Comparative Essay

1. SCHOOL OF ARCHITECTURE, BUILDING AND DESIGN
BACHELOR
OF SCIENCE (HONS) IN ARCHITECTURE
Theories of Architecture & Urbanism
COMPARATIVE ANALYSIS ESSAY
PREPARED BY
TAY JING HENG
0325230
TUTOR : MR. NICHOLAS

2. 1.0 Introduction……………………………………………………………………….1-3
1.1 Dataran Medan Pasar , A Fragmented Street for Transition
1.2 Ta Hien Street, An Intimate Social Platform in Chaotic Manner
2.0 Comparative Analysis...…………………………………………………………3-9
3.0 Conclusion………………………………………………………………………...10
4.0 References………………………………………………………………………….11
TABLE OF CONTENT

3. INTRODUCTION
Every cities has their own unique way in creating and maintaining successful public realm due to the
complexity of social needs. A ‘public realm’ is a diffusely simple yet complicated term as it relates to a
labyrinth of politics, social relations, and interpersonal contacts. It concerns human experience and
builds on social and physical aspects of the place (Calderon & Chelleri, 2013). To understand a better
insight in developing our urban lives , it is necessary to focus on the relationship between theoretical
urban planning and empirical social contact. Therefore, a framework to associate the quest for
common trends and identification of urban context in Southeast Asia countries can be conducted by
comparing the context of Medan Pasar, Downtown of Kuala Lumpur and Tạ Hiện, Hà Nội, Vietnam.
This comparison approach focuses on physical and social attributes that influences the intensity of
contact points of two different quality of street life.
The methodology in this paper is using a chunking structure to employ my points in parallel way. First,
I investigate the urban form in relation to relevant urban theories provided with urban planning pattern,
supported by the historical background and morphology of the city. Due to these theoretical urban
legibility, I have drawn out the analysis approach on how it influenced the social exclusion or inclusion
of the people in particular city. On that ground, the ideology from Jan Gehl about urban life acclaim for
the urge of good quality public realm, as well as the significant role of local culture tradition that
affecting the society public space. To outline the humanistic part of my point, I discuss about the soft
part of urbanism which include current urban atmosphere in daily life basis as the example
corresponding to my argument.
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4. Dataran Medan Pasar , A Fragmented Street for Transition
Dataran Medan Pasar, a pedestrianised market square, is unique in character among Malaysian
public spaces, being strong presence of its vivid form surrounded by various scaled, form and function
building blocks. This public square is paved in clay bricks for heavy foot traffic connecting between 2
major paths, Jalan Hang Katsuri and Jalan Tun Tan Siew Sin, forming an invisible transitional street.
After Rent Control Act was repealed in 1997, Mixed-use development in the heart of heritage core
zone have increased the possibilities of social connection between different user group overwhelmed
by banking district, main hubs for public transportation and also adaptive reuse of traditional
shophouses for tourists. However, longstanding local community have disappeared in a familiar
pattern of ‘suburban flight’. In Kuala Lumpur the buildings do not have the same level of UNESCO
protection as in Georgetown and have been inappropriately adapted or even demolished.
Figure 1.1 The site plan shows the land use around the selected site.
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5. Ta Hien Street, An Intimate Social Platform in Chaotic Manner
The recent wake of Vietnam’s liberalising economic policies, or ‘Đổi Mới’ has drastic change the
street life in Hanoi. The level of intrusion into the street increased for personal and commercial uses
such as pavement stalls, the spilling out of merchandise from cramped shop and the parking of
motorcycles and bicycles is now part of the contemporary streetscape. Unlike developed western
countries, Hanoi’s seamless chaos is noisy, exhausting, exhilarating and inscribed with daily urban
rituals which exercising in public space at every morning 6 am. Since 2014, Tạ Hiện street was made
off-limits to vehicles became the first walking-only street in Hanoi’s Old Quarter. The absence of
vehicles and public transportation during weekend eventually created a walkable street to promote
contact points for both the local residents and foreign visitors. The success of temporary
pedestrianization encourage a wide range of cultural, musical and arts performances to be organised
along with sports activities and folk games using junctions as public realm. Now, the street life is
mixed in with the typical Asian street commerce culture of cooking, vending and squatting
Figure 1.2 The site plan shows the possibilities of contact in nodes.
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6. COMPARATIVE ANALYSIS
In the analysis part, the urban form is the means to study all the spatial planning of urban fabric in
relation to relevant human social activities. According to Jan Gehl ‘Life Between Buildings’, there are
two type of aspects in planning decisions that will influence the social contact of people which are ‘To
Assemble or Disperse’ and ‘To Integrate or Segregate’ (Gehl, 2006). He mentioned that if activities
and people are assembled, the possibilities for individual events and the participants can be stimulate
one another. However, dispersion of urban mass is needed when peaceful and quiet spaces needed
to be established in highly concentrated area to ensure a more evenly distribution of city activities.
Yet, there are also fundamental functions of which the city forms may be expressed in term of
legibility in urban design (Kelvin Lynch, 1960). The image of the city itself will inform the citizen of its
own meanings and connections, to become a place. The quality of environment to achieve a feeling of
satisfaction,presence and rightness are particular in different places in order to become an integral
piece of its inhabitants lives.
During 1940s, Hanoi was under the colonial rule of France, these periods oversight left a permanent
impact on the Hanoi city's layout. "The French, more than other European countries with colonies at
the time, were trying to figure out what their future cities would be like and determining exactly what
was 'the gift' they were bringing to these colonies’’ (Gwendolyn Wright, 1991). The urban fabric of
Hanoi is influenced by Barron Haussman's famous plan for the City of Light established wider and
more orderly paths but allowed small hints of the city's medieval past to remain.
Figure 2.1 Hanoi city's layout pattern corresponding to Ta Hien Street.
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7. Formation of tree-lined streets and public squares allowed Hanoi to maintain much of its dynamic
identity while also establishing easily navigable and efficient paths to different neighborhoods.
Linearity of trees are the vertical shading elements in Ta Hien street, instead of significant physical
elements in Malaysia five-foot walkway. Tropical climate condition in both streets need to be shaded
by canopy to provide thermal comfort condition for walkability and usability of human activities.
Figure 2.2 Ta Hien Street natural canopy shaded the people below.
The spatial setting created by orthogonal urban structure with its compact block forms and short
walking distance between junction to junction eventually activated nodes while eliminating edges
between indoor semi-private realm and outdoor public realm. The buildings are placed in slanted
rows, forming a triangle blocks and offering advanced accessible routes to assemble the activities and
people together as a nodes.
Figure 2.3 Junction of Ta Hien Street as city node for public usage.
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8. The spatial setting created by orthogonal urban structure with its compact block forms and short
walking distance between junction to junction eventually activated nodes while eliminating edges
between indoor semi-private realm and outdoor public realm. The buildings are placed in slanted
rows, forming a triangle blocks and offering advanced accessible routes to assemble the activities and
people together as a nodes.
Walking along boulevards and the idea of 'flâneur' at streetscape are cultural tradition by legacy of
French imperialism. As a result, Barron Haussman’s urban theories have directly influenced the
Vietnamese city's vibrant street life while preserving local street culture of cooking, vending and
squatting.
Figure 2.4 Sectional drawing of Ta Hien Street shows the relationship between the public space,
people and activities.
7 metres Ta Hien narrow pathway only allowed light vehicle such as motorbike to drive through.
Within this slow pace intimate liminal space, people and activities have effectively assembled and
integrate to promote higher intensity of active contact points because of the short pedestrian traffic
and sensory experiences. Navigating the streets, amidst hoards of street vendors and motorbikes,
people sitting on street corner gossiping and eating local food or simply lingering around.
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9. Compared with Barron Haussman’s urban fabric in Ta Hien Street, Dataran Medan Pasar have a
rather natural settlement formation. Maturity of Medan Pasar began since 1870, when immigrants
influxed from China and India into this economic hub of new settlement, forming high concentrated
public realm. Nevertheless, after the relocation of the wet market to Central Market and the
transformation of banking hub, Medan Pasar had started to encounter the crisis of segregation.
Developmental trends in local society and planning dogma have established an inevitable general
tendency towards the dispersal of people and events. The crisis became even worse after 2 major six
lanes two-ways roads were built around Medan Pasar which are Jalan Tun Tan Siew Sin and Leboh
Pasar Besar. On the other hand, Klang River used to be an essential connection of people by
providing water transportation. But now it was replaced by LRT and automobiles as a major form of
transporting people, leaving it as natural geographical edge that disrupted continuity of movement.
Figure 2.5 People are crossing heavy traffic usage Leboh Pasar Besar.
Figure 2.6 Separation of 2 adjacent public spaces by Klang River 7

10. Although both Medan Pasar and Ta Hien Street are undergoing urbanisation in same Southeast Asia
contextual based, however, the urban typology in both cities are distinguishing. Development in Ta
Hien Street, Hanoi is more towards centralised centripetal urbanism while Medan Pasar is towards
decentralised centrifugal urbanism. Under the circumstances, compact development in Ta Hien Street
has contributed to activate the public environment instead of urban sprawl in Medan Pasar which
created a passive public realm. For example, the quality of street life in Medan Pasar is drastically
depleted when passive units such as banks, office, parking lots and gas station move into the urban
fabric creating holes and voids. From the diagram below, we are able to gain the insight into how the
basic urban typology highly impacts on social interaction in our daily life. We can clearly observed the
scattered building blocks in Medan Pasar compared to integrated blocks in Ta Hien Street.
Figure 2.7 Left side and right side are Figure Ground Diagram of Medan Pasar and Ta Hien Street
respectively.
This could explain how the fragmentation of human activities in Medan Pasar repel local community
into outer downtown of Kuala Lumpur and causing ‘‘Doughnut Effect’’ phenomena.
The characteristics of liminal spaces in Medan Pasar further related to Jan Gehl’s statement on
‘’people attract people’’,which emphasis on the importance of seating arrangement providing a good
passive contact to observe and listen to the surrounding social environment. Conversely, large
opened space with optimum number of seats in Medan Pasar has a better vantage point than Ta Hien
Street. By close observation, I realised that people tend to use benches along Medan Pasar public
square rather than benches along quiet areas of Klang River with minimal number of people.
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11. Figure 2.8 People sitting in bench are observing the social activities going on in the surrounding.
Thus, the statement of ‘’people attracting people’’ is valid in creating passive contact and chance
contact. As Lennard (Lennard, 1995) observe: ‘Human beings require and depend on contact with
other human beings as perceiving presence of others is reassuring.’ Unlike Ta Hien Street, Medan
Pasar provides better visual connection between pedestrian walking along five-foot walkway and the
people chatting and sitting on benches. Meaning to say that, Medan Pasar has better transparency
and street level legibility using effective five-foot walkway.
Figure 2.9 Sectional drawing of Medan Pasar shows the relationship between the public space,
people and activities. 9

12. CONCLUSION
As a conclusion, this comparison approach gives us an insight into the meaning behind ‘life between
buildings’ by Jan Gehl and also ‘The Image of the City’ by Kelvin Lynch, which are focusing on
theoretical urban planning and empirical aspect of a city respectively. From the largest picture of a city
to the smallest details of street life, both theoretical and pragmatic approaches are able to significantly
alter our daily social life. Medan Pasar has a vast spatial public realm with better vantage point while
Ta Hien Street has a rather narrow intimate space to bring everyone together, both street have
different kind of prospect. In response to the Medan Pasar primary concern which is fragmented local
community, perhaps similar attributes in Ta Hien Street could be used as reference to re-shaped
Medan Pasar to reclaim its conviviality urban space.
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13. REFERENCE
1. Shaftoe, H. (2008). Convival Urban Spaces : Creating Effective Public Spaces, USA, VA :
Earthscan.
2. Lynch, K. (1960). The Image of the City. USA : The MIT Press.
3. Gehl, J. (2011). Life Between Buildings : using public space. USA, Washington : Island Press.
4. Farrelly, L. (2001). Drawing for Urban Design. China : Laurence King Publishing Ltd.
5. Iveson, K. (2007). Publics and the City. New York: Blackwell Publishing.
6. Kurfürst, Sandra. (2012). Redefining Public Space in Hanoi. Places, Practices and Meaning.
7. Edwards, Jay & E. Mosher, Anne. (1994). The Politics of Design in French Colonial Urbanism
Gwendolyn Wright. Journal of the Society of Architectural Historians. 53. 357-359.
10.2307/990947.
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