Theories of Urbanism: Comparative Analysis Essay of Jalan Besar, Klang & Hang Dao Street, Hanoi

BSc (Hons) Architecture School of Architecture, Building and Design

Theories of Architecture and Urbanism (ARC61303) Project 2 : Comparative Analysis Essay of Jalan Besar, Klang & Hàng Đào Street, Hanoi Tutor : Mr. Prince Favis Yap Student : Viktor Zeidler Lim (1006aH79876)

August 2021

Contents

Introduction Local Site Research : Jalan Besar, Klang, Malaysia

Case Study : Hàng Đào Street, Hanoi Old District, Vietnam Hanoi like many other South East Asian cities have a vibrant and bustling street life in some of their historical-utrned -commercial districts, but only very few like Hang Dao, have preserved the essense of the old trading street despite accelerating development and the change of needs over the century. Hang Dao was known as ‘Silk Street’ during ther French Colonisation in the 15th century as it was a center for silk trade having built a reputation for a particular deep pink dye which is carried in it’s name ‘Dao’. Other textile merchants began opening shops and is still up to this day a place to explore for clothing.

Klang is located southwest from the city center of Kuala Lumpur in the state of Selangor, Malaysia, and was once regarded as the official royal town during it’s early days under British occupation. The town is in close proximity to the prominent Port Klang that is still very active today for the trading industries. The historical town that has gradually faded from it’s glory days has grown to be popular for it’s local cuisine; in particularly Bah Ku Teh, that has been widely served amongst the Chinese communities ever since it’s introduction during the 17th Century when the town was at it’s peak after having flourished economically due to the expansion in the tin mining industry in the region.

Background

: History & Morphology

Local Site Research : Jalan Besar, Klang, Selangor, Malaysia

Case Study : Hàng Đào Street, Hanoi Old District, Vietnam

Early 17th Century The Klang River being a tin-mining wealth and trade route, many serttlements were built near the river consisting mainly fo attap houses with very few rads and murky terrains

1950s

Mid-Late 19th Century Klang Railway Station and Malaysia’s first double decker bridge, Kota Bridge, was built to accommodate the increasing activity during British collonial rule

20th Century Two new bridges built. One parallel to Kota Bridge which is now the connecting Federal Highway to Kuala Lumpur and Musaeddin Bridge extending Jalan Tengku Kelana towards the new relocated city center

Analysis

: Contact Points

Local Site Research : Jalan Besar, Klang, Malaysia Chong Kok Kopitiam Easily one of the most popular destinations of the area among both locals and tourists due to it’s authentic charm, historical significance and reputation for serving some of the best breakfast in the region.

Little India, Jalan Klang A significant street widely known for it’s vibrant and sensorially delightful street-life. A highlight destination particularly among tourists and a gem for locals to shop for quality traditional Indian garments and spiritual items.

Klang Street 5 foot Walkway The entire shophouse and central food/retail district is architecturally designed with a five-foot walkway arched alongside the frontage of the shophouses extending all the way across under it’s divrse archways and mosaic floor tiles.

Klang Train Station The central node for the entire district providing transportational linkage and access to the city center and it’s rural neighbourhoods in distant places. It is also a landmark and meeting point for most people to due it’s strategic location facing a highlg active intersection.

Jalan Stesen 1, Open Space + Night Mural A historically rich and precious site consisting of numerous old yet unique traditional crafts and businesses alongside new trendy and upcoming spaces that cater to both the young and old.

Case Study : Hàng Đào Street, Hanoi Old District, Vietnam Road Intersection, Hàng Đào - Hang Ngang Mostly essential services such as a Bank and Department store. The corner lots are facing a larger open crossing creating a slightly different environment with food stalls using up the open space.

Night Market, Hàng Đào - Dong Xuan People interact with hawkers stalls, while shopping or even having a meal while strolling the market as it stretches throughout taking over the entire streetscape.

Hàng Đào Street Sidewalk The sidewalks are vibrant with endless social interactions and variety of activities. The informality creates a stimulating environment that is essential to livable spaces. (Gehl, Life Between Buildings, p.21)

Fountain, Dong Khin Nghia Square The fountain creates a more calming and contemplative environment with the flow and sound of water in contrast to the traffic. (Gehl, p.167)

CityView Cafe, Dong Khin Nghia Square The large buildings with terraces near the squares create a multi-layered visual experience, especially in the Square where the interweaving and fluidity of organic traffic without lights is a marvel to many outsiders. (Gehl, p.127)

Analysis

: Street Activity Comparison

Local Site Research :Jalan Besar, Klang, Malaysia

Case Study : Hàng Đào Street, Hanoi Old District, Vietnam

Chong Kok Kopitiam, Jalan Besar

walking

talking

eating

Little India, Jalan Klang

Road Intersection, Hàng Đào - Hang Ngang

walking

talking

eating

Hàng Đào Street Sidewalk

Klang Street 5 foot Walkway

sitting

others

Klang Train Station/Intersection

Klang Train Station, Road Intersection Open Space + Night Mural, Jalan Stesen 1 Hàng Đào Street Night Market

Unlike Hang Dao Street, the research-specific street in Klang has it’s major node at an intersection that is linked to a public transportation infrastructure; the Klang Train Station. High volume of traffic runs to and fro from this point throughout the city; from pick-up, travellers and local stalls to the everyday local communters and workers that utilise the available facilities and urban environment mainly out of neccessity. New car-parking grounds and more importantly seating, has been built alongside the station to accomodate the influx of people. The intersection also shares a popular destination; the Chongkok Kopitiam, which contributes to much of it’s foreign visits providing a space of shelter and sensorial pleasure for the visitor, very much like the Nghia Square which additionally provides public space, seating and natural shade from it’s trees.

Night Market, Hàng Đào - Dong Xuan

sitting

others

Hàng Đào Street Sidewalk

Fountain, Dong Khin Nghia Square CityView Cafe, Dong Khin Nghia Square Klang Street 5 foot Walkway

Both the Sidewalk and the Night Market share an equally high degree of intensity in majority of the general human activities and varying interactions; particularly walking. Geographically they both actually share the same street with the Market taking up the central portion of the main road for pop up stalls and booths that are retail oriented while the sidewalk is mainly occupied during the day by predominantly the local community that frequent the area to communte to and back from work. Similarly to Klang, portions of the street pedestrian path is extended and occupied by the frontage of the stalls, in most instances for seating in Hang Dao and shop displays in Klang.

Analysis

: Urban Design

Critical Overview and Applicable Theories

“I believe that public space should be intentional: it should be obvious that you belong.”

- Janet Echelman

You can judge the accessibility of a place by its connections to its surroundings, both visual and physical. A successful public space is easy to get to and get through; it is visible both from a distance and up close. The edges of a space are important as well: For instance, a row of shops along a street is more interesting and generally safer to walk by than a blank wall or empty lot. Accessible spaces have a high parking turnover and, ideally, are convenient to public transit.

C

https://www.pps.org

Analysis

: Urban Design

Building Form and Category of Use

main attractions essential activity optional activies (food & drinks) public areas / social activity

The typology of buildings along Jalan Besar, Klang, in reference to the previous page, covers a broader range of building uses and types in comparison to that of Hang Dao,Hanoi. Jalan Besar alone already comprises of more than 10 types in which 3 specifically trnasportation (Klang Train Station), a lottery store and post office can be found along Jalan Besar and not Hang Dao Street. Both the lottery store and the post office are located in a larger, taller and newer development in relation to majority of it’s neighbouring and district buildings which are mainly old shophouses.

Hang Dao also comprises of old shophouses as far back as the 15th century during the french colonisation and has remained eversince with only visible vertical extensions of the upper floors and mostly complete interior renovation to make way for more spaces with new businesses and activities taking place. A more prominent feature that can be seen from the street in Hang Dao is the protruding balconies and hamhazzard canopies from the different shoplots that act as an advertisement as Klang would have a signboard and more importantly a form of shade to be shared with it’s existing trees in which Klang solely relies on it’s architecturally embedded historical design of the five foot walkway that stretches beneath it’s upper floors in line to the facade.

Another significant element of both streets is the intersections at the end road; key junctions that extend to the other main roads linking to other neighbouring parts of the area.

Hang Dao has a clearly more developed public realm with a dedicated plaza and fountain not far from the lake just across, making it an effective mediator and transitional space for those crossing between the two contrasting yet connected areas. Klang on the otherhand does not have any clear or convinient access to it’s river.

Analysis

: Urban Theories

Maslow’s Hierachy of Needs & Jan Gehl’s ‘Life Between Buildings’

Maslow believes that all human behavior is determined by the principle of avoiding pain and seeking pleasure. The urban design concern here is with the built environment that provides the adequate settings in which people can pursue their lives.

It is also important to consider that the striving for the satisfaction of each basic need in Maslow’s hierarchy differs because the priorities and lifelong pursuits in one’s life differs at different stages in the life cycle. Each individual has a role to play within a culture. This role establishes a routine to a person’s life. Needs are seen from the perspective of the role. Identifying them is not easy because roles overlap. The productive roles of individuals may well overlap the roles required at a stage in their life cycles. (Lang, 1994, pg.222-223)

Diagram 1 : Gehl has observed in his work ‘Life Between Buildings’ a high frequency in optional activities in better quality public spaces; correlating to a substantial increase in social activities. (Gehl, 2011)

High intensity

Low intensity

Close friendships Friends Acquaintances Chance contacts Passive contacts (“see and hear” contacts)

Analysis

: Behavioral Settings

Effect of built environment on behavioral pattern

“Only architecture that considers the human scale and interaction is successful architecture.”

Jan Gehl

Apart from both the main street of Klang and Hang Dao sharing similar qualities in their response to the sidewalks with the extension of private entity into the public realm; there is a noticeable difference in their use of space and general response to the environment. From only a series of snippets taken from a raw youtube recording/footage online, It is obvious that the locals and vast majority of motorists tend to favour sitting and even simply resting or ‘hanging out’ along the sidewalk. The sidewalk has become a form of contact point due to it’s varying degrees of use as highlighted in the image above where the people in Hang Dao are seen to be seated on the sidewalk both near and even center (directly in front of a lamp post), on their bikes just off the pedestrian edge and sometimes even parked on and along the entire sidewalk below the various canopies with just enough room for a passerby to walk through.

Even the simple act or orientating the chairs facing the flow of pedestrian traffic may be considered fairly unusual in context to those choosing to sit along the streets of Klang.

Most Malaysians would prefer to avoid sitting uncomfortably in the midst of public realm or under the sun unless provided with adequate reason and shade. The cultural phenomenon of parking the motorbikes along pedestrain path is shamefully yet interestingly regarded as ‘normal’ within the context of both streets. It would be considered an inconsiderate or even rebellious and selfish act to do so in most other largely more developed or modern spaces yet the act of doing so has not only changed the views, mindset of the majority but is also constantly re-shaping the urban landscape with it’s hot mobile seat on two wheels. While this behavior is often a personality attribute of an individual, it can also be the personality attribute of a people—a culture. (Lang, 1994)

Conclusion Beyond the Brief

A fruitful way of looking at the public realm is to consider it as a set of behaviour settings – a term coined by ecological psychologists in the 1960s (Lang, 1987). A behaviour etting consists of a standing (or recurring) behaviour pattern, a milieu (pattern of built form) and a time period. The milieu must have the affordances forthe behaviour to occur, but because the affordances are there does not mean that aspecific behaviour will take place there. The milieu consists of the floor of the ground, the surfaces of buildings andother physical elements, and the objects that both bound it and structure it internally. It is the set of behaviour settings and how the milieu affords activities andsimultaneously acts as an aesthetic display that is important.

(Lang, 2005)

Expected and accepted behaviors and attitudes vary from culture to culture. A culture, by definition, has a system of beliefs about what behaviors are appropriate in different circumstances; it shares values and symbol systems. Cultures are unique because they have evolved and continue to evolve unselfconsciously in response to the peculiarities of their histories and of the terrestrial setting (Vayda 1969).

To meet their needs, people must make behavioral choices. Such choices may be achieved in a number of ways. Individuals can adapt themselves either psychologically or physiologically to a situation; the former may often be difficult and stressful and the latter largely impossible. They can also manipulate the nature of a situation through social or institutional modifications. These changes may, in turn, necessitate making changes in their location in the physical environment or the structure of the built environment.

In retrospect to the earlier points addressed in regards to human needs and activities, it is clear that the built environment has a key role in providing the public with the basic infrastructure and urban design to carry out our daily lives yet there is much to question in regards to who decides what is to offer and If it were contextual to the site, It would be wise to take into consideration the varying types and degrees of interaction and the often complex and diverse range of activites that evolve parallel to the growing technological advancements, cultural flux and built infrastructure.

Basing of Maslow’s hierachy of needs, it would be valid to say that we humans would require sufficient conditions to function yet there are many of us that seek to obtain some higher form of experience or need that may not be fulfilled through mere physical surroundings. Socio-political aspects of the street such as the division of class or perhaps working groups and communities alongside public, private and even hybrid and autonomous spaces would also play a crucial role in determining how, what, when and where structures need to be built to serve not just us users but in my view, the environment.

Perhaps we should start looking into how technological advances and behavioral patterns overlap and If there is any urgency or importance with having to fufill all contextual needs and If otherwise, even provide a place of adaptability, uncertainty and mystery to unfold.

“A city grows like an organism. It is a structure of living and working together a mix of functions.”

Jaime Lerner

References

Llewelyn-Davies (Firm), Alan Baxter & Associates., English Partnerships., & Housing Corporation. (2000). Urban design compendium: English Partnerships, the Housing Corporation. London: English Partnerships.

Davies, Colin (2011). Thinking about Architecture: An Introduction to Architectural Theory. Laurence King Publishing, London.

Gehl , Jahn (2011). Life Between Buildings: Using Public Space (6 th Ed). Island Press, Washington DC. Gehl , Jan (2013). Cities for People. Island Press, Gehl , Jan & Svarre , Birgitte (2013). How to study Public Life: Methods in Urban Design. Island Press, Washington DC. Lynch, Kevin (1990). The Image of the City. The MIT Press.

Lang, J. T. (2005). Urban design: A typology of procedures and products. Oxford: Elsevier/Architectural Press.

Alexander, Christopher (1978). A Pattern Language: Towns, Buildings, Construction. USA. Kim, A. M. (2015). Sidewalk city: Remapping public space in Ho Chi Minh City. (Sidewalk City.) Chicago, Ill: Univ. of Chicago Press.