Comparative Analysis Essay

SCHOOL OF ARCHITECTURE, BUILDING AND DESIGN THEORIES OF ARCHITECTURE AND URBANISM (ARC 61303) Part 2: Comparative Analysis Essay

Samcheongdong Road, Seoul, Korea & Jalan Sulaiman, Kajang, Malaysia

Name: Lock Tian Jiun ID: 0327636 Tutor: Ms. Filzani Word Count: 3336 words

Table of Content 1.0 Foreword

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2.0 Street Background 2.1 Samcheongdong Road, Seoul, South Korea 2.2 Jalan Sulaiman, Kajang, Malaysia

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3.0 Contact Points and Intensity Level Comparative Analysis

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3.1 Contact Point 1 - Sidewalks & Five-foot Walkways 9 3.2 Contact Point 2 - Cafe Breezin & Medan Satay

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3.3 Contact Point 3 - Bus Stop & Taxi Lane

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3.4 Contact Point 4 - Hanok & Colonial Shophouses

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3.5 Contact Point 5 - Side Alleys & Back Lanes

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4.0 Conclusion

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5.0 References

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1.0 Foreword In this comparative analysis essay, two streets from different countries are being interpreted and analysed - Samcheongdong Road, Seoul, Korea, and Jalan Sulaiman, Kajang, Malaysia. Similarities and differences of its urban setting, in terms of contact points, contact intensity and activities are being studied and analysed in reference to the Danish architect and urbanist, Jan Gehl’s ‘Life Between Buildings’.

Relating the analysis with the framework of urban context, identifying the contact points that both streets have to offer and comparing it with each other, should give us an inside look of elements such as social interaction, foot pathways, density, activities and typology; how it affects human culture and forms a unique yet defined character to its individual street name.

According to (Gehl, 2011, p.124), he prioritises the public life and the spaces in which they take place as he explores on the activities in the urban context and their contributions to the quality of life.

A framework to the outdoor activities namely necessary activities, optional activities and social activities (Gehl, 2011, p.9). He associates necessary activities as functional activities that are independent from the physical environment whereas optional activities are recreational activities that depend on the physical environment as it dictates people’s behaviour and atmosphere in the context. This interrelates to the conditions of the public space where he explains the better the place, the more optional activities occur and the longer the necessary activity last. It then catalyses the resultant activity, which is the social activity of the place. The combined activities emulates the essence of the life between buildings.

In closing, it should be noted that the similarities and differences between the two streets shed light on the patterns of social activity, contact points and degree of contact intensity.

Consequently, it allows a better contextual and physical understanding of shared public space as settings for public life in allowing people to congregate and interact.

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2.0 Street Background 2.1 Samcheongdong Road, Seoul, South Korea

Located at the old capital of Han Yang, founded by the late Joseon king, Emperor Sejong, Seoul has a reputable fame for centuries from past to present. The wealth of this capital has flourish the nation and its surrounding provinces. In present day, we can still see its preserved cultural and heritage in the surrounding area with the presence of modernisation lifestyle.

Samcheongdong Road, which located beside the grand palace Gyeongbokgong, is a street which houses the aristocrats and the wealth as a meeting point or a place for them to enjoy the serenity of the area, as it has lush greeneries encircled the whole city with a mountain at the back. It also has its name from the story about three ‘cheong’ (Chinese character meaning ‘clean’) of the area, namely the mountain, water, and people. Another theory is that the origin of the region's name came from Samcheongjeon Hall where three tablets called ‘Taecheong,’ ‘Sangcheong,’ and ‘Okcheong,’ were set up based on Taoism. Hanok, a traditional wood dwellings were abundant in the street to accommodate the high ranks during their visit.

After couple of centuries later, Samcheongdong Road has became a tourist spot with many notable landmarks around it. The hanok buildings are been preserved and the mixture of old and modern fusion can be clearly seen in this street. Galleries, antique shops and cafés dominates this heritage street. Visitors can feel the strong vibe of cultural mood at every corner of the street. The combination of past and present has made up the character of Samcheongdong Road.

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Figure 1: View of Samcheongdong Road during the day

Diagram 1: Historical timeline of Samcheongdong Road with figure ground morphology study

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2.2 Jalan Sulaiman, Kajang, Malaysia

Kajang is a town small town in Selangor, Malaysia. The town was founded by the Temuan tribe peoples until the Mendaling people arrives the area somewhere around 1800 due to the dilapidated economy of Sumatra after the colonisation of Dutch. Since then, they have became the majority group of people who lives in Kajang. During the British colonisation in Malaya, Kajang has become one of the tin mining town. Since then, the British brought many Chinese and Indian labours into Kajang, thus made Kajang a Chinese-dominant town. Colonial shophouses are erected and businesses are blooming during this period of time. The good times of Kajang has since actively flourish until the Japanese occupation.

Today, Kajang is said to have the ‘best satay’ in Malaysia and rich in historical culture.

The town sits in varieties of races and religions, namely the Malays, Chinese and Indians as well as many other ethnic groups lives harmony together. Although each of these cultures has its own distinctive values and traditions, yet they are blended together so well to create Kajang’s uniquely diverse heritage.

Referring back to our street - Jalan Sulaiman, which located at the centre of Kajang town, well-known for its Medan Satay and the traditional businesses, particularly within the perimeter of the site observation. This street acts as a transitional road for the area to let people passes by with the accompany of old colonial buildings transformed into variety of businesses, eateries, financial institution and a big shopping complex.

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Figure 2: View of Jalan Sulaiman during the day

Diagram 2: Historical morphology study of Kajang showing its development

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3.0 Contact Points & Intensity Level Comparative Analysis In Jan Gehl’s “Life Between Buildings”, he generally focuses on the public life and spaces in which he explores the activities happening in the urban context which it might take place, how does the context contributes to the quality of life in cities as well as the factors which can be taken to improvise the life and lifestyle between buildings and the city life experience.

Based on Gehl’s terminology, there are three different moments and activities of outdoor life: necessary activities, optional activities and social activities. Necessary activities are the everyday actions. It covers the functional aspects, which are independent from the physical environment. For optional activities however, are a voluntary-act based and highly dependent on physical conditions, usually in recreational activities. This interrelates to the conditions of the public space where Gehl explains the better quality the place, the more optional activities occur and the longer the necessary activities last. This would formulates variety of spontaneous social activities and interactions at the public space.

These outdoor activity patterns later emerge towards the formation of a positive public life.

Looking into Samcheongdong Road and Jalan Sulaiman, both streets provides basic and similar street elements such as basic sidewalks, shophouses and roads, forming the basic streetscape for both context. Despite the similarities, Gehl’s terminology highlights that activity as a mean for contact, that both streets have different activity patterns due to its cultural difference thus creating different interaction dynamics to formulate as a contact point. As a result, people in both streets respond to social engagement with other people in different patterns, resulting in varying degrees of intensity.

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Diagram 3: Graphic representation of the relationship between outdoor activities and quality of environment

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Diagram 4: Contact points in Samcheongdong Road, Seoul, South Korea

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Diagram 5: Contact points in Jalan Sulaiman, Kajang, Malaysia

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3.1 Contact Point 1 - Sidewalks & Five-foot Walkways Samcheongdong’s sidewalks and Jalan Sulaiman’s five-foot walkway are compared as both contact points are strategized to be the primary form of circulation and routes that acts as buffer zone to isolate open public space and shophouses. Despite the similarity, both circulation spaces are dedicated to different functional spaces to provide different needs for the users. Along the sidewalks in Samcheongdong Road, outdoor benches can be seen abundantly to provide necessary resting convenience after a long walk, creating a user friendly space. Trees are planted along the sidewalk to provide clear boundary between vehicle and pedestrian walkway, and also increases the aesthetic quality of the space. For the five-foot walkway in Jalan Sulaiman however, shop owners tend to strategize their business and attract customers by displaying their cooking area, display shelves and booth facing to the walkways. Giving the five-foot walkway is relatively narrow, it triggers the curiosity of the pedestrian, allows more stopping moments along the walkway for them to get into the shop by chance. A direct relationship to other people and to the surrounding social environment (Gehl, 2011, p.28) especially for the locals and visitors who visiting the streets.

The climate condition of both streets are drastically different and their functions are vary due to it. For instance, Seoul has four seasons whereas in Kajang is considered summer throughout the year due to its tropical climate. However, in such situation, the amount of people uses the walkways for both streets are relatively same throughout the year. Visitors in Samcheongdong Road can still walk freely upon the sidewalks with no shades without get affected by the weather with the exception of drastic weathers such as rain and snow, whereas locals in Jalan Sulaiman will gather around and walk under the five-foot walkway as it provides shade from the scorching sun and rain.

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The tendency of outdoor and social activity is highly correlated to the quality of the outdoor space. In Samcheongdong Road, visitors can experience different kind of activities based on the seasons, thus creates its own quality of space and variety of social and outdoor activity throughout the year for the visitors to gather around despite the sidewalks are exposed to the weather. For the case in Jalan Sulaiman, the heat and unbearable amount of sunlight from the tropical climate discourages human activities within the outdoor settings as it would cause discomfort to human body. The shading provided on top of the five-foot walkway creates a cooler ambience for the people, thus the quality of space is preserved. Despite the difference of the climate condition of both streets, the tendency for people to have necessary activities and gather upon both streets are high, potentially creating high intensity of chance contact.

In terms of human scale, the five-foot walkway in Jalan Sulaiman marks the triumph compared to the sidewalk of Samcheongdong Road. The intimacy created by the five-foot walkway is shown by the close proximity of an individual passable space whereby the distance between a people to another is within arm reach. The establishment of human scale plays an important role in influencing the lives amongst people. With this preferable human scale of Jalan Sulaiman’s five-foot walkway, it enhances the formation of valid contact point throughout the street.

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Figure 3: Implementation of seating benches along the exposed sidewalk of Samcheongdong Road to let tired visitors to rest before continuing their journey, creating the potential for optional activities engagements and contacts.

Figure 4: The shops facing the five-foot walkway along Jalan Sulaiman tends to showcase their goods to attract people to buy their stuff, creating a potential view and interaction for the people who passes by the shops.

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Trees are set to provide boundary between vehicular and human circulation

Outdoor bench is provided for resting after long walks Samcheongdong Road

Exposed sidewalk

Exposed sidewalk

Diagram 6: Condition of physical environment and contact intensity along the sidewalks of Samcheongdong Road.

Narrow walkway increases chance of engagement between people and shop owners

Five-foot walkway provides ample shade for the pedestrian Jalan Sulaiman

Five-foot walkway

Five-foot walkway

Diagram 7: Condition of five-foot walkway in relation to the intimacy between shop owners

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3.2 Contact Point 2 - Cafe Breezin & Medan Satay For the eatery and cafeteria nodes of both streets, Cafe Breezin in Samcheongdong Road and Medan Satay in Jalan Sulaiman are compared. The similarities in these two contact points is that they represents the food culture and the vibe of both cities. Local food culture provides the identity of the space through the cultural approach where the place wanted to give out, as a representation of sense of place, resulting in increase of visitors to the area, thus the ‘local identity’ is formed in both streets.

The existence of the frontage for both eateries are fairly wide to allow maximum exposure of pedestrian engagement that attracts people to dine in. This proves that the utilisation of outdoor features creates the quality of space that draws people attention towards the space, which creating the social activities. These street level engagements provides an effective attractions, which causes people to be involved in the actions provided by the space (Gehl, 2011, p.29).

Figure 5: The classy look of the cafe located adjacent to the sidewalk intrigues visitor’s attention to have a relax moment, as suggested by Gehl that street level engagements can aid in forming effective attraction.

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Figure 6: Mass openings at the Medan Satay draws interest of pedestrian to look inside to see whether they are good food available for them, creating a visual frontage and attraction to the passerby.

The spatial layout of the Medan Satay is more likely an open and informal dining, whereby an ambience is created during the period of crowdedness, leading to a more intimate of human interaction as they would be encourage to share tables if there is too many customers.

For Cafe Breezin however, an indoor seating space with high-end and classy look which tends to invite visitors to have time to spare for a drink, socialise and relax in a soothing atmosphere. A high level of social activities can be still going on in such ambience. In fact, passive contacts and activities is promoted where the frontage of the cafe serves as a natural barrier from the exterior, creating a transition of contrasting yet balanced activities in the same compound of space. With the consistency of human circulation around the cafe, resulting high in contact intensity, thus easier to form contacts for the people within the social setting.

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Figure 7: Unobstructed view from inside out tends to increase visual intimacy for the people, with abundant of seats for people their social activity from street into the Medan Satay.

Fully open frontage increases viewing point from inside out, creating attraction for people to come

Diagram 8: Indication of Medan Satay’s frontage attracts people

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3.3 Contact Point 3 - Bus Stop & Taxi Lane The public waiting points are also in a form of contact point as well, such as the bus stop in Samcheongdong Road and the taxi lane along Jalan Sulaiman. Both contact points creates an informal meeting point for the people, thus creating multiple levels of social interaction as it provides constant flow of people.

The bus stop in Samcheongdong Road creates a potential contact point for the visitors to wait and gather in place. Necessary activities can be occur in the bus stop as the people are meant to be picked up at the point. Meanwhile, there is a big open space behind the bus stop creates multiple possible social activities during the wait for the bus, enhancing the social activity engagement, making the contact point to be in a larger scale. This situation creates a point where people tend to stay and interact by the contact point until the bus comes, and this would be in a continuous mode despite the lack of shades throughout the space.

For the taxi lane provided in Jalan Sulaiman, it stretches that consists half of the street are dedicated for the taxi lane, making it a highly visible contact point in the street. However, despite of its clear vision for the people around the street, the only available point for people to standby and wait are fairly limited, namely the five-foot walkway. Even so, the people can choose to wait at the Medan Satay, which is located beside the taxi lane, where it has seatings for people to wait for their taxi. In this situation, optional and social activities are minimal as the site condition does not promote much engagement with the exception to the relation of Medan Satay, where social interactions are still available for awhile during the waiting.

In short, both contact points experience a high density flow of people, yet the taxi lane in Jalan Sulaiman promotes little to none social interaction with just a mere gather point for pick up, which simultaneously enhances the human flow throughout the street as necessary activities should be. The existence of the open space behind the bus stop in Samcheongdong Road increases social relations within the space efficiently.

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Figure 8: Existence of the open space behind the bus stop allows the chance of optional and social activities to work out within this contact point, and also makes the bus stop more visible as it is the only structural figure within this contact point.

Figure 9: The long stretching taxi lane creates a visual attraction for people to notice and easily been found. However, people tend to wait at the five-foot walkway as they would feel discomfort bathing a long time under the scorching sunlight.

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Open space creates intimacy and enhances social interaction while waiting for bus

Diagram 9: Condition of physical environment and contact intensity at the bus stop in Samcheongdong Road.

Scorching sunlight luminate the taxi lane Waiting area limited to five-foot walkway as the only place where can find shade while waiting for taxi

Diagram 10: Condition of people who is waiting the taxi on the taxi lane in Jalan Sulaiman.

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3.4 Contact Point 4 - Hanok & Colonial Shophouses With the aspect of culture and heritage for both streets, the hanok buildings along Samcheongdong Road and the colonial pre-war shophouses in Jalan Sulaiman are significant to the historical context for both streets. The existence of the historical street facade has become a prominent feature to attract people to come along for a sightseeing during their walk.

The hanok buildings scattered along Samcheongdong Road provides a strong historical local culture throughout the street. The unique characteristic of the building’s shopfront enhance the number of visitors to passby for a gaze of such historical buildings. On top of that, some of the old hanoks are being refurbished to a modernised cafe and artisan shop to accommodate the tourist with its fusion flavour. This has created a unique context for social engagement within the historical boundary with a twist of modernism approach.

With the refurbishment of old hanoks into cafes and galleries, optional interaction activities are greatly increases, thus resulting a better urban environment along the street.

Colonial pre-war shophouses create a decent local historical context along Jalan Sulaiman, with a different approach compared to Samcheongdong Road, which is the owner of the buildings tend to keep its originality of the storefront and maintaining its local businesses to accommodate the locals. Such honest approach preserves the essences of local culture and can be experienced by the people who passes by the street with the help of the five-foot walkway. The intimacy of the street balanced the serenity and positive optional activities that maintains the local vibe of the city.

For instance, the accommodation level and interaction intensity of both streets are relatively high, with the different approach of social group, tourists and visitors for fusion-themed hanok building storefronts in Samcheongdong Road, whereas the locals for originality-preserved colonial shophouses in Jalan Sulaiman. The principle of both streets is that it creates a linear structure, so that when activities are assembled along the street, people can take a short walk to see what is going on in the area (Gehl, 2011, p.87).

Therefore, the level of engagement to the shopfront are the same for both streets.

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Figure 10: Traditional hanoks are refurbished and repurposed to accommodate the visitors without losing its cultural vibe. It has also create a potential cultural spot throughout Samcheongdong Road for taking photos as an optional activity.

Figure 11: The colonial pre-war shophouses facade has not been treated as it keeps the originality of the past, reflecting the aged and dilapidated town of Kajang.

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Diagram 11: The fusion-type of facade in Samcheongdong Road shows the ever changing culture and heritage of Seoul

Diagram 12: The originality of colonial shophouses in Jalan Sulaiman.preserves the authenticity of culture from the past

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3.5 Contact Point 5 - Side Alleys & Back Lanes Side alleys and back lanes are used by both streets to connect through places. It is also acts as a secondary circulation for the people to walk through. Usually, people generally prefer to walk along the side alleys and back lanes as it is normally used as a shortcuts as they are faster to access towards their destination. The significance of side alleys in Samcheongdong Road and the back lanes in Jalan Sulaiman are then compared.

The intensity level of side alleys in Samcheongdong Road are rather low as it has only a small amount of people using it. This is due to the alley’s nature, as most of the side alleys does not provides shortcut to access to other place, but a passageway for shop owner and homestay tenants to access to their respective units. Moreover, pedestrians in Samcheongdong Road are likely to walk on the sidewalks rather than side alleys as sidewalks provides more visual attractions and social activities, therefore the pedestrians had no valid reasons to walk the side alleys unless they are the owners of the shophouses.

The necessary activities are still present, however, this causes only a certain type of user utilises the side alleys.

In the opposite situation, however, back lanes of Jalan Sulaiman are fully utilised as it does connects to vary direction of roads and places in a short distance. Cars and pedestrians are likely to have a drive and walk on the back lanes. Pedestrians can go to the back lanes via the end of five-foot walkway. High intensity of necessary activities are carried out yet optional and social activities are most likely would not apply on such spaces as it considered dangerous and unpleasant to stay any longer due to the local perception of danger in Kajang.

Functionally, back lanes in Jalan Sulaiman has an absolute standout in this contact point.

Despite of that, locals are still perceived it as an insecurity place to stay. As a result, only necessary activities are promoted on such space. For Samcheongdong Road wise, certain actions should be utilised to the side alleys, such as promoting multiple access throughout the area and create a pocket space or garden or graffiti art to increase the intensity of human interactions.

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Figure 12: Side alleys are mostly being ignored by the pedestrians as it serves no purpose for outsiders, only being utilised by the shop owner or house tenants which lives inside the side alley. Moreover, people tends to walk at the sidewalk rather than side alley as sidewalks provides more frontage views, encouraging the possibility on having social activities.

Figure 13: People come and go with utilising the back lanes as one of their alternative route to another place. Pedestrians willing to get unshaded for awhile just to walk the back alley to reach their destination fast as they perceived that back lanes are not suitable for staying too long.

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Sidewalks are more intriguing to be involved in as it provide necessary activities for the pedestrian

Side alleys serves no purpose for pedestrian as it cannot be used as a shortcut to the other place

Diagram 13: Condition of physical environment and contact intensity of side alleys in Samcheongdong Road

A number of people would use back lanes to go to their destination as it provides necessary activity for the pedestrians and vehicular users

Diagram 14: Condition of physical environment and contact intensity of back lanes in Jalan Sulaiman

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4.0 Conclusion Overall, we can conclude that from the comparative analysis conducted between Samcheongdong Road and Jalan Sulaiman that social patterns and street cultures play a significant role in the success of public space in urban context. Through the study, both streets reflects similar characteristics whereby both streetscapes adapt modernisation footsteps and compromised into own individual street culture that we can observed clearly.

This shows that both streets are meet to change according to the differences in vitality of the spaces, determining their play in the success of public spaces in the urban context, providing various valid contact points with different degree of intensity.

However, both streets are in a difference of their purposes and experiences. The core of Jalan Sulaiman is set to be filled with necessary activities such as running errands and provide eating place for the surrounding site which cause the action of lingering to be much diminishing, whereas in Samcheongdong Road emphasizes in relaxation and social-based lifestyle and interaction as their core values. For contact intensity wise, Jalan Sulaiman potent to be a service-purpose street which caters only locals with low social interaction intensity. On the other hand, Samcheongdong Road provides higher intensity of social interactions for visitors and locals as its nature of being a tourist spot.

The significance of vibrancy and liveliness within an urban context where the people inhabiting the place. Such an extension of opportunities for outdoor stays exactly where everyday activities take place will almost without exception be a valuable contribution to a given function and to life between buildings in the building project, in the neighbourhood, and in the city. Therefore, it is crucial for us to acknowledge these essences from the contact points along the urban streets for our implication towards our design and strategies to create life between building within a city.

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5.0 References Printed ●

Gehl, J. (2011). Life Between Buildings: Using Public Space. Washington, DC: Island Press

Online

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Charming Samcheongdong Tradition. (n.d.). Retrieved from https://www.koreattrack.com/samcheongdong.html

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Kajang. (2019, May 31). Retrieved from https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kajang

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Ng, C. (n.d.). Kajang: What makes it famous? Retrieved from http://english.astroawani.com/malaysia-news/kajang-what-makes-it-famous-30 296

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SEOUL Diaries: Things To Do in SAMCHEONG-DONG. (2018, November 19). Retrieved from http://missuety.com/seoul-diaries-things-to-do-in-samcheongdong/

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Sun, H., & Choi. (2017, July 21). New Forms of Place-Making and Public Space in Contemporary Urban Development in Seoul, South Korea. Retrieved from https://www.scirp.org/Journal/PaperInformation.aspx?paperID=78863&

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건축도시정책정보센터. (n.d.). Retrieved from http://www.aurum.re.kr/City/AttractionDoc.aspx?num=1#.XMj83-gzZPZ

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