Bandar Sunway is a dense township in Selangor, Malaysia with a diverse population ranging from working class to students to tourists. The site being analyzed includes a water theme park, hospital, hotels, shopping mall, and residential units. Christian Norberg-Schulz argues that spaces should be designed qualitatively based on a society's culture, not just quantitatively based on human morphology. While Bandar Sunway was intended to serve an upper-middle class, many residents are now poorer students and low-income foreign workers. Designing spaces for this population could include replacing expensive housing with affordable high-rise apartments near amenities and turning the private Sunway Lagoon into a public community park and activity center.

1. Theoriesof Architecture andUrbanism - ProjectPart1 Stage 2
AlyaFarinabinti Khairul Faridz0308460
SPATIAL ELEMENTS: QUALITATIVE VS QUANTITATIVE
Site: Bandar Sunway. Text: The Phenomenon Of Space By Christian Norberg-Schulz
The chosen site for this project is Bandar Sunway, Subang Jaya. It is situated within
the district of Petaling, Selangor, and is a significantly dense township with a multitude of
citizen classes, ranging those of the working class, students, tourists and foreigners. Thus it is
a city that provides a multitude of services and spaces to cater to its society. The specific site
that I will analyse encompasses what one would say the main activity hub of Bandar Sunway,
including a water theme park, a hospital, hotels, a large shopping mall, smaller shophouses,
and flanked on all sides by residential units. It is, as a small town by itself- with all the units
and layers that make up a community. The following text will demonstrate an understanding
and application of the theories of Christian Norberg-Schulz through his text titled "The
Phenomenon of Space".
In his writings, Schulz describes a place as not merely being and abstract location, but
a concrete environ, with qualitative and quantitative properties, and in an urban context, these
are, to a certain extent, pre-decided by the architects and urban planners of the city. However,
what is usually overlooked on is the fact that similar functions or activities may and will be
done in different ways by people of different culture and environmental context. Therefore he
questions the notion of quantifying the process of designing spaces, as it is now done in a
scientific approach, dictated merely by a collective human morphology, instead of their
individuality and culture.
The original intention of Bandar Sunway, one would say, is to be a town catered to a
diverse community. However, looking towards the most developed areas, it is clearly
intended for a upper-middle class community, whereby the facilities, although complete, can
hardly be called affordable. However at the present moment, a larger part of the society in
Bandar Sunway has been getting poorer, with the increase of universities in the area and the
rise of cheap flats and apartments that have become home to shady foreign workers. They
now make up a large part of community, however the current urban context and facilities in
use are less than adequate to be catering to this community.
With the application of Schulz's theory of designing for a specific society, many
improvements could be done to the current systems. First and foremost, instead of expensive,
land-consuming housing areas, another option is to replace these with high-rise flats and
apartments, which will certainly be of more use towards the student communities. The
apartments could each be designed as a separate complex on its own, complete with its own
recreational facilities and small commercial units, thus eliminating the need for the students
to waste their valuable time and money to travel elsewhere for sports and leisure activities.
Another viable option is to set up a more open, public urban context, and turn the
currently private Sunway Lagoon complex into a community park and recreation centre, or a
massive pavilion to function as a communal activity centre for its surrounding residents. Due
to its position in between the major facilities and residential areas, it will provide a central
gathering point for the residents of the area.