This is a comparative analysis essay regarding the contact points and intensity of Jalan Tuanku Abdul Rahman, Malaysia and Gwanghwamun Plaza, Seoul.

1. THEORIES OF ARCHITECTURE AND URBANISM 1
Theories of Architecture and Urbanism [ARC 61303]
PROJECT #2: COMPARATIVE ANALYSIS ESSAY
SEJONG-DAERO, SEOUL
VS.
JALAN TUANKU ABDUL RAHMAN, KUALA LUMPUR
Tutor: Mr Prince Favis Isip
Joyce Wee Yi Qin
0319602

2. THEORIES OF ARCHITECTURE AND URBANISM 2
“The importance of a street as a public open space is one of the most critical
characteristic within the public realm in cities.”
-(Gehl, 1987)
Gwanghwamun Plaza, Sejong-Daero, Seoul
Located in the historic centre, Gwanghwamun Plaza has a long and turbulent history. During the
Japanese occupation of Korea, the colonial government built a large governmental building
between the royal palace and plaza, destroying the traditional symbolic relation of the two. Later
the South Korean government also built an administrative complex right next to the plaza. The
plaza was therefore always an important place, where the state institutions were located and their
power was represented. Yet the plaza is also a place where citizens contested the state power.
Several historic events took place on the plaza, which is sometimes called the “prototype public
space in Korea.” The history of the Gwanghwamun Plaza therefore not only represents the state
but also the South Korean civic society. Yet, decades of rapid urbanisation turned the
Gwanghwamun Plaza into a large expressway, rather than public plaza it should be.
Sejong-Daero is one of the arterial street of Seoul, Korea. The street starts from Gwanghwamun,
one of the gates of the Royal Palace and stretches towards the City Hall. The street fell under the
urban redevelopment scheme when Seoul announced its plan of having a balanced urban
development in 2012, making the street more walkable.
Jalan Tuanku Abdul Rahman, Kuala Lumpur Malaysia
Built to accommodate the growing tin mining industry, Jalan Tuanku Abdul Rahman (Jalan TAR)
shares the similarity with Sejong-Daero as both streets has strong historical backgrounds. The street
is known for its textile shops and the hidden gems at the nooks and corners.
With the urban development happening around it, Jalan TAR seems to be a human-scaled town
cradled within the urban city, adding hints of closeness within the concrete jungle.
In this comparative essay, both streets will be put in comparison in terms of walkability, public
space, possibilities of contact points and contact intensities based on personal observations and
online sources.

3. THEORIES OF ARCHITECTURE AND URBANISM 3
“Social activity” is defined as an interaction that takes place only with the presence of more than one
person, to allow exchange of views, thoughts and experiences; an action taken by a group of people
in relation to the characteristic of experience an behaviour. It is a catalyst affecting the relationship
between the people, the community and the spaces within the urban context. As per Jan Gehl’s
description in “Life Between Buildings”, activities can be categorized into 3 levels, necessary activity,
optional activity and social activity at which he also mentioned social activity as the resultant of
necessary and optional activity (Gehl, 2006). Social activities are very much driven by the conditions
of the public spaces as it takes place when people are present simultaneously to interact.
As mentioned, social activity is often influenced by the social pattern of the place. We will first look
into the possible physical factors affecting the occurrence of social activity, including the coverage of
public spaces, walkable paths and distribution of nodes, along with the intangible factors on Sejong-
Daero.
Walkability
In reference to Gehl’s theory, social activities are supported, indirectly, whenever necessary and
optional activities are given better conditions in public spaces (Gehl, 2006). The “condition” as
mentioned is interrelated with the physical condition that affect the walkability of the street. Along
Sejong-Daero, there are multiple access points for public transportations. The distribution of stations
promotes social engagement as the intensity of people walking down the street increases as it has
become a necessary activity for the locals to transverse in the city. Moreover, the canopied and wide
sidewalks encourage pedestrian to transverse between proximate destinations by foot. With the
combination of these factors, it is possible to slow down the pace of the arterial road although urban-
scaled, making it more susceptible to social activities. Hence relating to Gehl’s statement where social
activities are the resultant of necessary and optional activities.
The social pattern on Sejong-Daero are created by different communities including locals, students,
white collars, tourists etc. It is identified that the activities on Sejong-Daero are driven by necessary
activities where the people would pass by to get to their respective destinations. The layering of
these activities creates a social pattern through the nature of the activities and the paths they walk.
Figure 1: The diagram indicates the integration of stops, walks and vegetation in creating a more conducive
and comfortable walk between destinations.

4. THEORIES OF ARCHITECTURE AND URBANISM 4
Figure 2-5: The diagram indicates the layering of different communities, hinting the intersection of
communities on the system of spaces and canopied walks.

5. THEORIES OF ARCHITECTURE AND URBANISM 5
On Jalan TAR, the most significant physical element is the five-foot-way that provides canopy to the
pedestrians. The covered space under is another form of public space that allows human contact. It
was mentioned above that physical conditions are interrelated with the possibility of social activities as they
affect the walkability and function of the space. In this case, five-foot-ways are not only a feature of the
conserved architecture style, it also encourages human flow under its canopy. This element has been the
main mode of pedestal transverse between destinations since the start. It has created a constant flow of
human circulation along the public space at the frontage of each shop, providing a favourable platform for
communication and interaction between one another.
Figure 6: The diagram is a section of Jalan TAR, showing the interaction between the street, walks and the
pedestrian. It is evident that the back alley is more happening compared to the main sidewalks.
Briefly, Kenneth Frampton mentioned, “It is symptomatic of the priority given to sight that we find it necessary
to remind ourselves that the tactile is important dimension in the perception of built form. One has in mind a
whole range of complementary sensory perceptions which are registered by the labile body”
(Frampton,1981). In relation to the Jalan TAR context, the space underneath the canopy envelops the users,
triggering their senses with the enclosure, sensory and visual of lighting.
Personally, I think tactile application should not be limited to spaces within built forms. Public spaces can also
be incorporated with tactility to complement it through sensory experiences.
Public Spaces: Parks and Plazas
In “Life between Buildings”, Gehl mentioned vehicular traffic and scale as two of the factors that
will cause an impact to the intensity of social activities outdoors. Through analytics, streets with little
traffic and more humane scale are more susceptible to outdoor activities where children played on
sidewalks and entrances were used widely for outdoor stays. (Gehl, 2006)
Sejong-Daero is an urban scale arterial street with multi-storey buildings, extensive automobile
traffic and long distances between buildings and function. In efforts of making Seoul a walkable
city, parks and plazas were inserted into the street to break down the scale of the traffic and also
the distance between functions. One of the significant change is the Gwanghwamun Square that
stretches parallelly with Sejong-Daero, as a divider of the two-way traffic. The Square breaks down
the initially 10-laned traffic to 5 lanes on each side of the island-like square, creating another space
for possible social activity occurrence.

6. THEORIES OF ARCHITECTURE AND URBANISM 6
Figure 7: Huge plazas scattered along Sejong-Daero are hotspots shared by the different communities.
Events are held from time to time to spark social activity amongst the people.
Although Jalan TAR lacks parks and plazas, it is more walkable than Sejong-Daero because of its
scale. Plazas on Jalan TAR serves as a gap between buildings that promotes permeability, creating
grids. Instead, public spaces that sparks social activities on Jalan TAR are the back alleys where the
rear of the buildings are close together, and are free of vehicular access.
“Contact point” is defined as a spot or place where people get to meet one another and allow
more intimate level of interactions to happen. The type of contact points varies accordingly due to
the degree of the contact forms between individuals. In Kevin Lynch’s “Image of the City”, a
strategic focus point for orientation like squares and junctions is defined as a node (Lynch,1960).
The surfacing intention of a contact point is similar to Kevin Lynch’s way of defining a node where
the recognition of a concentrated place is defined by the perception and directional senses of
people rather than the built form. Ultimately, a node defines the urban form through the vision of
the people and way finding while a contact point is formed through the experience of the visual
and intimate sensory established in connection between people.
On Sejong-Daero, the type of contact points was found to be similar in terms of its context with the
surrounding elements, mostly built form. It relies on the adjacent objects to draw crowds and made
use as a focal point of a certain junction or intersection. Most of the contact points are found to be
located at opened or shady spaces in front of buildings where a possible waiting area is provided,
or in radial reference to landmarks.
One of the contact point identified along Sejong-Daero is the Gwanghwamun Square in front of
the Palace Gates, where the level and opportunities of contact has to be the derivative factor from
the existence of the statues that draws people, especially tourists, intentionally. Other activities in the
square, on the other hand, becomes the secondary attraction that attracts locals, hence leading to a
bigger crowd. It relates back to Gehl’s statement where activity is an attraction at which the
opportunity of being in the same space, making observation on other’s action and reaction, sharing
the experience through visual and actions. Hence, people will stop by to engage with the
community.

7. THEORIES OF ARCHITECTURE AND URBANISM 7
Figure 7-8: Gwanghwamun Plaza, sandwiched between buildings separated by arterial road, is an intersection
of necessary and optional activities for locals and tourists, creating a point of high contact intensity.
In Jalan TAR, the occasions along the street reflects Gehl’s definition of contact points where it is
people oriented instead of built form. The people engage in activities disregarding the external and
tangible closure of the place. Instead, it relies on the intimacy between the people. Majority of
contact points on Jalan TAR are the five-foot-ways, back and side alleys that are lined with
spontaneous pop-up stalls. The variety of cultural content on the street increases the chance of
people to linger around, thus provide opportunity for higher contact intensity.
In one of his statements, Gehl stressed on building scale and proportion in an urban city. He
emphasized consideration of scale from a human perspective as it would give a definite degree of
closeness between the people and the built environment. Human scale and proportion can
indirectly affect the experience and purpose of public spaces. Based on my observation, building
scales on Jalan TAR remains humane in relative to Sejong-Daero. They keep a good contact from
the human eye level, encouraging enclosure between spaces of buildings that direct the flow and
circulation of people and enhances the liveability of these spaces.
Contact points comes in different intensities and the degree of contact intensity varies based on the
interaction and relationship between people. Gehl stated that opportunities for meeting and daily
activities in the public spaces of a city enables one to be among, to hear and to see others, to
experience other people functioning in various situations (Gehl, 1960). The meetings between
people and the chances of people carrying out activities at the same space creates possible
chances for people to be in contact and to allow social exchanges to take place. The degree of
contact intensity comes in an outline from the most basic and modest passive contacts to highest
level of establishing a close friendship between one another.
In one of the contact point along Sejong-Daero, located at the Gwanghwamun Plaza in front of
the statues. It is possibly the contact points with highest meet up possibilities among the others. The
space itself allows a certain degree of physical and visual permeability due to its location in the
middle of the linear street. The intersection of tourist activities, stalls and locals crossing to the other
side of the street allows overlaying of human activities as the communities transverse to their
respective destinations. The intensity of contacts in this contact point is high as this point comprises
activities of all types, necessary activities like going to work, optional activities like tourists visiting and
even social activities of friends meeting already set a route across this point. The similar group of
people would stop by at selective times as it has already become a most accessible point of
contacts by the community around the area. It could be related back to Gehl’s thoughts about
interwoven pattern of three categories of activities, they are hardly separable nor has clear cut
within one another.

8. THEORIES OF ARCHITECTURE AND URBANISM 8
Nearby Jalan TAR, the selected contact point is the Masjid India Bazaar. It is not a static spot, but
rather a linear extension of space. The degree of contact intensity commonly observed varies from
modest to even allowing the establishment of close friendship. In Jalan TAR, the formation of
contact points and degree of contact differs from those on Arch Street. It is mainly influenced by
the nature of the use of space, it is more human oriented and used in a way that allows a smooth
start to end for the movement of people. Along the street are usually occupied with stalls and it
allows the draw of crowd throughout the contact point due to the activities and trade. Also the
surrounding built form are in humane proportion encourages a static gathering of people for a
longer time and increase the frequency of people visiting the space. The in between spaces itself is
designed to stay close to the human perception in providing a sense of closeness to the materiality
of the adjacent built forms. The degree of contact levels is not limited to only passive or chance
contacts as this contact point is not directed as a temporary gathering spot but often as a
destination. The compactness in the type of social activities happening along the street results in
imparting a source of inspiration as an idea or an action is done to inspire or influence the others.
People are often inspired by seeing others in action and the stimulation of experience provided a
platform where experiences can be shared among others. It increases the chance of people being
able to make contacts from being put under the same scope of activities.
In conclusion, human activities become a major factor in the formation and completion of in
between spaces as lives are dominant in this topic. The categorization of activities, primarily based
on its involvement of social engagements creates a more defined thought on the affection to the
social pattern in terms of the cultural, social and intellectual pattern of the site. It is clearly defined,
the idea of maximizing and declaring the existence of space with the presence of human and
activities in attempting to establish an image of the city, through the relevance of these lives in
between the buildings. As urban formation and patterns falls closely within the assessment of this
at which the development of the city is in sync with the participation of the community. Thus,
relating back to Gehl’s statement
“First we need people, then spaces, then buildings”

9. THEORIES OF ARCHITECTURE AND URBANISM 9
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Lynch, K. (1960). The Image of the City (1st ed). Cambridge, Mass.: MIT Press.
Pallasmaa, J. (1996). The Geometry of Feeling: A Look at the Phenomenology of Architecture. NY:
Princeton Architectural Press.
Spaces, P. (2016) Jan Gehl - Project for Public Spaces. Project for Public Spaces. Retrieved 25 June
2017, from http://www.pps.org/reference/jgehl/