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1) Roppongi Hills in Tokyo, Japan and Jalan TAR in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia developed differently due to differences in climate, culture, history and technology. 2) Both areas have sidewalk gardens and street crossings that serve as contact points where passive interactions between pedestrians occur. 3) Roppongi Hills has more amenities like plazas and shrines that encourage optional activities and social interactions, increasing contact intensity compared to Jalan TAR.
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- 1. THEORIES OF ARCHITECTURE AND URBANISM PROJECT 2: COMPARATIVE ESSAY TUTOR: MR. PRINCE LEE KAI YUNG 0318314
- 2. City, a concrete result of large number of people gathering in a location and making it their permanent settlement. Defined by its inhabitants, it is the most accurate representation of the state of the people and the country. Its layout and pattern influenced by past growth, now in turn continue to influence the people living in it. Each building comes with a function of their own generating social activities. But when put together the built environment affects the behaviour and actions of human. Comparing the Ropponggi of Japan and Jalan Tunku Abdul Rahman (Jalan TAR) in Malaysia. Both shaped by a different climate, culture, history, communication and advancement in technology. The social behaviour and pattern of the inhabitants are influenced by the different aspects of the two cities. The urban patterns of Jalan TAR and Roppongi hills are fairly different. The vicinity of Roppongi started since the edo era and housed the imperial army for WW2. The post WWII land reform, saw lands force-purchased from landlords and sold to tenants significantly reducing the individual size of holdings. This led to piecemeal development with rather un-organized individual development initiatives and composite mix of building types. The city is seemingly chaotic with a rather formless urban structure due to it piecemeal developments on narrow streets, but it still keeps its traditional urban patterns quite intact. Roppongi had a reputation as a neighborhood with a lot of foreigners, but that changes when its night life became popular which draws Japanese elites to the area. Jalan TAR however started along the Gombak and Klang rivers, as they were the contact point of tin mining and the nucleus of the city. It started off as a linear city depending on the two rivers but this slowly changed as the means of transportation improved. The city started to grow in different direction as the dependence of river declined. Jalan Tar is mostly occupied by the old that stayed there as the place slowly grow and changes and the foreign workers that come here looking for opportunities.
- 3. . Figure 1 Roppongi sidewalk garden Figure 2 Jalan Tar sidewalk garden As stated by Gehl, the contact points of a city are the outdoor activities influenced by the different conditions in public spaces such as necessary, social and optional activities in relation to the degree of intensity as mentioned by Gehl in his “Life Between Buildings”. Both cities do not have a very visible entrance that declares that you entered it vicinity, but along the sidewalks greenery could be found along it. People would encounter these sidewalk gardens as they enter a shop or walk on the sidewalk. The greenery functions as a subtle entrance statement and a divider from the sidewalk and the street giving a slight sense of safely to the sidewalk users, often slowing down their pace and increasing the possibility of involvement, interaction, and knowledge sharing in the place. In Roppongi the sidewalk greenery further connects into small pockets of gardens, which may induce optional activities to linger in the gardens from time to time
- 4. Figure 3 Semua house junction Roppongi hills, a large modern complex combining shops, boutiques, cafes, bars and traditional Japanese garden earning it the title ‘a city within a city’. There are two bridges Art walk and west walk which merges together that serves as main arteries of pedestrian traffic that necessary activity occur. Maman is the massive spider shaped landmark that looms over the plaza. The plaza is also the crossroad of the two bridges leading into building. This point of contact forces passive contact among pedestrians as they pass by each other, they see and hear each other as they proceed on performing their necessary activity. The sculpture itself is a node which attracts people, it gives out a vague sense of protection to the people underneath. Seating of long benches could be found around the edge of the sculpture, encouraging the optional activity to sit, rest and people watch. Social activity happens when it becomes a venue of art programmes, resulting in high contact intensity. The crossroad in front of Semua House mall is a contact point similar to the Roppongi Maman plaza. Although it is more direct in approach, it stills creates passive contact between the people passing the two busy street. The difference with the Roppongi plaza is that it only caters to necessary activity of pedestrians. The path is not shaded and due to the tropical weather of Malaysia people tend to not stay there for long. Unlike Roppongi, there are also no seating or attractions in the area that encourages people to stay and linger, majority of people only pass by to get to their intended destination. The contact intensity is high, but it only passive contact and necessary activity occurs.
- 5. Figure 4 Jalan Tar shop extended to walkway The shophouses in Roppongi are neater in comparison to Jalan Tar. Only restaurants extend their seating to the sidewalks of the street. It attracts pedestrian who strolls along the shopping street. It offers social interactions, including meeting people and sharing experiences which offers opportunity to maintain already established contact. Shaded by canopies, surroundings exposed on all sides while still maintaining a certain level of privacy from the public sidewalk. Social activity takes place with moderate level of contact intensity between the people. In Jalan Tar the shophouses extends towards the five-foot walkways, arranging their products to slightly obstruct the five-foot way. This gives the pedestrians direct visual connection to the shop and the products, the obstructions slow down their pace as they observe or window shop. The shop owners encourage the optional activity as the pedestrians’ pass. The hot weather relatively increases the intensity level as people tend to use the five-foot way to hide from the sun.
- 6. Figure 6 Jalan Tar business extend to edge of street leaving narrow passage The tenso shrine of Roppongi is a drop-in building height along the area of high rise building, a pocket transition that is necessary to pass by to get to the office building. The intensity of contact here is high during peak office hours as white collars pass by the area to get to their destination. The lust green of the shrine garden structures an attractive environment that encourages optional activity that can develop into passive social activity as white collars of the nearby office frequently use the space. Masjid india is also a landmark of worship in Jalan Tar, but unlike the tenso shrine it is not open ended and the gates discourages entrance to the pedestrians. Only worshippers enter which causes the contact intensity to be low but intimate social activities occur between the frequent worshipers of the place. The part of that makes this a contact point is the front road of the mosque which is privatized by stalls. Due to the lack of guidelines, businesses extend toward the edge of the street, leaving a narrow space for circulation. This could not be found in Roppongi as the Japanese are stricter in their rule, therefore resulting in the neat and tidy streets. However, the privatization of the streets creates a sense of intimacy and robustness to the street. This sort of privatization if followed by other businesses in the area resulting it as part of a feature of the place now. The privatization of the sidewalk along the street creates a concentration of people in a community. The contact intensity is high as a mix of all activity occur here. The exchange of greetings, dialogs and negotiation of the people creates a constant active social contact. The obstruction of the street by business products, here became a feature of the place, creating an unorganized space crafted by human behaviour.
- 7. As quoted by Jan Gehl “To be able to move about easily and confidently, to be able to linger in cities and residential areas, to be able to take pleasure in spaces, building and city life, and to be able to meet and get together with other people- informally or in more organised fashion- these are fundamental yo good cities and good building projects today as in the past.” Humans activity are a major factor in the formation and completion of in between spaces as dominant being in these spaces, being able to carry out our daily activities easily and comfortably is a key importance in an urban city. An urban formation falls closely within the assessment of this at which the development of a city move synchronized with participation of the community.