1. SCHOOL OF ARCHITECTURE, BUILDING AND DESIGN
BACHELOR (HONS) OF SCIENCE IN ARCHITECTURE
REPRESENTING PLACE
ADAPTATION OF CULTURAL HERITAGE
GROUP 2 - PROJECT 1(A) & 1 (B)
MR. HAFIZ AMIRROL
NAMES STUDENT ID
CHONG YI QI 0304898
KONG XHIANG LYNN 0317730
JAMES TAY JIA CHUEN 0322210
JANICE LEE JUEN YUNG 0318695
LEONG YU SHI 0322586
MUATASIMAH BILLAH BINTI SALEH MOHAMAD 0316071
NG KE NING 0323015
2. Title : CULTURE AND HERITAGE
Site : Petaling Street
Course : Architecture
Measuring Adaptation of Cultural Heritage
1. Language adaptation
- Amount of people able to speak their own language per square meter
- Amount of people able to understand their own language per square meter
- Amount of people able to write their own language per square meter
2. Influence of food from different cultures
- Number of people from the same race who acknowledges the existence of their own
cultural food per square meter
- Number of people from different races who acknowledges the existence of other
races’ cultural food per square meter
- Number of people who eat different races’ cultural food per square meter
3. Culture and Tradition Practice
- Amount of people celebrates their own cultural festival per square meter
- Amount of people celebrates their own and other races’ cultural festival per square
meter
- Amount of people still wearing their traditional clothing during cultural festival and
daily routines per square meter
- Amount of people who practices their cultural superstition per square meter
3. TITLE : CULTURE AND HERITAGE
Research Background
Cities evolve and changing with development. Petaling Street is the center of Kuala Lumpur's
original Chinatown. Petaling Street is known as one of Kuala Lumpur’s best attraction place and
has been a shopping area since the late 19th century. Over the decades the street has transformed
into a huge market selling many types of merchandise and is a food paradise.
From its original incarnation as an outdoor food market, the market has been redeveloped into a
pedestrian-only zone and is easily access by pedestrians and MRT. However, going by vehicle and
bus are not advisable as it will cause traffic congestion.
Petaling Street is also famous due to its local heritage values and unique façade elements. Despite
that, the heritage shophouses there are not well conserved and are left abandon. This can be seen
through the number of pre-war shophouses reducing, the sign of deterioration by lacking of
maintenance and replacement by new tall buildings at the area. Moreover, the cleanliness and poor
maintenance issue of the street has become an issue that are hampering the plans to develop this
tourist destination further.
However, it can be said that Petaling Street has the potential to be developed into a cultural and
historic district in Kuala Lumpur.
4. Questionnaires
1. What is your race? (Malay / Chinese / Indian / Lain-lain)
2. What is your ethnic? _____________________________
3. Are you able to understand your ethnic language? Yes / No
4. Are you able to read your ethnic language? Yes / No
5. Are you able to write your ethnic language? Yes / No
6. Do you celebrate your respective ethnic’s festivals? Yes / No
7. What festivals do you celebrate?
Deepavali, Thaipusam, Hari Raya, Awal Muharam, Mid Autumn Festival, Chinese New
Year
8. What other festivals do you celebrate?
Deepavali, Thaipusam, Hari Raya, Awal Muharam, Mid Autumn Festival, Chinese New
Year
9. How often do you wear your ethnic traditional clothes? Yearly / Monthly / Weekly /
Daily
10. Do you wear other races’ traditional clothing? Yes / No
11. Do you practice your cultural superstitious? Yes / No
12. How well do you know your ethnic’s food? 1 2 3 4 5
13. Do you know how to make your own ethnic’s food? Yes / No
14. Which ethnic food is your favourite? __ Chinese __ Malay __ Indian
15. Would you introduce your ethnic’s food to foreigners? Yes / No
16. Are you willing to continue practicing your culture? Yes / No
5. Objectives
1. To study the depth of understanding of their own culture in younger generation.
2. To study the depth of cultural intermingling in various ethnics.
3. To understand how the changes in cultural routine has affected their cultural practice.
Significance
Malaysia is a nation with different ethics, sharing various culture. We aim to study the depth of
understanding of younger generations towards their own culture. As the culture and traditions are
fading, we would like to know how Malaysians adapt to the changes. Besides that, we would like
to study the spirit of Malaysians when they celebrate different ethnics’ festivals together as well
as enjoy different races’ food. We would like to understand how Malaysians daily routine has
affected their cultural practices as well as determine whether they still hold onto their
superstitious beliefs.
Method
1. Petaling Street, also known as the Chinatown which is located in Kuala Lumpur, is
chosen as the site of our research on the daily practices of cultural heritage among the
locals.
2. Different races such as Chinese, Indian and Malays of different age group are targeted for
the research.
3. Questionnaires are used as our main instrument in carrying out this research.
4. The answered questionnaires will then be recorded and analyzed.
5. Multiple graphs will then be produced based on the information gathered from the
questionnaires.
Expected outcome
Based on the primary understanding of the site and the questionnaires produced, the expected
outcomes from the people of Petaling Street are listed as below:
1. Most of the people from Petaling Street are still passing on their cultural heritage to their
children.
2. Many realize the importance of their culture and why it should be passed onto the future
generations.
3. Most of the people still eat, wear, celebrate and practices their own culture’s superstition,
festival, costumes, and food.
4. Due to the multicultural society, many respect and understand the culture of other races.
5. One’s cultural heritage is passed on regardless of the sex, age and race of an individual.
6. Many embrace and even practice other race’s culture such as food, clothing and festival.
