This is an architecture student's project, just opinion

1. School of Architecture, Building & Design
Bachelor of Science (Honours) in Architecture
Theories of Architecture and Urbanism
(ARC 61303 / ARC 2224)
Project Part 2: Comparative Essay
Tutor: Nicholas Ng
Name: Khoo Zer Kai
Student ID: 0320500

2. Introduction
Ta Hien Street located in the heart of Hanoi old quarter. In the French colonial time
called Geraud, is 200m street, intersect with Hang Bac Street and Hang Buom Street. This street
was named the “International crossroads” because there are many foreign tourist and has been
included in the list of “Places have to go in Hanoi” when traveling overseas of the foreigners.
People reminds to it as a place for tourist to be able to feel the soul of Hanoi, which is simple and
the intersection of the old and the new, of the east and the west.
Jalan Hang Kasturi is a street in downtown Kuala Lumpur located between Central
Market and Medan Pasar, it also runs roughly north to south through the Kuala Lumpur’s
Petaling Street Chinatown. The stretch between Lebuh Pudu and Jalan Tun Sambathan is today a
pedestrian zone called Kasturi Walk. Jalan Hang Kasturi is originally called Rodger Street.

3. Street Scale
Much of the human behavior, movement and activities of the both street are
influenced heavily by the design of the built environment especially the scale of the street
itself and pedestrian walkway.
For Jalan Hang Kasturi, it was originally function as a road for catering the blooming
growth of tin mining activities there. Many shop lots were established since then alongside the
narrow road then evolved into a shopping street along with market street. The typology of the
street has not changed since then. Due to tropical climate feature of Malaysia, it has developed
sheltered walkway as known as “5-foot-walkway” due to its narrow qualities. The upper level of
shop lots extends over it to meet the street boundaries, shedding the pedestrian away from
scorching sunlight and rain. The sidewalks located next to the 5-foot-walkway, outside of the
buildings structure are dangerous to walk with as it is near to the road with heavy traffic and
unsheltered which contributes little to no contacts as it is not designed for human interaction in
mind. These factors pull in the pedestrian toward using 5-foot-walkway which allow the
pedestrian to have much intimate communication with the shops, encouraging interaction among
pedestrians and owners which create opportunities for increasing the contact points. The loading
and unloading of the goods also assists in increasing contact points attributed to the intimacy
provided by the narrow 5-foot-walkway.

4. For Ta Hien Street, it is a place for tourists to be able to feel the soul of Hanoi, which is
simple and the intersection of the old and new of the east and west. It is a must go place for
foreigner while they go to Hanoi. Due to this reason, often there are night performance will be
held at the junction of the road. At Ta Hien Street the road is even more narrow compare to Jalan
Hang Kasturi. There are no sidewalks or 5-foot-walkway in front of the buildings, but due to the
extremely narrow qualities of the road, the vehicles will pass by this street in a lower speed. At
night, the shop houses with sheltered stalls and seating will be extend to the middle of the road, it
is unavailable for vehicles to pass by at night, it stimulates more contact and experience. The
stalls are arranged along the road for not letting users just pass by the street, it let users to pass
through it and easier for engagement. These factors enhance the intimacy and chances of contact
between buildings, owners of the shop, vendors and pedestrian.
These studies shows that how scale of the buildings along the streetscape and itself
affects the intensity of contact points. The narrower the street is, the more intimate space
naturally tends to push and pull and gather the people more closely, which then encourage
interaction among the individuals, thus attracts more people to join in and act as a magnet: as
stated in Life between Buildings by Jan Gehl: “people are attracted to people. They gather with
and move about with others and seek to place themselves near others”. While on the other hand
large scale streetscape have loose bond and lesser chance for the people to have interaction,
therefore contributes less contact points.

5. Public Spaces, Plazas and Impromptu Spaces
The different program of public spaces determines types of socio-economic
activities happening along the street, therefore further influence the type of cultural
activities and community of the particular area. Whereas Ta Hien Street serves the local
community and pedestrian alike with retail business close to their daily life and functions.
Jalan Hang Kasturi are mostly lined by bank, money changer and designated tourist spot
with landmarks.
At Jalan Hang Kasturi, the plaza known as Medan Pasar, it is an open area used for
tourist to visit and it’s a historical place, but the place has turned into an open space for homeless
to mingle in the days and sleep at nights. It also become a bus stop and a gather space for foreign
workers to gather before they go back to home from their work. Besides that, it also acts as a
main shortcut for the pedestrian for walking from main street to the back lane.

6. At morning of Ta Hien Street, the street serve as road and transition space for vehicles and
pedestrians, but at night the street become unavailable for vehicles, it become seating areas for
people to enjoy the streets performance at the junction. The live performances create more
chance of contact and increase the intimacy between pedestrians. It makes pedestrian to stop by
and spending longer time at the street. The streets also become a market full with food stalls and
seating. It has attracted more outsider to comes in within this narrow space despite its function in
the morning.
Throughout the observation, it proofs that despite that some of the streets and urban spaces are
purposefully designed to interact with them, it is found that people rarely lingers around the area
if the scale is not right or the functions of the space are undefined. The other main factor of
keeping a public space lively is very much depend on the presence of magnet in the form of
human cultural and socio-economic activities that one space could carry such as Ta Hien Street,
although it is not ideal spaces and are not designed for activities, but they have successfully
attracted people mainly through their natural environment it has offered, the socio-economic
activities it contains that strike the cords of human heart and the intimate and appropriate scale of
their streetscape and enclosing buildings.

7. Culture and Community
The difference in street scale and usage of public space determines types of socio-
economic activities happening around the street, therefore further influence the type of
cultural activities and community of the particular area.
The shops along Jalan Hang Kasturi offer many money changer, bank, office and
landmarks. Crowds from different parts of the cities flock the streets with the intention of work
or tourism. Most of the crowds are foreigner, either workers or tourist. The street is mainly act as
a transition for the user to pass by. It is a main access for them to go to the place they want,
hence it creates chance of interaction for local and foreigners. The buildings’ activities are
mostly introverted and the activities seldom spill onto the street. However, the great symbolic
importance and historical significance of this place assist in generating life and crowds to this
street, with the place especially the plaza in the middle designated as a tourist spot with
landmarks.

8. On the other hand, in Ta Hien Streets, the shops offer a lot of restaurants and food
stalls. The restaurant and food stalls that are situated at Ta Hien Street provide cheap and
affordable goods and foods to locals, knowing that their customers are mostly from low to
medium income group. The customer would often come to bargain for a good price. High
contact point occurs due to intimate interaction. The street mainly caters to the local
community thus attracts more people to visit the area. The narrow lanes are jammed with
bustling of people strolling around in search for exotic food or goods. Most of these traders
attract people to buy their food or goods by calling out their product on sale or performing
preparation of food which produce a good smell, which may potentially draw crowds
towards. This form of necessary activity attracts more crowds, a multiplying effect on the
social activity and encourages more to happen by means of interaction via auditory sense of
sight and conversation.

9. Conclusion
In conclusion, the physical characteristics of street contributes deciding factors and
forces that pulls and pushes, affecting the types of activities, intensity of contact points and
in return reshapes the overall spatial quality and character of the street and the image it
presents to the observers there. While one will find Jalan Hang Kasturi, this kind of
Southeast Asian urban street narrow, messy and unorganized, filled with traffic jams,
broken sidewalks and lined with dilapidated buildings, it’s users mainly the locals or casual
pedestrian might find this place interesting, filled with familiar niches scattering along and
around the corners of the street and back alleys, forming hidden secrets Harlem that they
would love to frequent every day. However, I don’t think such romanticizing of a shabby
urban conditions shall not become the reason to hinder the city from providing and
revitalizing.

10. Reference
Gehl, J., & Koch, J. (2011). Life between buildings: using public space. Washington, D.C.:
Island Press.
Jerryycc Follow. (2016, December 22). Slide petaling st. Retrieved November 28, 2017,
from https://www.slideshare.net/jerryycc/slide-petaling-st
Jerryycc Follow. (2016, December 22). Petaling st analysis. Retrieved November 28, 2017,
from https://www.slideshare.net/jerryycc/petaling-st-analysis
How to Write a Comparative Analysis. (n.d.). Retrieved November 28, 2017, from
https://writingcenter.fas.harvard.edu/pages/how-write-comparative-analysis