Mapping The Townscape

Team Members: Darshiini Vig 0319359Eng Shi Yi 0317849Kooi Yong Kai 0323512Lee Pui San 0319189Lim Joe Onn 0318679

CENTRAL MARKET - PETALING STREETTales of Three Cities

Instructor: Dr Suchi Sri

The townscape thatencompasses Petaling Streetand Central Market is knownto be one of the old historicalcentres of Kuala Lumpur. Bothare KL’s most familiarlandmarks, famed for theirplentiful merchandise andscrumptious food, making thetownscape bustling withwandering tourists from allaround the globe. This areamaintains much of itstraditional atmosphere andheritage, presenting the trueessence of KL to visitors.

Figure Ground Analysis

Grid System

- Deformed grid

- Random distribution

- Many small alleys and junction

Figure Ground Analysis // Mapping The Townscape

Traffic

- Major six-lane road (Jalan Pudu) carries most traffic

- Roads diverge into smaller alleys

- Some alleys are pedestrian-oriented

Figure Ground Analysis // Mapping The Townscape

Form and Scale

- Newly developed buildings are mostly high-rise and modern office, banks or commercial structures

- Older Buildings exhibit vernacular elements and are mostly shop houses with smaller scale

Figure Ground Analysis // Mapping The Townscape

Solid and Void

- Linear arrangement around PetalingStreet

- Orientation of buildings are mostly inconsistent

Figure Ground Analysis // Mapping The Townscape

Land Use and Activity

CommercialAccommodation

Cultural Venue Education

Miscellaneous Space

Petaling

Street

Land Use and Activity // Mapping The Townscape

WORK/ SHOPLOTS

Land Use and Activity // Mapping The Townscape

LIVE / ACCOMODATION;HOTELS

Land Use and Activity // Mapping The Townscape

RELIGIOUS PLACES/GUANDI TEMPLESRI MAHA MARIAMMAN TEMPLE

Land Use and Activity // Mapping The Townscape

Variety of activities

Presence of local food and culture

Activities in interstitial spaces navigate people through the city which applies the cause and effect theory

Various type of fake branded products and local accessories are sold on the street

The diversification of activities creating a sense of complexity

Central Market is one of KL’s most familiar landmarks and a popular tourist attraction. The focus of the city’s artistic community.

A warren of boutiques, handicraft and souvenir stalls with traders selling local merchandise

Central Market is strategically located close to major public transportation links, making access easy from all major KL destinations.

Land Use and Activity // Mapping The Townscape

Movement Pattern

forms

Dictate movement

Movement Pattern // Mapping The Townscape

Exposed Routes Covered Routes

Movement Pattern // Mapping The Townscape

Movement Pattern // Mapping The Townscape

Movement Pattern // Mapping The Townscape

PUBLIC TRANSPORTATION –TRAIN STATIONS

PUBLIC TRANPORTATION -BUS

CirculationMovement Pattern // Mapping The Townscape

PEDESTRIAN PATHWAYS

VEHICULAR – CAR, MOTORCYCLE, BICYCLE

CirculationMovement Pattern // Mapping The Townscape

FAST MOVEMENT(VEHICULAR)

SLOW MOVEMENT(PEDESTRIANS)

CirculationMovement Pattern // Mapping The Townscape

NodesLandmarks

Movement Pattern // Mapping The Townscape

Layering Overlapping of zones with different functions complicate the movement pattern of people, thus creating a bustling sight due to a complex urbanscape

Movement Pattern // Mapping The Townscape

Sense of Place & Serial Vision

copious

Layering of buildings of a variety of styles and scale forms the skyline of the building

Sense of Place & Serial Vision // Mapping The Townscape

directive

Big structures serve as indicators that guide movement of pedestrians

Sense of Place & Serial Vision // Mapping The Townscape

horizontalityStrong linearity and repetitive elements indicate distance

Sense of Place & Serial Vision // Mapping The Townscape

linear

Pedestrians are shown with a clear sense of where to proceed

Sense of Place & Serial Vision // Mapping The Townscape

irregularity

Strong linearity together with ununiformed buildings along the street adds up to its complexity.

Sense of Place & Serial Vision // Mapping The Townscape

gapsNarrow spaces between built forms create additional options for pedestrian access, increasing the city’s permeability

Sense of Place & Serial Vision // Mapping The Townscape

macabre

Hidden alleys shadowed by the presence of solid forms became spaces of storage and activity for small businesses

Sense of Place & Serial Vision // Mapping The Townscape

traffic order

Regulations are abided within the chaos and clutter of the central city

Sense of Place & Serial Vision // Mapping The Townscape

Scale

Larger roads allow vehicular movement between buildings, pushing pedestrians to the five-foot ways in front of the buildings. Pedestrian experience is less defined as walkable space makes way for dominant, faster movement

Sense of Place & Serial Vision // Mapping The Townscape

Scale

Covered street shades pedestrians from the unpredictable weather of the tropics, enabling more flexible space for activity and movement

Sense of Place & Serial Vision // Mapping The Townscape

Scale

Tall, bulky buildings on both sides creates a strong sense of linear pattern movement in the narrow passage in between. Pedestrians are dwarfed by the built environment.

Sense of Place & Serial Vision // Mapping The Townscape

1 2 3 4

5 6 7

88

Sense of Place & Serial Vision // Mapping The Townscape

Petaling Street

Kasturi Walk

Jalan Tun HS Lee

Jalan Hang Lekir

A

A’

B

B’

A-A’

B-B’

SERIAL VISION 1 [A-A’]Compact Node to Open Node

1) Movement is restricted to pedestrian walkway. Heavier traffic on major road prohibits free pedestrian movement. Hence, pedestrian movement pattern is restricted along pedestrian sidewalk.

2) Approaching an open street square located in front of central market. Pedestrian movement pattern is much more dispersed as street opens up via zebra crossings to the other side of the street, where the central market sits.

3) Pedestrian movement is no longer constrained to the sidewalk. Street becomes a pedestrian priority street, allowing unobstructed circulation.

A

A’

B

B’

SERIAL VISION 1 [B-B’]

1) Tight, quiet alleys which are busy hawker stalls at night are present beside Petaling Street. As no activities are going on in the morning, alleyway appears to be dodgy and creates an unsafe ambience.

2) As we slowly approach Petaling Street, the alley way opens up, exposing what is above and beyond. High rise buildings start to be visible from a distance.

3) Approaching the node of PetalingStreet, pedestrian movement increases drastically. Stalls can be seen throughout the entire street with series of activities happening at the same time. High rise buildings and shop houses start to be visible.

Intimate Scale to Urban Scale

apparent

obscure

Sense of Place & Serial Vision // Mapping The Townscape

Welcoming to Reluctance

• From a pedestrian prioritized entry into a vehicleprioritized street exit.

• Entry A is more pedestrian prioritized due to a less densevehicular movement. Entry B is vehicular prioritized dueto being main street and a two way street, causing densevehicular movement. Making it impossible to moveacross streets in a safely manner. A disruption tomovement pattern.

• Entry A consists of mostly low rise buildings, making theentrance a prominent feature. Entry B consists of highrise buildings, causing the entrance to lose its visualsignificance.

Sense of Place & Serial Vision // Mapping The Townscape

Enclosure to Openness

• Transition from a congested, busy, enclosedatmosphere to a more open space.

• At B, street is constrained to pedestriansidewalk due to busy street and constrainedpedestrian sidewalk.

• At C, node is formed at intersections ofstreet. Pedestrian movement across streetsare promoted through proper zebracrossings as well as traffic lights.

Sense of Place & Serial Vision // Mapping The Townscape

Arranged to Vibrant

• A street with rows of shop houses with similar builtforms arranged in an orderly manner throughoutthe entire street.

• Cultural related activity spaces such as stalls are alsoarranged in an orderly manner, located at the sidewhile the central path is focused on pedestrian’slinear circulation.

• Ends with view of high rises, fully commercial shophouses dealing non cultural related activities such asselling phones, hats and et cetera.

Sense of Place & Serial Vision // Mapping The Townscape

Collage City

FORM

MOVEMENT PATTERN

ACTIVITY

BUILT FORM SOLID & VOID SCALE

DIRECTION & NODES CULTURE

SLOW / FAST LAYERS

- IRREGULAR INTERVALS OF SPARSENESS AND COMPACTNESS

- MIXED COMMERCIAL AREA- SPACES MAKES IT LESS

COMPACT, RESULTING THE AREA TO A LANDMARK

- VERTICAL LINEAR TYPOLOGY

- MASS OF BUILDINGS ARE INCONSISTENT

- SPACES ARE MOSTLY IN A LINEAR PATTERN

- HUMAN ACTIVITY IN SPACES ARE GUIDED

- DIVERSE RANGE OF BUILDING SCALE

- INCONSISTENCY CREATES A COMPLEX STREETSCAPE

LINEAR- SLOWER PEDESTRIANS MAKE

WAY FOR FASTER VEHICLES- SEGREGATION OF SLOW AREAS

DETERMINES SMOOTHNESS OF VEHICULAR TRAFFIC

- OCASSIONAL OVERLAPPING OF PEDESTRIANS AND VEHICLES

- UNPLANNED AND OVERLAPPING ZONING DIVERSIFIES STREETSCAPE

- VIBRANCE IS ENHANCED AS SENSE OF DIVISION BETWEEN AREAS OF SPECIFIC FUNCTIONS IS ABSENT

Collage City// Mapping The Townscape

DIVERSE

CITY

Conclusion

Order vs chaos, consistency vs irregularity, thetownscape is a tolerance and contradiction ofmultiple opposing elements as well as anamalgamate of a variety of elements that makes ituniquely diverse. It is the result of interaction ofcultures and a progressing timeline.

COMPARING THE THREE CITIES

INTANGIBLEDIMENSIONS

KUALA LUMPUR KUCHING GEORGETOWN

FUNCTIONAL DIMENSION

• Busy with various choices of public transportation

• Presence of large city gardens

• Relatively quiet due to geographical isolation

• Clean waterfront

• Small and compact city

• Dense heritage shophouses

MORPHOLOGICALDIMENSION

• Deformed, organic urban grid

• Early development refers to Gombak and Klangrivers

• Modern skyscrapers

• Deformed grid• Irregularity in

pedestrian movement

• Well planned urban grid.

• Emerging high-rise and vertical build forms.

SOCIAL DIMENSION • Built environmentencourages social interactions with open public realms

• Mixed use to preserve pedestrian priority streets

• Tourist oriented• Narrow streets

encourage walkability

INTANGIBLEDIMENSIONS

KUALA LUMPUR KUCHING GEORGETOWN

PERCEPTUAL DIMENSION

• Complex integration of cultures, history and modernity

• Diverse economy

• Strong will of introducing the uniqueness of its context

• Strong historical elements

• Vernacular in nature

VISUALDIMENSION

• Blend of historical elements of contemporary architecture

• Richness of heritage and cultural identity

• Sprawl of old shophousescreate a huge complex

TEMPORALDIMENSION

• Distinction of contrastingtimelines

• Reminiscing the past and progressing into the future

• Tranquillity is emphasized

• Harmonious pace of life

• Nostalgic ambience with deep historical and cultural merit.

Urban living with grid form enhances the compact living within the city of Georgetown. PenangIsland is currently booming well and cultural diversity can easily noticed. Despite the urbandevelopment is going towards a successful direction, it could be a good use to be a functionalcity. In addition, as Penang is rich in its cultural context, developments rises equally to make it abetter living city with multifariousness.

DARSHIINI

Georgetown is a city with a long and rich history that adds up to its cultural value. One of thecharms of Georgetown is its nostalgic ambience that allows us to witness the true essence ofthe old eclectic Malaysia. This is reflected within its streetscape which is a cornucopia ofheritage buildings. The city is small enough to encourage human interaction, yet big enough tooffer easy access to goods and services for a comfortable lifestyle.

JOE ONN

Tales of Wishes

Kuching is a city with a balanced built environment, allowing users to live a peacefullifestyle. As the urbanscape is not overcrowded with tourists, the locality and sense of placeis preserved. The city’s identity is maintained as the rich cultural background contributes tothe soul of the place. Besides that, it has a high vegetation coverage, marking its potential tobecome an even better, liveable urban environment.

YONG KAI

Kuala Lumpur is a city which boasting gleaming skyscrapers, colonial architecture, charminglocals and a myriad of natural attractions. As it is the capital of Malaysia, the city hasembraced modernity while retaining a deeply entrenched adherence to local traditionalcustoms, which represent the identity of the country. Cultural patchwork formed thecoexisting communities and unique townscape that contribute to the vibrancy of the city.

SHI YI

PUI SAN Kuala Lumpur is a modest little city with aesthetical architecture. It is colourful, vibrant andchaotic, constantly oozing vitality. The city is equipped with facilities for citizen convenience.The diversity of forms and activities found in KL enriches our lives.

Tales of Wishes

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