SCHOOL OF ARCHITECTURE, BUILDING & DESIGNBACHELOR OF SCIENCE (HONS) IN

ARCHITECTURE

THEORIES OF ARCHTECTURE AND URBANISM [ARC61303 / ARC2224]

PROJECT PART 2: A COMPARATIVE ANALYSIS ESSAY

PETALING STREET | MEATPACKING DISTRICT

NAME: MASRUR AKMAL BIN JAMALSTUDENT ID: 0315141

TUTOR: MR NAZMISUBMISSION DATE: 28TH NOVEMBER 2016

INTRODUCTION TO SITE

Petaling Street

Figure 1.1: The iconic arch and “green dragon” of the Petaling Street

Petaling Street is a Chinatown located in Kuala Lumpur, the capital of

Malaysia. It is known mostly for its haggling around the street and is commonly

crowded with locals and tourists around. Petaling Street dates back during the time

of the tin trade, where men mostly Cantonese and Hakka would come to the city

working as coolies in the mines. This is the main reason why Petaling Street is

mostly Chinese orientated. During the year 2003, Petaling Street have received an

upgrade for about RM 11 million where two large Chinese arches are placed at both

exit and entrance of the street. This is an indication to anyone who is arriving at

Petaling Street for the first time knows if they have made it to the right area. The site

also received green roof which covers the whole street allowing for a pleasant

shopping experience from the hot tropical climate of Malaysia. Locals have dubbed

the green roof as the “Green Dragon”. Present day, Petaling Street and area

surrounding it has become a pedestrian shopping mall where not only shop lots are

accountable as one of the traders but hawkers which could be seen during rush hour

operating at the edge of the streets. The most common thing people visited Petaling

Street for is mainly it got the best place to shop for counterfeit branded products.

Chinese cuisines are the most common and famous businesses that could be found

around the streets and cuisines such as Hokkien mee, barbequed fish, asam laksa

and curry noodles.

Meatpacking District

Figure 1.2: An overhead view of the Meatpacking District

Meatpacking District a neighbourhood located in the New York City borough

of Manhattan that roughly runs from West 14th Street south to Gansevoort Street and

from the Hudson River east to Hudson Street. The neighbourhood is famously

known for its slaughterhouses and packing plants that used to fill the whole district.

Nowadays the district has been transformed into a local hub upscale boutiques and

bars while still preserving the old warehouse typology. In the early 1830 the city

wanted to expand the landfill along the shore to encompass the fort and use the site

for a market. Later on the 9th Avenue rail was built to accommodate for the people

who needed to commute to the area. Residential construction was then undertaken

for the increased number of workers in the site. Soon the landscape of the district

transformed into industrial landscape where market place is placed along the

construction of factory buildings. Then in the early 1930 farmers began to migrate

and move to the district, the city has made special plans to construct special market

buildings for the meat marketers and later on turn the Gansevoort Market into a

whole wide meat distribution area. Move forward to the 21st century, high end

retailers begin to move into the old factory building and changed the whole

landscape of the Meatpacking District into a modernized city which in returns still

preserve the old heritage of the meat marketers buildings. Very few meat marketers

could be located in the district where as Meatpacking District is one of the vibrant

neighbourhood where the city provides services such as retail stores, clubs, offices,

galleries, restaurants and residential apartment while maintaining to a strong market

area in the district.

CHARATERISTIC OF EACH CITY

The city life not only consists buildings and vehicle but it is more than that, it

consist of people, human life. Life between buildings by Jan Gehl explained the

situation of what goes on in the city, what makes it more than architecture and what

makes it important to urban city lifestyle. He stated in his book that there are three

main types of contact points, they are as follows which is necessary activities,

optional activities and finally social activities.

Necessary activities which is defined as activity which are more or less

compulsory such as going to work, going to school, running errands or buying

groceries. Everyday tasks that is carried out normally by a person could also be

categories in this group of activity. Optional activities in the other hand is defined as

activity which those pursuits if there is a wish to carry out the activity, but not as

compulsory as necessary activities. Activity such as going for a walk around the

park, sitting outside or sunbathing is considered as having an option to whether or

not to carry out the activity. The last activities which are resultant or better known as

social is an activities which are linked by both of the other activities. However, to

utilize this social activity the need for presence of others in public spaces are

important. It could be defined as when two activities of necessary and optional are

carried out, interactions of social such as conversations or greetings occurred.

Petaling Street

The three activities that are identified in Jan Gehl book could also be found in

the local site of Petaling Street. The main thing about Jan Gehl theory is that, it is not

only applied to western countries but it is also applied to all the city that not only

provide buildings but also life in between it.

First and foremost the necessary activities which could be found in Petaling

Street and area surrounding it. One of the major necessary activities is the wet

market, locals eventually will gather at the wet market to buy their groceries needs

such as vegetables, meat or fish. The more common wet market area in Petaling

Street is the hawker gallery of Jalan Tun H.S. Lee.

Figure 2.1: The hawker street where it is mostly famous for its wet market in the

morning

Religious buildings also provide necessary activities to the locals as they carry

out their religious activity as one of their everyday tasks. The closest temples which

are the Sri Mahamariamman Temple for the Indian and the Guan Di Temple for the

Chinese. This buildings are one of the major necessary activities since Petaling

Street itself is flooded with different ethnicity, different backgrounds which is why

temples are an important features to Petaling Street. Another most notable

necessary activity points is the institutional buildings around and inside Petaling

Street. Schools and colleges nearby are a great example of students and workers

commuting to Petaling Street for what is known as their everyday tasks that they

carried out every day of the week.

Optional activities are the most common notable activity which could be

identified in Petaling Street. The most notable are Petaling Street itself where

hawkers and traders are doing their business and locals or tourist will come by and

spend an amount of time window shopping or shopping itself. The hawker stalls are

famous around the area of Petaling Street where people could have a stroll around

the streets to enjoy the experience of Petaling Street.

Finally for Petaling Street social activities, it is all interlink from different

activities of the site. Take the hawker stalls for example, it got two different contact

points happening during the same time. Traders come in to work and carry out their

day to day routine and locals or tourists will come by to either shop for enjoyment or

just to have a look at the area. This then will lead to what is known as social activities

where the conversations between two people in that situation occurring. Social

activities could be found more frequently in the radius of Petaling Street as the

interactions between two or more people always happening.

Figure 2.2: Inside of Petaling Street where hawker stalls are seen and passerby

goes there either for a stroll or to just shop for what they want.

Meatpacking District

City life in the western countries are somewhat similar to what there is in

Asian countries. Only difference is how they approach it. Necessary activities which

could be identified in the district are the common residential and commercial area.

This could be narrow down into activities of going to work in an office, going to work

in a retail stores, waiting for public transport or simply going back to the apartment.

This activities are common since Meatpacking District are clustered by predominant

commercial areas and residential areas, where as the social heart of the

Meatpacking District is located in the center. The movement of pedestrians in

between residential and commercial could be categories as the same group of

activities.

Optional activities however involved more over to the center and the slight

surrounding areas of the Meatpacking District. Activities such as having a sit down

on pathway café is one of them since it allow for pedestrians to have a rest in

between their walk and enjoy the surrounding environment of the city life.

Commercial areas of Meatpacking District is one of the major provider of optional

activities since it host variety of activities from retail stores to nightclubs.

Figure 2.3: Above are example of a market located in the district where it provides

optional and necessary activities for the people.

Social activities however offers a variety of method in Meatpacking District.

The usual contact points will be the interactions of a few bystanders on the

pedestrians pathway walking either in the same or opposite directions, a few will stop

by and may start a conversations or at least greet one another. However what is

unique in western city is that they enable another solutions to create a new contact

points where social interactions between two or more people are possible.

Figure 2.4: Small gathering area are located either next to a café or in between

junctions where node points occasionally occur.

COMPARISONS OFTHE TWO CITY

Petaling Street and Meatpacking District have a similar social activity patterns

since life in the city are the same throughout all the city in the world. However one of

the major differences in the activities or social pattern is that in Petaling Street, the

approach are rather different than how Meatpacking District will approach. For

Meatpacking District we can clearly see that on each junctions of two path meeting

each other, a node is created thus allowing for the city to create a social space for

people to lounge either to engage in a conversations under the shade or just simply

to sit down and have a look around the city. Petaling Street in the other hand do

have the contact points, a node of some sort but rather different to the western

countries. In Petaling Street each junctions where the path cross between each other

just creates a node points where a larger group of people will just intersect into one

another. There aren’t a space where in this points those people could actually gather

and have a sit to engage in a social interactions.

However, in Petaling Street there are paths which are called the “five foot

way” meaning 5 feet or 1.5 metres wide pedestrian walkways. This walkways are

usually found on all the shop lots where the walkways indented from the ground floor

plan of a building into the road. Thus this not only create a walkway but it also create

a shaded walkway spaces. The climate play a major factor on the social activity

patterns especially in Petaling Street since during the daytime the climate tend to be

very hot and it is unsettling for the people who decided to visit Petaling Street. In a

way the five foot walkway allows for the pedestrians to not only be shaded by the

sun during their walk but it enable some sort of a contact points area where they

could just stand there having the social interactions between two or more people.

Usually in Petaling Street this could be easily seen by elders having a rest from tiring

day of shopping where they will be shaded under the five foot walkway and engage

in a conversations while regaining their stamina back from all the walking.

In Meatpacking District what is a beneficial space where contact points

occurred is the café or an outdoor sitting area. This could be seen throughout all the

restaurants, cafes or City Park of a usual western city. This space is what lacking in

Petaling Street since it allows for people to have a stop point or engage in a social

activity more often. This space not only benefit in a way where shading from the sun

is provided but a place to have a rest from all those time of walking around the city.

This is lacking in Petaling Street since in Asian city you either have to go to a

restaurants or a café to literally have some rest from all those tiring walk. The city

itself do not provide a social space where the requirements of needed to buy a food

or something is needed in order for the people to have a rest. Furthermore this sort

of spaces are important since, one it is usually seen located on each of the node

points creating and promoting more social activity around the city and two it goes to

show that the city not only care for the buildings or businesses that is going on it but

it cares so much for the people who are living on the city or simply just enjoying a

normal stroll in the city itself.

Figure 3.1: Node point of two or more paths intersecting one another, this creates a

space where a large number of people will eventually come together.

Figure 3.2: A node points of Petaling Street where it has become a stopping points

for taxi drivers awaiting for a new customers after they have done shopping in the

street itself

CONCLUSION

Overall the differences between the two cities are uncanny, it could be said

that one is different than the other or one is said to be better. This is only some part

of the points which makes it unique from other cities. The flavor of the city which

makes it different to other. Typically Asian city will have a different feel to how the

city operates because it follow the guidelines of the people living in there. Not just

simply designed without reasons or passions but because of how the living situation

in Asian city especially Petaling Streets is very different. It is also may be due to the

fact that Asian city are commonly a developing countries where it started to grow and

do not have the time earlier in the period to develop a social space where people

could gather just for the sake of engaging in a social activities

Meatpacking District in the other hand have this space as an advantage since

the city life in the western countries are different since they actually do lived in the

city and they always commute either to or through the city. In this case by designing

a space not only for interactions but also a place to have a five minutes rest would

be ideal for the people in Meatpacking District. This is the major differences between

two cities, Petaling Street is always busy but people do not always lived there since

only foreigners lived in the city while the locals lived somewhere further than the city

itself. Whereas the Meatpacking District is flooded and surrounded by residential

areas throughout.

Generally speaking there aren’t much difference between the two cities but it

is how the city adapt to its own people, how do they move, how do they interact and

how do they operate around the city. In a way things could be said that this city is

better than the other but initially all the city are similar in Jan Gehl theory, all the city

has the three main activities of necessary, optional and social scattered around the

city.

REFERENCES

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

Nostrand Reinhold.

- Attractions in Malaysia. (n.d.). Retrieved November 27, 2016, from

http://kuala-lumpur.attractionsinmalaysia.com/Petaling-Street.php

- Meatpacking District Official Website -. (n.d.). Retrieved November 27, 2016,

from http://www.meatpacking-district.com/