Figure 8: Prepared by author

Figure 9: http://xn--80aalewbjz9aa3im.xn--p1ai/200-newbury-street-boston.php

Figure 10: http://www.visitingnewengland.com/Newbury-Street-Boston.html

Figure 11: http://www.boomsbeat.com/articles/5512/20140623/35-fun-photos-of-newbury-street-boston.htm

Figure 12: http://xn--80aalewbjz9aa3im.xn--p1ai/200-newbury-street-boston.php

Figure 13: http://www.boomsbeat.com/articles/5512/20140623/35-fun-photos-of-newbury-street-boston.htm

Figure 14: http://www.boomsbeat.com/articles/5512/20140623/35-fun-photos-of-newbury-street-boston.htm

Figure 15: Prepared by author

Figure 16 (Left): Capture by author

Figure 16 (Right): http://www.cestchristine.com/wp-content

/uploads/2012/11/fe62e5ec1d0c11e2a8d122000a1c0290_7.jpg

Figure 17: from the book ‘Life between buildings” by Jan Gehl

Figure 18-24: Prepared by author (from Project 1 and Design Studio Project)

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4.0 Appendix

i. Table of general comparisons

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ii. Table of contact points

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iii. Sketches that showing the bottom part of Jalan Petaling is decaying (From design studio)