This document summarizes a student's research project analyzing the architecture in Bangsar, Malaysia. The student examines how three external factors - climate, human activity/economy, and surrounding context - influenced building design in the area. Vernacular architecture styles are common, using features like five-foot pathways and balconies to address the hot climate. Building functions and forms vary depending on the activities they support. Skyscrapers are concentrated in some areas, while shop houses and common houses predominate near the research site due to surrounding context. The student also evaluates theorist Leon Krier's perspective on ideal building heights and styles.

1. Project: Theorizing Architecture Part 2
Theories of Architecture & Urbanism (ARC 2224)
Name: Daniel Yap Chung Kiat
Student ID: 0309100
Course: Bachelor in Science (Architecture) (Hons)
Date: 15/6/2015

2. Table of Content
1. Introduction
- Area/ Building Introduction
- Theory Introduction
2. External Factor 1: Climate
3. External Factor 2: Human Activity & Economy
4. External Factor 3: Surrounding Context
5. Conclusion
6. References

3. Introduction
Architecture plays an important role in building up the world as it is one of the
need for human to survive and develop. Architecture can be defined as the
combination of art and science in a designed building which provides shelter
for human to live in and work. Nowadays, rapid growth in population has
caused the increasing in shelter’s demand. Therefore, lots of buildings have
been built to fulfil the human needs. Besides the increased demand,
technologies have also lead to the advancement in building construction
sector which contribute in speeding up the building construction. Rapid
increasing in building demand have caused the building to loss their ‘soul’.
Thus, many buildings nowadays can be no longer called architecture.
Theories in architecture world act as an important guide for the architects to
design a building which has ‘soul’ instead of just function as a shelter.
Individuality in every building will help in creating a beautiful and functioning
world.
Figure 1: Red spot shows the research area (Retrieved from google map)
The chosen research area is Bangsar area which located at the south-west of
Kuala Lumpur city centre. This is a busy sub-urban area which consists of
developing commercial area and high density residential area. As a
developing area which host people, urban planning in that area is important to
avoid or decrease social problem in the future such as congestion and
homeless.

4. The chosen theory for this research paper is from a theorist named Leon
Krier. He is an architect, architecture theorist and also an urban planner born
in Luxembourg. He is a representative of the New Urbanism and New
Classical Architecture. The chosen theory is “Return to classism in
architecture and community design.” It is the represent theory from Leon Krier
as he thinks that classism in urban planning and architectural design is more
associate with sustainable urbanism which is indeed needed by the people to
achieve a better civic life. Few points have been mentioned in his theory
including building levelling limitation, spatial planning and building style etc.
These elements in the theory will be further elaborate in the following text with
some diagrams.
External Factor 1: Climate
In this part of research paper, we will discuss on the climate in Malaysia and
how it affects the design strategies of the architects on buildings. Climate is
an important factor that has been always concerned by the architects.
Different coordination on earth possess different temperature. The design
strategies on buildings have some similarities where the areas are nearby.
Malaysia is located in the equatorial region. It has tropical rainforest climate
which has the characteristics of hot and humid throughout the year. Rainfall
can be found throughout the year which has little function on neutralising the
heat in Malaysia.
Figure 2: Architecture at research area (Retrieved from google Street)
Architecture as a shelter has been categorised as the need for human beings.
Therefore, it plays an important role in providing thermal comfort for the
people who lives within it. Hot weather in Malaysia is an important issue that
should be solved during the architectural design. Figure 2 has showed the

5. architecture at Bangsar area. From the diagram, we can see that the shop
houses possess some elements of traditional Chinese architecture. The most
significant elements are the five-foot pathway and also the front balcony on
the first and second floor. These characteristics have solved some of the
climatic issue in Malaysia. The five-foot pathway and the front corridor both
act as a thermal buffer area in the building. Therefore, the wall has a slower
heat up rate which will then contribute in thermal comfort achievement. Beside
function as a buffer zone, both of the key features also provide shelter for the
user from getting wet. Five-foot pathway allows the pedestrian to walk from
building to building from rain and direct sunlight. This will thus comfort the
user.
These shop houses are categorised as vernacular architecture as they
possess the some of the key elements such as materials used in construction,
architectural features and characteristics, and functions etc. From the
observation at the research area, we can see that the materials used are
bricks for wall, timber for door and window panel, timber for roof trusses, zinc
for roof deck and glass for the window. These materials were mostly used in
the late 60’s as they can be obtained easily from the local industry. Beside
materials, the design features stated in the paragraph above also prove that
vernacular architecture style had been applied on the building at Bangsar
area.
External Factor 2: Human Activity & Economy
In this part of the research paper, we will discuss about the human activity at
Bangsar area and how it affects the design strategies of the buildings at that
area.
The population in Bangsar area is increasing year after year. Few reasons
have caused this phenomena, one of them is purely the birth rate in Malaysia
increase. Other than that, increasing in work opportunities have also lead to
the increment in population due to the migration to Kuala Lumpur city. The
geographical location of Bangsar area which is near to the city centre attracts
people to move in as the accommodation fee is slightly cheaper than city
centre.

6. Figure 3: Activity distribution at research area (Retrieved from google map)
As a developing suburb area, business opportunity is increasing in a large
scale which achieve a phrase that states “whenever there is people, there will
be trading.” Many new business opportunities have been introduced in
Bangsar area such as city development, food business, apparel business and
so on. These human activities have led Bangsar to become a more advance
area. Beside the advancement of the area, congestion problems will appear
when rapid increment in population occurs. To solve this issue, town planning
is important and we will further discuss in the next external factor. From figure
3, we can see the distribution of different human activities in the research
area. The green part shows the food business occurs in that area while the
yellow shows the grocery business in that area. Beside business, education
chances have been provided in that area too which show in blue.
Figure 4: Shop houses at research area
These human activities have affect the architecture design on the form and
also the levelling of the building. Different types of architecture possess
different type of function. The buildings in figure 4 are shop houses. While on
the opposite site, school type of architecture has been set up. From both

7. types of architecture, there are some similarities. One of them is the building
levelling. Both of them have 2 to 4 storey in building levelling due to the
amount of target user to be hosted and also the activities undergo in the
buildings. Function of a school is to provide a place for students to study and
the target amount of student is 1000 to 1500 students. Therefore, few blocks
of academic buildings with 4 storey is sufficient to host the amount of
students. The shop houses were designed in 2 to 3 storey to host the small
business such as food business and grocery business etc. Restaurants are
normally set on the ground or the first floor in order to provide the
convenience to the visitor or pedestrian. Beside convenience, setting up food
business on the ground or first floor is aimed to be easier viewable by the
target customer in order to increase the business.
Figure 5: Skyscrapers along the same street
While walk down few steps from the research area, we can see that
skyscrapers are built. Skyscraper, a representation of the modern architecture
has successfully increase the land used efficiency. Different purposes are
aimed when designing skyscrapers in Bangsar area. One of them is hosting
different companies in one office tower without used up many land areas
while apartments and condominiums have been built to host the rapid growth
population without used up many land areas.
The examples from the observation have guided us about different types of
human activities will affect how the building been designed. While, in the
theory of Leon Krier has stated that the most ideal building level should be
ranged from 2 storey to maximum 5 storey. He enhanced his statement by
saying that a city should be expand horizontally instead of vertically when the
population increase graciously. He believes that a horizontal city will secure
the civic life but not the vertically developed city. Heavy congestion will occur

8. if the city developed in the vertical direction due to the small area ratio to
population which have been proved in many cases today.
External Factor 3: Surrounding Context
Buildings were designed and placed on the specific location when comes to
urban planning. Every building plays an important role in showing an efficient
urban planning which minimise the occurrence of the congestion. Surrounding
context is an important criterion to be referred when an architect design the
buildings.
In this part of research paper, we will discuss about the effect of the
surrounding context on the architectural design how to achieve an efficient
urban planning.
Bangsar area with increasing population has affected the growth in building
construction industry. Developers take this opportunity to increase their
business by launching properties such as residential properties and
commercial properties to adapt the population. From the observation, the
skyscrapers such as Maybank Tower and UOB Tower have been developed
along the street from our site. Beside these office tower, residential building
such Gaya Bangsar Serviced Apartment is built next to Maybank Tower. From
the map of Bangsar, we can discover that the skyscrapers have been
developed within a boundary at Bangsar area while the buildings on our
research area are mostly shop houses and common houses. It is a common
urban planning nowadays which separate the buildings according to its
function and form. And this relates back to the surrounding context mentioned
earlier. The surrounding context have restricted the building designs in a
certain in terms of function and form. From the visit to Bangsar area, we can
see a transition from building to building which is illustrated in the diagram
above. The planning of the buildings’ location is planned according to the size
and function of the buildings during the urban scape planning.

9. Figure 6: Houses opposite the shop houses
Figure 7: Shop houses next to the research area
Back to our research area, road as the connectivity of different places is just
located in front of the shop houses. This context is important when it comes to
buildings design as it helps to set out the building orientation during the
design process. Access points in a building is important for the people to enter
and exit the building. Therefore, the collaboration between the location of
access point and the road are important to allow the continuity from exterior to
interior. The ease of entering the building will affect the will of people to pay a
visit to the building. Besides roads, the surrounding building also play a role in
determine the design of the building in terms of function and form. Examples
from the research area are the architecture beside the shop houses which
show some similar characteristics such as the building orientation and façade.

10. Conclusion
In the conclusion, the architecture style of the buildings at the research area in
Bangsar are affect by the 3 main external factor: climate, human activity and
economy, and surrounding context. These factors have influenced the
architects’ design which have created unique Malaysian Architecture with the
combination of the vernacular architecture. Through the study on Leon Krier’s
theory, few ideas have been stated by him such as the ideal level for a
building is 2 to 5 storey without limiting the height, architecture style should
return to classism or vernacular architecture and also the walkable distance
from building to building which relates to the urban planning. From my
opinion, I agree with some of the ideas stated by him. For example, the
architecture should return to classism or vernacular architecture. I think it is
suitable to the situation of Malaysia building industry as vernacular
architecture have been proved can save more energy during construction and
the materials used are lower in embodied energy. Besides possess these
features, vernacular architecture can also provide thermal comfort efficiently
with the design and materials used in the construction. While, for the idea of
building levelling, I think that this idea should not be applied on every
architecture in different places. His example stated in the statement he made
is located at the place with large area of land. Therefore, he can achieve his
ideal urban planning by expand the city horizontally instead of vertically. This
idea should not be applied in the country such as Singapore because land
coverage of Singapore is less while the population is high. Therefore, his
theory can be applied when certain requirements fulfil. In a nut shell, there are
many theories in the architecture world. They act as a guide but not a rule in
design because varies of external factors will affect the design ideas.

11. References
1. LeonKrieron sustainable urbanismandthe legible city|Essays| Architectural
Review.(n.d.).Retrievedfrom http://www.architectural-review.com/essays/leon-
krier-on-sustainable-urbanism-and-the-legible-city/8659343.article
2. Interview:LeonKrier|Society|The Guardian.(n.d.).Retrievedfrom
http://www.theguardian.com/society/2006/jun/28/communities.guardiansocietysu
pplement
3. [Google Street].Retrievedfrom
https://www.google.com/maps/@3.129018,101.67855,3a,89.9y,220.88h,95.27t/dat
a=!3m6!1e1!3m4!1s_i2Xk0lT1d6jE4zQzxTxUw!2e0!7i13312!8i6656