comparative essay

1. SCHOOL OF ARCHITECTURE, BUILDING
&DESIGN
Bachelor of Science (Honours) Architecture
THEORIES OF ARCHITECTURE & URBANISM
(ARC61303/ARC2224)
PROJECT: LIFE BETWEEN BUILDINGS: USING
PUBLIC SPACE”
PART 2: COMPARATIVE ANALYSIS ESSAY
NAME: TEO CHEN YI
STUDENT ID: 0320618
TUTOR: MR. NAZMI

2. TABLE OF CONTENT
1.0 Introduction
2.0 Analysis
3.0 Conclusion
4.0 Reference

3. 1.0INTRODUCTION
Petaling Street is located at the heart of Kuala Lumpur where it is not far from Central
Market. It is commonly known as Chinatown where it is a street that symbolized and
gives an identity of Chinese culture. Petaling Street is also known as ‘Starch Factory
Street’ in Cantonese that refers to the history about the production of the tapioca flour. It
used to be an unplanned development of fine urban grain that is concentrated by the
river due to the water supply. It was slowly developed to a more organized area of fine
grain with alleyways to accommodate pedestrian and vehicular passage. The addition in
building blocks concentrating on the east increases the commercial activity from the
effect of tapioca industry. Nowadays, building blocks are demolished to form open
space for parking lot due to car as primary mode of transport while other buildings are
preserve as heritage buildings.
Petaling Street is now flooded with not only Chinese traders but also Malay, Indian and
even foreign traders. Nowadays, Petaling Street is well-known for pirated products
trading and also tourists’ and locals favourite spot for shopping and bargaining on
pirated products. Food stalls and restaurants that mainly serves local delicacies are also
commonly found in Petaling Street. The green awnings acts as roof covering the whole
length of street to keep it shield from bad weather condition. The main feature of the
Petaling Street is the oriental arch-way with the Chinese latern hanging above the sign
entrance located at the north and south entrance.
In this analysis essay, two streets will be compared which is the Petaling Street of Kuala
Lumpur and 6th avenue of New York City. The comparison will be made based on the
patterns of social activities, the types of ‘contact points’ and the intensity of contact
points between the two cities with information gathered from site as well as research
findings from the internet.

4. 2.0ANALYSIS
Jan Gehl’s ‘Life between Buildings Using Public Space (1971) described the three
types of outdoor activities demands differently on the physical environment. Necessary
activity are activities where the participants are doing it on a daily basis because it is
compulsory for them. For instance, going to work or school, walking to destination or
running errands are activities where the participants have no choice but to carry out the
activity anyway. In Petaling Street, necessary activity can normally be found in bus
stops or LRT stations where people gathered there to travel to other destination or in
contrary other participants from other places arrived at Petaling Street as their
destination for specific purposes. Contact point is formed at this point where the low
intensity of contact point with only passive contact is formed. However, it could possibly
be access to another degree of contact. According to Jan Gehl, low-intensity of contact
is also a situation where there is an opportunity that other forms of contact can grow.
(Gehl, 1971, pg.21) This is because there is a chance of higher intensity of contact
where spontaneous situation might occur for example workers distributing brouchers or
flyers at the station as it is one of the strategic spot thaat crowds occur. Thus, even
carrying out the necessary activity which has the least interaction with people will have
the possibility of contact. Besides, there are schools and office buildings around
Petaling Street where people pass by junctions or stop at junctions to wait for the traffic
light to turn green. At this point, a contact point is formed at a very low intensity as well.
As junctions are more likely at a location beside a busy road, the participants are most
not likely to interact at such dangerous spot even though it is a route where they have to
pass by every time on a daily basis. There are restaurants in Petaling Street where
there are also necessary activity occur which is loading and unloading of foods or goods
during specific hours for the shop owners to carry out their business. In this case,
interaction between participants are only restricted between the shop owners and the
loading person or in some situation it is only the shop owners itself and no interaction
occur. In comparison with the 6th avenue in New York City, necessary activity involves
of waiting at the bus stop or subway station. This is similar to the situation in Petaling
Street where it acts as a starting point for people to travel to their destination or as a
destination where people come from other places. Thus, opportunity of a higher
intensity of contact is possible. Besides, junctions are also another contact point that is
similar to Petaling Street as it serves the same purpose. However, there is something
different about the junctions in 6th avenue is that mobile stalls are located near or at the
junctions. Although the mobile stall involves different types of interactive activity but
under necessary activity, the owner of the mobile stall is carrying out necessary activity
on a daily basis as well where it is the work he should be performing. Besides, there is a
newspaper stand along 6th avenue where it is also a spot consists of necessary activity.
People will pass by for newspaper everyday and creates a contact point as well. The
intensity of the contact point is acquaintances as the seller may know a group of

5. customers. The newspaper stand is located along the pedestrian walkway where people
will drop by to get the newspaper and leave which does not required a specifically good
condition of exterior space but a convenient space can be easily seen by the buyers.
Thus, necessary activity is not likely to be affected by the quality of the outdoor spaces
as it has to be performed under almost all kind of condition.
Figure 2.1: Bus stop near Petaling Street.
Figure 2.2: Bus stop at 6th avenue.

6. Optional activities are activity that involves the participants’ will to perform and
normally it takes place during optimal exterior condition. (Gehl, 1970, pg.13) For
example, taking a walk, sitting down at an open space or sight-seeing. In Petaling Street,
optional activities can be found along the Petaling Street as the street is now added with
the green awing acting as a roof to shield the vendors as well as the goods and buyers
from bad weather condition. The good quality of the physical environment elongate the
time spent for the visitors to the Petaling Street and it gives and inviting experience with
the big and eye-catching entrance sign which will attract the attention of passer-by. In
this case, the location of the entrance is a junction where the degree of contact intensity
is relatively high. The contact involve a wide range of contact intensity which are
passive contact, chance contact and acquaintances contact. Passive contact is just
basically “see and hear” contacts where it is insignificant and a noncommittal contacts
but involves emotional connections. Chance contact is where the possibility of an
upgrade of contact intensity level while acquaintance is the contact intensity where it
involves interaction with a familiarity of two parties. Thus, Petaling Street involved all
these three contacts where visitors that come for window shopping perform passive
contact; the interaction between seller and buyer when bargaining involved chance
contact occur; and acquaintance contact involved where the seller may already have a
group of frequent customer. Besides, there are food stalls at the back alleyways in
Petaling Street which forms a hidden node but only at a specific hours. However, not
much of the people knew its existence unless the locals. This is due to the alleyways
with two sides of double volume building creates a narrow environment which lack of
ventilation and space that does not gives the inviting experience. But it does still have a
higher intensity of contact point when the food stalls in the back alley has acquaintance
contact where the owner of the food stall has a frequent group of customers that usually
will come to have their meals although it is not as crowded as Petaling Street. In
contrast with Petaling Street, optional activity in 6th avenue mostly occur at open spaces
for example open plaza in front of the buildings or the water fountain, which also acts as
a landmark, as it is typically seen from distances and many angles and also as a radial
reference. (Lynch, 1960, pg. 48) There are sitting area at the open space water fountain
for people to rest and also provides a wide view focusing on people circulating through
the street. The open space creates a good and comfortable outdoor environment where
it is well ventilated and has good views with greeneries that beautifying the environment.
As contrasting with Petaling Street alleyways food stall, this will attract people and they
tend to take a longer time spending there because of the good physical condition. (Gehl,
1971, pg.13) However, the contact intensity is similar to Petaling Street as it also
consists of a wide range degree of contact intensity. In 6th avenue, the open spaces
involve a high passive contact as the view provided there are mostly focusing on the
people and pedestrian circulation through the street. According to an investigation of
Tivoli Garden in Copenhagen which was carried out by an architect, John Lyle, people

7. will choose to sit in public spaces where the benches or sitting area providing good view
are more frequently used by people compared to benches with less view. (Gehl, 1971,
pg. 29) And the views are normally facing trafficked pedestrian routes which were
favoured by people. Also, it involves chance contact as well as there are mobile stalls
around that could possibly initiate new conversation.
Figure 2.3: Entrance of Petaling Street that attracts people. Green roof shield sellers and goods from rain
and heat.
Figure 2.4: Kids sitting down at benches provided beside the dandelion fountain.

8. Social activities are activities where it depends all on the presence of others in public
spaces where conversations, greetings and other communal activities are carried out
widely. In Petaling Street, as it does not has a proper communal space for the
community to interact and carried out social activity, the only social activity occurring is
the conversation between the seller and buyers and also people that gather at food
stalls or restaurants. As people gather at a place, it will creates a contact point where
interaction occur. The degree of contact point intensity is definitely high as it involves
social interaction within people that are familiar or even friends and close friendships.
Besides, the contact point involved an already established contact which requires less
demand to maintain its familiarity. Besides, the social interaction between sellers and
sellers do exist as well as it is located side by side like a neighbour. In contrast, 6th
avenue in New York City has a better communal space where social activities were
carried out there. Bryant Park is a communal space where it is surrounded by
skyscrapers and the open space creates a huge contrast with the surrounding which
actually attracts the attention of people. As it is located in the middle of the busy
sidewalk and vehicular pathway, Bryant Park has a much slower pace where people are
most likely to gather. There are public yoga classes in Bryant Park which creates a
social activity since people are doing the same activity together. “Wherever there are
people it is generally true that people and human activities attract other people. People
are attracted to other people and new activities begin in the vicinity of events that are
already in progress. (Gehl, 1971, pg. 25) Although the Bryant Park is surrounded by tall
skyscrapers, but the open space is huge enough to accommodate people who wants to
come for social interaction and it still provides a wide range of view which will not
obstruct the view and still gives a sense of spacious. Besides, open spaces like public
plaza in front of the buildings with iconic water fountain also acts as a communal space
where people will sit down and rest and interact. Not only passive and chance contact is
involved but friends and close friendships contact are also involved as there are high
possibility and chances that people will definitely go to communal space in pairs or in a
group of people. Thus, social interactions definitely occurs and the degree of contact
point intensity will high as well. Communal space in 6th avenue is definitely a more
successful space for social activities and interaction to be performed compared to
Petaling Street where there are lack of public spaces for people to interact and also has
limited social activities.

9. Figure 2.5: Social activities between sellers and buyer.
Figure 2.6: Bryant Park as a communal space for social activities.

10. 3.0CONCLUSION
Base on Jan Gehl’s ‘Life between Buildings’ is one of the most important element in
a public space of a city. Different kind of activities that happenes during different time in
a day forms the operation of the city. Necessary activity does not really affected by the
built environment of the surroundings as it has to be carried out anyway under almost all
condition. While for optional activities, it is carried out based on the participants will
where it is somehow will be affected by the built environment. Environment that
provides a comfortable and good quality of space will encourage the people to the
space and even took a longer time to spend there but in contrary if the environment
provides an uncomfortable, insecure or not ventilated space, people will most likely not
attracted to the space which then affect the optional activity. For social activity, the main
criteria is to have a proper communal space to accommodate people for social
interaction without limiting activities to be carried out. In conclusion, Petaling Street is
overall not as well facilitated as 6th avenue in terms of social activities space compared
to 6th avenue where it has a large open area as a park for people to socialize and also
organized interesting social activities for people to come for socializing.
4.0REFERENCE
Gehl, J. (2011). Life between buildings (1st ed.). Washington, DC: Island Press.
Lynch, K. (1960). The image of the city (1st ed.). Cambridge, Mass.: MIT Press.
Spaces, P. (2016). Jan Gehl - Project for Public Spaces. Project for Public Spaces.
Retrieved 28 November 2016, from http://www.pps.org/reference/jgehl/