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SCHOOL OF ARCHITECTURE,BUILDING AND DESIGN

BSC (HONS) IN ARCHITECTURE

THEORIES OF ARCHITECTURE AND URBANISM

COMPARATIVE ESSAY

NAME

WEE SUE WEN | 0322633

TUTOR

MR. NICHOLAS NG
COMPARATIVE ESSAY

In this context, both Ewha woman shopping street and Jalan Besar are analysed and
compared with each other in terms of how successful they are as a design intended for
the city and what are the drawbacks of both streets which made them come short of
achieving the goal of being a successfully designed plan. After reading Jan Gehl’s
book, “Life Between Buildings”, i feel that the method of analysing contact points in
both streets helped me to understand and discover how public realms as a contact
point can be successful in an urban area, in the sense where it creates opportunity for
interaction between people, be it tourists, foreigners, or even locals by having different
activities and programme in a place. Having good contact point in a street encourage
positive development to the existing area and by comparison, the goods can be
implanted to subpar urban area to improve its current status.

HISTORY OF EWHA WOMAN SHOPPING STREET

The born of Ewha Woman Shopping Street can be traced back to the presence of
Ewha Womans University in Korea. The university is the world largest female educational
institute established in 1886. The campus then moved from Jeong-Dong to Sinchon in
1935, hence the shopping street is developed accordingly to accommodate to the
needs of high population of women and female students in the area. Dominique
Perrault architecture firm won a design competition by the university for designing a
new campus, making the campus a tourist attraction, enhancing a increasing human
density at the street. As development continues, Sinchon became a popular area as it
was surrounded by a few universities. This further improved the growth and popularity of
Ewha Woman Fashion Street, serving students from different universities. As a result,
“Ewha Streetscape Style” was born and began attracting people from other places.
Transportation also played a big role in the development of the Ewha woman
Shopping Street. Having the oldest train station in Sinchon located between two
university campuses, it also helped bring tourists from all over the world to travel easily
to Sinchon Dong. It was then turned into a tourist information centre after a new transit
is being built in year 2004.
HISTORY OF JALAN BESAR KLANG

Klang belonged to the Malacca Sultanate from the 15th Century to the 18th Century. In
the 1800s, Klang has been led under the Selangor Sultanate from the Malacca
Sultanate. As of late 1800s, The British occupied Klang and boosted the productivity and
efficiency with industrialization to exploit tin ore available on site. Therefore, Klang
began to bloom with colonial buildings from it’s forest lands. In the early 1900s, railway
lines and transportations in Klang flourished to accomodate for the increasing demand
for transporting tin minerals to other places. Port Swettenham was completed in 1901. As
such, more roads have also been constructed to link the economy more effectively,
while the population continues to grow with more migrants. The modern age in 2000s,
Klang has further improved in terms of circulation with more advanced city planning as
highways are made. As the vacant lands are replaced with built forms, land along the
river or near bridges has become occupied and expansions are made further inland
townships such as Bandar Bukit Tinggi and Bandar Baru Klang was completed. Now,
Jalan Besar has become a place which is very quiet at night as it lack of activities and
population. Younger generation migrates out of the place as it is less developed and
lack of higher institution.
CONTACT POINTS IN EACH STREET

Contact points in Ewha Woman Shopping


Street, Seoul, Korea:
C1. Sinchon Yonsei-Ro Culture Street
C3. Sinchon Station Plaza
C4. Ewha Second Hand Alley
C5. Ewha Street North Entrance
C6. Dahyeon Culture Park

Contact points in Jalan Besar, Klang,


Malaysia
1 1. KTM Station
2. Chong Kok Kopitiam
5
2 3. Gallery Diraja sultan Abdul Aziz
4 (intersection of road)
4. Chinese Street
5. Carpark
3

Both streets are currently developed as a place featured with some contact point
allowing different activities carried out by the people making those place alive in the
city. Contact points in Ewha Woman Shopping Streets are Sinchon Yonsei-Ro Culture
Street, Sinchon Station, Ewha Second Hand Alley, Ewha Street North Entrance and
Dahyeon Culture Park. Contact points in Klang would be the Chinatown Street, KTM
Station, Chong Kok Kopitiam, intersection at Art Museum and the open carpark area.
COMPARISON 1:

KTM STATION, KLANG SINCHON STATION, KOREA

Both Sinchon Station in Korea and KTM Station in Klang, Malaysia are contact points served
as a form of transportation facility for public users and tourist to travel to the respective
destinations. They are considered as contact point because necessary activities of both
places are boarding trains, inflow and outflow of people while the optional activities
taking photos, getting shelter from rain. The activities happen in such a way that makes
the presence of contacts in between strangers, acquaintances and close friends. Both
stations have rich historical value, and have potential to be tourist attraction due to their
historical pass that hold meanings to the respective locals. But in current status, the KTM
Station in Klang is gradually becoming old and forgotten due to lack of improvement and
management of facilities, and overshadowed by newer and more current form of
transportations booming in the city. The inconvenience of the insufficient frequency of
train arrival results in the migration of younger generations to other places which can travel
more easily to their destination compare to this station. Sinchon Station in Korea is very
lively as there are universities and tourism destination located in the surrounding context. It
also has a plaza in front of the station that offers to more activities such as gathering,
events and festivals. In comparison, having a plaza promotes more activities where
acquaintances, passive contact and close friend contact occur more frequently.
However, in KTM Station in Klang has very limited social activities available as the place
only offer very few purpose for individuals to interact with others. Space quality is another
factor that affects human intensity in this contact point. KTM station in Klang provides old
and traditional space such as a train station while Sinchon Station in Korea provides a
modern, wide and sufficient space for high human intensity. Having more activities at the
contact point also attracts more people to the area as people tend to follow where the
crowd is, and the crowd are the main factor to make a space a place. Factors such as
space, activities, design and modernity make Sinchon Station a more successful contact
point compared to KTM Station in Klang.
STALLS AT RESTING AREA MAY INCREASE PEOPLE INTERACTION

This shows that implementing more activities in a space will increase human intensity in
that particular contact point. By this comparison, understanding similar development of
the Sinchon Station can be done to KTM Station in Klang in order to improve the space
quality and attract more public to use the place, hence, increase population in Klang
may also help the place grow.
COMPARISON 2:

CHONG KOK KOPITIAM EWHA SECOND HAND ALLEY

Moreover, I will be comparing Chong Kok Kopitiam and Ewha Second Hand Alley. Both
are serving business as commercial, providing adequate items to fulfill the need of
customer. The necessary activities for both place are the interaction between buyers and
seller or cashier, communication of workers who are working together as well as the
inflow and outflow of people depending on time period. Chong Kok Kopitiam is a tourist
attraction as it has been promoted by the locals to social media, bloggers and news.
Besides, both of these places are serving the items with adequate price in a way that
can accommodate to the people who are in middle and lower income class as most of
the people in Klang are retired senior citizens while most of the target user in korea is
students. Chong Kok Kopitiam is a traditional cafe that provides typical malaysian
breakfast, food fusioned with malay and chinese food, such as pao, toasted bread,
half-boiled eggs, chinese prawn cracker, nasi lemak and they also serve nice coffee. By
selling these, the people are creating fusion of malay and chinese in terms of food
culture, they also encourage interaction between different races. This cafe is located in a
small shop lot and only operates in daytime and the service is on the ground floor, thus, it
has limited space for more interactions to happen. As for Ewha Second Hand Alley,
fashion items and services such as salon, beauty and nail shops are in majority as they are
targeting female students from all the surrounding universities. Variety of shop that attract
the students eventually invite them to interact with the promoter and seller. The space is
shops extending along the back alley with similar business operating, allowing more
working opportunities and choices for the customers. Variety of spaces promote variety
of contact between people as well such as increase of chance of meeting close friends
and acquaintances who have similar interest of their choice of shop to visit.
EXTEND BIGGER SPACE

It is clear that size of place affects the intensity of visitors, and tourist. Gathering of
people requires a wider and bigger place in order to provide a comfortable
environment for interaction. No matter what is the function of place but the size of
place matters. I recommend Chong Kok Kopitiam to expand their shop
accommodate more customers at once, increasing interaction and make this
contact point more happening and successful.
COMPARISON 3:

INTERSECTION IN FRONT OF GALLERY NORTH ENTRANCE OF EWHA SHOPPING STREET

Furthermore, intersection of road in front of the Gallery Diraja Sultan Abdul Aziz and the
North entrance of Ewha shopping street are contact points where people move from
different direction towards this point will cross over each other. The necessary activities at
the intersection in front of Gallery Diraja Sultan Abdul Aziz is passing by the road without
crossing while at the North Entrance of Ewha shopping street is crossing the road to shop
for daily items. Optional activities at intersection in front of Gallery in Klang is visiting the
gallery or going to the bank while at the North Entrance of Ewha shopping street are
buying coffee, food and items from street stalls.

PEDESTRIAN WALKWAY

INTERSECTION IN FRONT OF GALLERY NORTH ENTRANCE OF EWHA SHOPPING STREET

One of the main difference between these two road intersections is that the intersection in
front of gallery in Klang prioritizes traffic smoothness by having wide road and narrow
walkway whereas the intersection in Ewha North Entrance prioritizes walking pedestrians by
having wide pedestrian walkway and narrow roads that can only accommodate vehicles
in a single file. This is because public transport in Ewha is very complete and
comprehensive, making visitation to the area easier and people do not need to rely on
their own vehicles. In comparison, the public transport in Jalan Besar area in Klang is not
well developed causing difficulties in travelling the area and people have to rely on their
own vehicles, hence the road is designed to be wide to ease traffic.
PROPOSED SOLUTION

Another difference between the two contact points is that the presence of zebra
crossing on the road. People have to rush across the road because of the lack of safety
feature, causing people to crossover without stop. Ewha North Entrance have safety
features like zebra crossing ensures the safety of pedestrians, thus overall pace of
pedestrians are slow, increasing opportunity for interaction. To solve the issue in Klang,
safety features are necessary to include in this area and the green belt nearby the road
intersection can be converted into a resting area to allow the pedestrian to stop by after
crossing the road in order to increase the contact of people in that area.
COMPARISON 4:

CHINESE STREET, KLANG SINCHON YONSEI-RO CULTURE STREET, KOREA

Contact points studied from both streets are the Sinchon Yonsei-Ro Culture Street and
the Chinese Street in Klang. They are both similar in the way that they sell items that are
suitable for their locals’ needs respectively. Chinese street in Klang sells traditional food,
items and chinese medicine that are suitable for their older aged locals whereas the
Culture street in Sinchon sells more modern and new items to their target customers
which are the universities students and other young adults. Intensity of visitors to the
Chinese street in Klang decreases drastically along the years as shops over there do not
have items that are suitable for the modern, younger generation who are less interested
in traditional items. Another factor affects the intensity of people in the Chinese Street in
Klang is because the shops only operate during daytime and the street is inactive at
night as there is no attraction for people to visit the place.

EVENING-NIGHT ACTIVITIES AT SINCHON YONSEI-RO CULTURE STREET

However, Culture street in Sinchon brings tourist in daytime as they have sculptures and
some stalls nearby attracting people to stop by and interact with others by taking
photos with the sculptures as well as when they are buying items from the stalls. The
activities at the area do not die off at night as they have events such as celebrity
concert or even dance battle competition and night stalls to serve tourist and locals by
selling a wide range of items.
EXAMPLE OF BUILDING LIGHT SHOW

To improve the contact point, Chinese street in Klang, is to implant the concept of using
sculptures to attract people to the place such as a light show utilizing the architectural
character of old buildings. Hence, a successful contact point can be achieved by
balancing the amount of activities during daytime and night time, to ensure constant
intensity of people interacting with each other.
COMPARISON 5:

DAHYEON CULTURE PARK, KOREA OPEN CARPARK, KLANG

The last contact point in both areas are an open carpark near the Chinese street in
Klang and the Dahyeon culture Park in Sinchon. They are similar in the way that they
are used as a space for events, selling goods to visitors. However when there is no
events, they serve as public space where the carpark allows visitors to park their cars
and walk to their destination, while the Dahyeon culture park serve as a place for
friends and families to gather. Both places become more lively and attractive to the
public when there are events held.

ACTIVITIES IN OPEN CARPARK WITH SANDY COVER, KLANG

The differences that set these contact points apart are the presence of greeneries,
the setting atmosphere and usability. The Dahyeon Culture Park has a lot of soothing
greens planted around the park while the floor is covered with pavements. However,
the carpark in Klang has minimum greens and it is covered with sand and pebbles.
This made the Dahyeon Culture Park a more attractive and usable public space for
general purposes while the carpark’s function is limited to being an area for people
to park their vehicles during normal times. It is clear that a space’s setting is very
important to give good first impressions to the people visiting. For instance, Dahyeon
Culture Park has covered pavements which made activities easier to be carried out
as compared to the sandy ground seen at the carpark in Klang.

PROPOSE CARPARK DESIGN WITH GREENERIES AND PROPER PAVING


CONCLUSION

As a conclusion, Ewha Women Shopping Street region is a more well developed region
as compared to Jalan Besar in Klang as it is designed according to the fundamental
desired of people. The aspects used to analyse the contact points above such as
presence of greens, safety features, environment settings and good utilisation of space
are the essential elements that contribute to people’s enjoyment towards the spaces.
These elements are constant throughout the evolution of architecture and analysing
contact points in an architectural design is extremely important to find out the strengths
and weaknesses of a designed public space. I feel that Jan Gehl’s theory of analysing
contact points is very adaptive and effective in studies and is very implementable in my
future architectural designs and planning. After comparing between the two area of
studies, I feel that the Jalan Besar region in Klang has a lot of potential and room for
improvement to become a point of attraction for both locals and tourists. Changes
could be made to their existing condition to increase the intensity of people and reduce
the outflow of the younger generations.
REFERENCES

N. (2017, April 30). Take a trip into Klang's past - Metro News | The Star Online. Retrieved from
https://www.thestar.com.my/metro/community/2017/05/01/take-a-trip-into-klangs-past-herit
age-festival-aims-to-bring-visitors-back-to-the-glory-days-of-roya/

fooDrink. Retrieved from


http://where-2-makan.blogspot.com/2015/10/chong-kok-kopitiam.html

https://docs.google.com/presentation/d/14c-ikv0bbk6ObMvQPuOzierue5-wRGc1XEb777m
mkdw/edit#slide=id.g38143cd905_0_0

https://docs.google.com/presentation/d/1JL_LbbClWPEmQMwVggm9JT_VC8Ud_hisSDx-fXyy
-KA/edit#slide=id.g380cd30e81_6_6

Video mapping on city building (Show of Light) ~ Hi Res #56031366. (n.d.). Retrieved from
https://www.pond5.com/stock-footage/56031366/video-mapping-city-building-show-light.ht
ml

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