Plans for better city living
Bright ideas on how to develop Kuala Lumpur focusing on creating public spaces that unite the city and its people.
Stories by WONG LI ZA
FROM bamboo-based monorail stations that double as education hubs to an elevated canopy walkway over Kuala Lumpur’s Kampung Baru, the proposals have a common goal: to improve liveability in a city that is still rapidly developing.
These and other proposals were drawn up by Harvard University Graduate School of Design students earlier this year as part of a threeyear research programme on South-East Asia co-organised by the school and AECOM, a global design, engineering and construction company.
KL is the second year subject after Jakarta last year, while next year, the students will be working on Manila.
Their ideas were presented recently at the Kuala Lumpur: Designing the Public Realm forum and exhibition held at the Malaysian Institute of Architects’ office in KL.
“Kuala Lumpur has tremendous opportunities for future growth,” says Sean Chiao, president of AECOM (Asia Pacific) at an interview before the forum.
“It is very important to get the attention of everyone, public and private stakeholders as well as the community, to look at some current issues and challenges the city is facing,” says Chiao, who is based in Hong Kong and Singapore.
Harvard University Graduate School of Design dean Mohsen Mostafavi said at the same interview that KL’s development is complicated by the diverse urban conditions within its boundaries – for instance, there are traditional areas, the very modern Petronas Twin Towers-type of developments, and also a combination of modern and traditional landscapes.
“For Kuala Lumpur, one of the key issues is how things connect and come together, because when the city first started, there was no master plan and there were different fragments of development. Now, part of the work is how to begin to relate all of it together,” Mostafavi says.
The research programme analysed connections between KLCC and Kampung Baru, the last traditional kampung-style area in the city, trying to connect modern development to historic built heritage.
“The elements of Kampung Baru have been studied and reinterpreted,” says Mostafavi. “We are using those original ideas to reinterpret a new architecture that derives from the local tradition, as a way of creating a new modernity.”
Mostafavi emphasises that the public realm – ie, space for citizens – remains paramount.
“How the city is used by its citizens is a very key feature in our programme for KL,” he says, adding that the public realm involves both buildings and open spaces.
In explaining some of the students’ proposals, he says their designs looked at the “in-between spaces” (such as in between buildings) and include the role of landscape in connecting the city.
For example, highways provide convenience but they also cut off different parts of the city from each other.
“So now we also face the challenge of how to reconnect the neighbourhoods that have been disconnected. These are examples of how we can create new combinations of landscapes and pedestrian walkways connecting the various parts of the city,” says Mostafavi.
Mostafavi adds that sustainability is usually discussed in terms of individual buildings but there is also a need to discuss whether the whole urban development, including infrastructure, is sustainable.
“How do you judge the sustainability of a city? These are the sorts of questions that involve the government and also private-public partnership. We have to operate individual developments within a larger scale strategy, not just do piece-by-piece developments that may not make sense as a whole.
“So this is a project about how to make sense of KL as a whole, not just make aesthetic judgements about individual projects but to really look at it in a holistic way,” he says.
“And part of the challenge is to look at a variety of different conditions in KL to see how we can rely on the diversity of the city, combination of modernity and tradition, and think about the future in a way that is both progressive yet respectful of history and culture of Malaysia,” he adds.
As a whole, the research studio respects tradition and believes that it can go hand in hand with development and urbanisation.
“There are going to be recommendations that talk about a new understanding of tradition and creating a ‘contemporary tradition’. That means, we don’t always have to copy the Western style of buildings, that we can also have a modernity and progress based on our traditions. I think that’s a very important issue for this region generally,” says Mostafavi.
Another aspect of the studio revolves around the importance of developing new forms of the public realm that go beyond parks, such as the spaces in between buildings which are often not designed.
The third aspect of the studio is about enhancing and utilising infrastructure, including the river, for future development.
“The river is where a lot more can be done to make it a clean, pleasurable space that is also a network around which new developments happen.
“Instead of the river being a place where people throw garbage into, we want to be facing the river, to see developments along it, and how it could be used for transportation,” says Mostafavi.
Chiao commends the students’ work, which he says offers innovative solutions.
“I think the students have done a wonderful job.
“When I say innovative solutions, they not only use technology but really understand that the integrated solution is so critical because urban issues have become so complex,” he says.
“The programme is also about promoting a dialogue. We have to continue to push for dialogue between public and private sectors, and push for the best opportunities for the city,” says Chiao.