Metropolis

I have been writing and thinking a lot about Malaysia lately. Even when I was watching one of my favourite movie, my thoughts are with how it resembles the situation in my country. Fritz Lang’s Metropolis depicts a futuristic city where the city is structured in vertical layers according to the different social strata. Released in 1927, I am always left impressed on Lang’s predicted the progress of social and cultural contexts of the future. The vision of the future presented by Lang is of the society that relishes on its accomplishments while a substantial part of the population is subjected to a new form of slavery to benefit the few elites. It is interesting for me that Lang uses architecture as  an extension of those profound inequalities, where the labourers was confined to the underworld white the rest enjoyed a luxury lifestyle with monumental structures that towered one over the other as if they were trees seeking for light in a dense forest. At the center of the city was the tallest tower, home of the governmental offices and the source of all oppression and discrimination. Interestingly from the point of urbanism and corporation, Lang predicted that the powerful and rich would seek for glorification by erecting monumental structures that represents powerful statements to their success and financial prowess. Metropolis also predicted the continuation of a global trend that sought for large, highly dense urban centers. The segregation Lang showed in Metropolis between the labor class and the city dwellers is exaggerated, but nevertheless acts as a powerful metaphor as the clear separation that exists in today’s cities where neighborhoods have become divided in terms of class, race and even religion.

How it reminds me of the situation in Malaysia is that the country is also divided by different social strata and Kuala Lumpur represents the large highly-dense urban center which is segregated from other states that was left in underdevelopment. As a KL native growing up in Malaysia, I am used to the first class facilities that the city has to offer and I have always assumed that Malaysia is a country which is comparable with any advance country around the world. This view of mine changed when I acquired my driving license and travel around other towns and cities in Malaysia. The disparity between the other cities in Malaysia and Kuala Lumpur is so wide that it took me by shock. Further studies and analysis over the years made me realized that the other states in Malaysia are not poor by default but rather their resources are poured into the development in KL. The city of KL is almost like an economic blackhole in Malaysia where it sucked all resources around it to develop the city of KL into the current state. Looking at the bigger picture, other states and towns are actually suffering from the development in KL. Take for example the state of Sarawak, the state with the richest natural resources but one which is suffering from the lowest development growth. As a result, people from the other states in Malaysia move to KL or to other countries for job opportunities and/or better living conditions. In the long run, it may not be a sustainable trend as it will result in the towns and states to be abandoned and left to dry until it becomes a ghost town. If that were to happen, this would affect the capital city as well as there will be no support coming in from the other states and cities. In my opinion, I don’t think that any country will survive with a single highly developed capital city without having secondary cities or satellite cities that share the burden of developing a country. In order to move forward, and to achieve Vision 2020 (an ideal introduced by former Prime Minister Tun Mahathir in 1991 to have the nation achieve a self-sufficient industrialized nation by year 2020) the nation would require a more balanced growth across the country.

Another movie which can be used as reference for the situation in Malaysia is perhaps The Hunger Games with its different zones and layers of social strata as you move away from the capital. The further you move away from the city center the poorer the citizens are. The layout of the virtual world in Hunger Games is perhaps a good model of Von Thunen model of city center. What separates the virtual world in the Hunger Games and the situation in Malaysia is the lack of a power-crazed dictator that controlled everything in the realm by segregating the different zones. Or perhaps it is not so much different after all, I say no more.

Archipelago KL

The ring roads in KL is not just a planning concept on a macro scale but developers in Malaysia are quick to adopt the idea of roads surrounding the center concept. The two fairly recent development in KL in KL Sentral and Mid Valley city are examples of that. The two projects are island of its own development, having multiple entries from the perimeter of the encircling road to the center of mix-developments of hotels, offices, residential, transportation hub and shopping malls. This trend has caused the city of KL to have developments that forms an archipelago of a mix-use development that is separated from its surrounding context. Subsequently, as discussed in the previous post, this caused major traffic congestions due to the high influx of cars moving in and out of the “island”. More importantly, this has caused KL to move in a direction where it is less pedestrian-friendly than it ever was. 

KL Sentral was developed with the objective of being the gateway to the city for international tourist and visitors. It is a transportation hub where all major public transportation system meets. However, this “gateway” to the city is located on the peripheral of the city; and tourists and travelers will then change the transportation mode to their next destination, most frequently a cab which cause further traffic congestion on the road. This “gateway” act more like a transit hub as it is locked in an island of its own by the surrounding roads and detached from its surroundings which prompted the reliance of other transportation mode to move the travelers around. The idea of walking out of the island of KL Sentral is not impossible but it is not entire pedestrian-friendly either. This is a wasted opportunity to promote the beauty and charm of KL as KL Sentral is actually located in between the Royal Botanic Garden and Brickfields which is the center of a cultural hub for the Indian community. In order to walk from KL Sentral to the two tourist attraction spots will require the user to walk on the road shared with cars and pedestrian will need to cross multiple roads with heavy traffic flow. The implementation of traffic lights to allow for pedestrian to move along KL Sentral, Brickfields and the Royal Botanic Garden caused more harm than good. This is because the walkways are very unfriendly and people seldom travel on them but the traffic lights are implemented which stops the already congested traffic every several minutes.

KL Sentral Development model showing the perimeter road that sets the boundary

Similarly in Mid Valley City, home to the biggest shopping mall in Malaysia, which is located at the center of multiple residential areas. The layout of Mid Valley City is not catered for the surrounding residential zones to have a clear access. Again the boundary set by the roads encircling Mid Valley City, much like the ones surrounding KL Sentral, encouraged visitors to travel by car in order to access the shopping malls. This has caused residents who live 10 minutes walk away from Mid Valley City to get on their car instead of walking there for better and more comfortable access.

Aerial view of Mid Valley City showing the boundary set by the roads encircling it 

The idea of archipelago development is not limited to major mix-use development in KL. The habit of travelling by car in KL as well as the paranoia surrounding the safety and well-being in every Malaysian has prompted the rise of popularity in the gated-community residential zones. This is rarely seen in European countries or Australia for that matter as the people are more accustomed to travelling by bicycle or by walking without the need for constant wariness to look over their shoulders and worry about their safety.

The result of the reliance on automobile, the concern for safety and a climate that does not promote long-distance pedestrian travel has caused more and more walled development to arise in Malaysia. As we go along this trend of development, the cities in Malaysia will soon be made up of different zones set apart by a boundary formed by wall-fences and roads. Subsequently, people will rely on cars to get around more so than ever and this would amplify the problem of traffic congestions in KL even more. The problems surrounding the cities in Malaysia could be solved by overcoming the growing number of automobile users but the method of which to do so may require long-term strategic planning. The improvement of the public transportation system is a good start and controlling the use of cars into the city such as demonstrated in Singapore could help to improve the traffic conditions as well. 

My City, My Car

Following my previous post about Malaysia, I thought of writing a few more posts on the country which I grew up and am familiar with. Growing up in Kuala Lumpur, I am very familiar with the city itself as well as the scent of my car. This is because I spent as much time in my car as I do walking in the streets of KL if not more. If anyone were to make an appointment with a Malaysian, chances are that he or she will be late. It is a usual occurrence in Malaysia. This has much to do with the attitude of Malaysian as well as the way the cities are planned and how we were brought up in the norm of delays due to traffic. The traffic in KL is on issue that is a constant topic of discussions among Malaysian next to food. There are several reasons that caused the traffic problems in Malaysia. Among them are:

1. The lack of a proficient public transportation
2. The ever increasing number of automobiles in Malaysia
3. The city and road infrastructure planning

The first two points are actually connected. This is due to the government subsidy of petrol and local car prices. The government policy of encouraging the use of cars during the 1980s and 1990s has made Kuala Lumpur one of the highest car per household ratio. The image below from a poster in a conference of Better Cities explains clearly the reason behind the growing number of cars in Malaysia in comparison to our South East Asian neighbours.

The focus of this post however is on the city and infrastructure planning that I believe are the main reason of traffic congestion in Kuala Lumpur. The city’s road infrastructure is planned in the manner of three ring roads that links the city and the suburbs together. The three ring roads, the Inner Ring Road (IRR), Middle Ring Road 1 (MRR1) and Middle Ring Road 2 (MRR2), each provides its function of connectivity. The IRR forms a ring that circles within the city center connecting the major urban precinct together and most city shopping malls are connected via IRR. The MRR1 is the ring road that circulates around the edge of the city center and acts to connect the MRR2 to the entry of the city. The MRR2 is the outer-most ring road which connects the surrounding residential suburbs in the Klang Valley.

The concept of the three ring road may seem logical. However, this prompts all the cars to head towards the ring roads causing massive traffic congestions and bottlenecks. The idea of gather the cars into a single road line and then disperse them to their desired location is not suitable for a city where the main transportation method is by car. The lack of good public transportation system to compliment the ring road system is the main cause of the traffic congestion issue in KL. To give an example of the traffic congestion in KL, my house in KL is right alongside the MRR2 highway. The traffic congestion begins every weekday at 6.30am and by 7.00am, cars are moving at the speed of 20-40km/h. It takes an hour to an hour and a half to travel from the MRR2 to the city during peak hours in a trip that would take 10 minutes during off-peak hours.

I believe that the ring road concept is a good way of connecting all the urban precincts and the suburbs in KL. However, in order for it to work effectively, there have to be a good public transport system that compliments the ring road system and subsequently reduce the number of automobile in KL to enhance the flow of traffic in the ring roads. The image below shows the effectiveness of a good public transport in reducing the number of cars.

Pray for MH370

In light of recent events surrounding the disappearance of a Malaysian Airline plane MH370, Malaysia has been put under the scrutiny in terms of the handling of the case by the Malaysian government. The news of the disappearance comes a day after the former Deputy Prime Minister and the Opposition Party Leader Datuk Seri Anwar Ibrahim was charged with sodomy and sentenced to five year in jail. This has caused many conspiracy theory to rise by linking the two seemingly unrelated issues together. As a Malaysian, I am hoping that both political parties could put aside their differences in the quest of uncovering the truth behind the disappearance of MH 370. I believe that as a citizen of Malaysia, it is important that we can support any political party without fear of offending anyone.

The recent events surrounding my country and my previous post on Better Block has made me think of organizations and events that I have participated in Malaysia with the goal of improving the city of Kuala Lumpur. One such organization which is similar to Better Block is Better Cities. Better Cities is an organization whose objective is to improve the living condition in Malaysia and bringing together the community of a particular neighbourhood. One of the project that I was involve in during my participation was the Damansara Jaya Lorong Party (Damansara Jaya Laneway Party) which intends to bring together the community of Damansara Jaya by creating a number of diverse program which will allow for the people in that area to get to know each other. Below is a short clip of the project.

The laneway project was executed by constructing a large interactive mural installation called the “Automatic Mural”. One of the ways we got residents to break the ice was by asking them to add to the mural by randomly selecting the shape, colour and position of a predetermined template. The end result was a display of each of the participants own interpretation of the template. We also wanted to find out how residents felt about the place they lived in. We used some chalk and stencils to conduct a neighbourhood survey by getting residents to fill in what they felt they wanted to see in Damansara Jaya.

“I want a _________ in Damansara Jaya” was chalk-sprayed on the pavements of the park and we received a mix of responses at the end of the day. Some of the responses included: I want a “Disneyland”, I want “unity”, and I want “better security”. As there were quite a number of older citizens, a few of the responses were for a pondok or small hut for people to sit and rest in between their walks, and there was also a request for a football field.

Occasions like these are a good excuse to get people out of their houses on a weekend to sit and talk to the people that live closest to them. What I have learned from my experience there was that art is a good way to bring the community together in an interactive manner. In addition, art, in the form of murals, can be a good way of identifying the cultural needs and wants or even the identity of a place. The role of murals in urban planning is an aspect which I would like to explore more in the future. I was very much inspired by the works of Ernest Zacharevic. He was an artist that was involve with many murals in Malaysia. Some of his famous works are found in Penang where it was well-received. 

However, one of his installations in the south coast city of Johor Bahru was nearly removed by the local council because it “tells the truth” of the place. Subject to many criminal events in the past, Ernest decided to reflect this in his mural. Below is a picture of the mural which was subjected to many controversies and was much publicized. The next picture is an altered version of Ernest’s work in the attempt to rescue the mural from complete removal.

Ernest Zacharevic's original mural in Johor Bahru

The altered version of Ernest's mural

I believe that murals and art installation is an important aspect in urban planning and architecture. It has the ability to project the identity and culture of a place as well as documenting the need for improvement. However, in the case in Johor Bahru, I find that the local council are too worried about the negative aspects of the mural rather than to improve on the security which is clearly the message that was sent through the mural.

Better Block

My previous post on Jacques Tati’s Playtime does not only show how the mechanization of the city fails to regularize different rhythms in human life, but also give rise to the question: can we ever call the development of a city or the construction of a building as complete especially considering that it will be changed by its users in time to adapt to varying changes? For me, Tati’s movie recalls another well-known allegory by the French author Boris Vian. In his short novel L'Ecume des jours (Froth on the Daydream, 1947), Vian depicts an organic house which changes its shape following the variations in its owner’s wealth. Vian used this allegory both to describe the power of economy and to stress how the domestic space of the 20th Century was contingent on capital.

In last week’s class, we were fortunate enough to have guess speaker Phil Stubbs to speak to us about the role of citizens and planners alike in taking action to change the built environment to adapt to the living conditions of the residents. The Better Block project is a good example of which regulations enforced upon by the planning department may not be perfectly accurate to the living needs of the community.  I find the part where Phil speak about the community testing out the speed limit in Clovelly particularly interesting. This is because the council, through testing and precedent studies, may assume that the speed limit of a certain place to be effective and safe while never fully justify it until it is put to test by the Clovelly community. I am inspired by the people involved in the Better Block as it teaches local communities to care for their town and to take active actions to prove that there are room for improvements as well as that the planning regulations may not equate to the best living condition of a particular place.

I believe that the success of adapting and changing the local built environment to cater for the living needs of the residents relies heavily on the active actions of the community. Better Block is an example of which the role of improving a neighbourhood is not limited to those in the planning department or local council. The local residents in the neighbourhood could play a vital role in the improvement of the neighbourhood as well through projects that brings together community in the attempt of making a place better such as Better Block.

Playtime!

The past week I have been wondering about the effect of rigidity in planning and design of the city in continuation from my earlier posts. My earlier posts on this topic focuses on two case studies of past residential projects. The similarity between the two projects are obvious and I was thinking of posting another which deals with the effect of rigidity in planning and design in a much larger scale such as the city. I initially look to Melbourne and New York for the reason that the two cities are planned based on the model of a grid city and I thought the effect of rigidity would be more obvious in cities modelled after the grid rather than one that grow organically. However, through my experience of living in both cities in recent years, I realized that although Melbourne is a far more rigid city in terms of lifestyle and the planning of the city as compared to Sydney, the different characters and demographic in Melbourne has resulted in a more vibrant city than one would imagine in a gridded city with strict planning policy. It was not possible to find an example of a city which over the years have obediently stuck to the regulation and planning policy that was implemented. As such, I expanded my search into the realms of cinematic space for an example of a virtual city that could provide a look into the result of a city that maintained strict regulation and planning policies in the attempt of maximizing the effectiveness of performance in the city.

A good example of this would be Jacques Tati’s Playtime where Tati played Monsieur Hulot in a movie that criticized the modern movement that is pro-function. The clip below is the trailer of Playtime and it shows that the society may function well if all the individuals are performing their routine “dance” but if one were to act differently (which is inevitable in a society with various individuals), the systematic routine is broken. Playtime is a satire of modern times set in a fictionalized and absurdly modern Paris. The film opens with citizens moving from one place to the next, enthusiastically completing daily tasks without waste or want. Everything is in its right place, every shoelace tied and all garbage properly dispensed. The city’s citizens remain submerged in a pristine city-scape characterized by transparency, honesty and efficiency. In Playtime, the modern ideal appears at its logical end. Everything is modular, as the city appears composed by a series of standardized units; there is seemingly complete equality in daily life.

But even a world that is regularized and efficient as the Modern ideal such as the one seen in Playtime cannot eliminate daily life’s unforeseen events. In Tati’s world (or Tativille) every action is one component in the machine of human patterns, but as in many machines, there remains a margin of error. Monsieur Hulot wanders around the street and buildings as if in complete confusion. He is caught in the machine but does not seem to understand it, and his confused meanderings over the course of the film peel away the polished layers of his modern environment to reveal its absurdity. Hulot reveals that a pristine environment does not necessarily create joy in and of itself, but that chance encounters and unpredictable environments instead bring a much-needed humanity to otherwise mechanistic routines.

I find that Tati’s Playtime is a good example to showcase the disparity between the results of a city, which was designed based solely on the objective of providing function and effectiveness which draws from the modern ideal of precision and function, and the actions of individuals who have different characteristics and behavior among each other which are the human aspects that cannot be assumed are identical which would work in a monolithic functioning city. However, I don’t think this means that Tati is saying the modern world is flawless after all the monolithic and impersonal spaces he has shown us but more that in interacting with any space, even ones designed to discourage individual thought and expression, people do end up changing it by their presence.

The Amsterdam Bijlmermeer

Following my previous post on Pruitt-Igoe, I recall another project which is similar to Pruitt-Igoe in terms of the general view that it is a failed planning project. The Amsterdam Bijlmermeer is a project which failed to achieve the objective that was set during the initial planning stages and despite several attempts of redevelopment to savage the project, it has not reached the height of success which was expected of it. This is due to the rigidity of Bijlmermeer’s planning and design. The project is, like many modernist social housing estates, designed with a powerful form-orientated physical planning which is led by a set of design principles that allows for air, light and space to enter the building. In addition, the rigid zoning of the project is meant to provide specific functions to specific zones. The consequence of the two design factors led to a failure to include a flexibility in its form to allow for human alterations through their various needs and likings. The rigid zoning led to the segregation between various zones which limited each zone to its own function. The design of Bijlmermeer was mostly based on the expectations and ideas of the planners, their vision for the future of the city and not on the expectations of the different member of the society.

The original Bijlmermeer Project

The result is that the Bijlmermeer became nothing more than cheap housings for immigrants and those who seek temporary house before moving on to better places. The high turnover of occupants and the continual influx of immigrants left little to no potential for community growth in Bijlmermeer. As a result, the Bijlmermeer was marginalised as the poor sector in Amsterdam. There are several plans to redevelop Bijlmermeer but the attempts did not achieve any significant success mainly due to the rigidity of the site.

OMA's attempt of redeveloping the Amsterdam Bijlmermeer

The failure of Bijlmermeer to develop and grow naturally was mainly due to the flaw in its initial planning where the designers failed to design for it to respond to ‘unexpected conditions’ such as the post-war economic growth in Europe that allowed people to afford better living. The fundamental concept behind Bijlmermeer was to provide a post-war social housing estate but it failed to adapt to the world that recovered from the war where suburban lifestyle became the preferred choice of living.

Whilst there were a number of broader social issues that also led to the downfall of the project it is clear that the failure to account for a larger context during the initial planning stages played a key role in not empowering its residents and thus not allowing the housing project to perform as was intended.

The Bijlmermeer and Pruitt-Igoe are two examples of where design based on planning policy and regulation led to the failure to expand on the planning brief to more than just performing its core function.  This subsequently led to rigidity in their planning and therefore limiting the livability and effectiveness of the project. I believe that the planning and architecture field has evolved significantly over the past decades to understanding the importance of site-specific analysis and demographic studies. The human aspect and immediate context or environmental condition could prove the difference in determining the effectiveness of a planning project. 

The Pruitt Igoe

One example that comes to my mind when discussing on failed projects due to planning policy is the Pruitt Igoe Housing Project in St. Louis. Pruitt Igoe was an urban housing project in St Louis that was built in 1955 and consisted of 33 11-story apartment buildings on a 57-acre site. It was based around the principles of Le Corbusier and the buildings were set at 11 storeys so as to leave more ground space for activities in order to build a community rather than just a housing project. However this was not what happened, rather the vast expanses of empty landscape did not feel like anyone’s yard and so were not taken care of nor used as was intended. The decision to include skip-stop elevators which only stopped at the first, fourth and tenth floors in order to forced people to use stairs and mingle with their neighbours in the oversized corridors, ultimately led to dangerous situations with the residents in constant fear of mugging or worse. In his 1972 book, ‘Defensible Space: Crime Prevention Through Urban Design’, Oscar Newman, described public spaces in Pruitt-Igoe as anonymous no-man’s lands for which residents felt no sense of ownership or responsibility. This, he argued, explained the vandalism and crime that became the norm in galleries, stairwells, and elevators. In 1972, after only 17 years of existence, and more than $5 million spent on curing the problems at Pruitt-Igoe, the St. Louis Housing Authority, demolished three of the high-rise buildings. A year later, Pruitt-Igoe was considered unsalvageable and the remaining buildings were demolished. In this instance I think Pruitt Igoe personifies what David Leatherbarrow states in his paper entitled "Architecture's Unscripted Performance,” where “the significance that buildings possess is granted to them by you and me.”

The failure of Pruitt-Igoe could be attributed to the motives of the designer to have a community-friendly public space in the project based on the precedence of other modernist projects to house the growing population of St. Louis which peaked at 850,000 people in 1950. However, the lack of on-site studies and analysis on the specificity of the demographic in the region where people were actually moving away from the city and its underlying factor ultimately led to the downfall of the housing project. Theoretically, the Pruitt-Igoe Housing Project may tick all boxes in providing a platform for community-centric housing development based on the building policies of that time but the lack of studies emphasized on the human factor and the growing trend of the city proved a crucial factor in the failure of Pruitt-Igoe. There are many other factors that may have led to the failure of Pruitt-Igoe and even more theories on why it failed. I have always been interested in Pruitt-Igoe ever since I watched the documentary of The Pruitt-Igoe’s Myth. Below is the official trailer of the documentary:

Policies, Regulation, Data and Statistics in Urban Planning

One of the discussion conducted in class was the effect of regulation and policy on the planning of the city. The regulation and policy of planning are usually designed based on statistic and data conducted on that particular region based on precedence available in close proximity or of similar scale. Urban designers relies on data and statistic in order to design an urban planning project of a particular place. However, as discussed in class, this could lead to a limitation of the effectiveness in the livability of the particular place. Data and statistics could provide a framework for urban planning but it should not be the only criteria that should be met. In my opinion, data and statistics relied too heavily on the assumption that all users falls strictly into the numerical majority of which the data and statistics shows. In addition, the data only hold true during the year that it was recorded and rarely stands the test of time as there are many agents of change that will render the recorded data to be obsolete over time. For example, there will be migration of residents, both in and out, which affect the human demographic of the site and subsequently putting the data gathered earlier as outdated information. This would have a huge impact for the project as the objective of the project may not be met and while it could carry on to provide its function, in the long run it could lead to a failed project.

While there are no guarantee over the success of a planning project or any built project for that matter, I believe that the sole-reliance of data and statistics of regulation and planning policy do not necessarily mean that the project is bound to succeed. In my opinion, in order to minimize such risks and to maximize the livability aspect of a place, studies which centers on human behavior and the growing economic and social trend of a particular region should be conducted through numerous observations. The planner and designer’s understanding of a place and the demographic is just as crucial in providing insights on the planning of that particular region if not  more important that the understanding of planning regulations and policies. The subsequent post for this week will be dedicated into case studies which represents planning projects that may have failed due to the rigidity in the initial planning procedure.

Prison City, Imprisoned Mind

I remember the first time that I was drawn into critical discussions with my fellow architecture students on the role of an architect or urban designer in shaping the society and the city as a whole. It was during my second year in architecture in which the scope of the architecture studio increased from a single user dwelling to mass user program that require contextual studies of the given site. Back then, my lack of exposure in the built environment as well as my naïve mindset of finding the correct or proper method to design prompted nothing more than the regular set back from boundary, acquire the right plinth area and subsequently extruding the area into a standard block with fancy façade treatment. The program was simple enough to develop; if the given site is close to a tourist attraction, a visitor centre or a gallery showcasing the local products and if it is close to nature, an observation tower. It wasn't wrong but there were multiple variations of the same concept or similar programs done by other students.

The word radical was not in my architectural vocabulary until I was invited to attend a joint student committee meeting in another local university in Malaysia, University Kebangsaan Malaysia (UKM). I was introduced to the student president of UKM, Beh Ssi Cze who won the Evolo 2010 Skyscraper Competition along with two of his peers. It didn’t take long to locate the winning entry as it was exhibited proudly in the faculty’s atrium, and rightly so given that Evolo is an international competition of high prestige. The exhibition space was soon filled with my peers from Taylor’s University, whispering and mumbling our “critique” of the exhibited work. It wasn’t the rendering or graphic that impressed us nor the drawings and diagrams that was meticulously drawn. No, it was the sheer title of Vertical Prison that garnered most of our discussions. The concept itself was shocking to me at the time, given the lack of structural support, aesthetic value and more importantly, the feasibility of the entire project in our society!

Evolo 2010 Skyscraper First Prize Entry: The Vertical Prison. Image Courtesy of Evolo

Credits: Chow Khoon Toong, Ong Tien Yee, Beh Ssi Cze

The concept of a vertical prison was so radical it was difficult for me to comprehend back then. It became a common topic of discussion that I had with my peers for the following semester. Those discussions soon led to our own radical and absurd ideas of what a city needs and how it should be planned. The proposals ranges from a floating city, an urban farm, an agriculture city and self-containing urban city to name a few. I begin to realize that there are more than one correct method of designing and ideas, no matter how radical, should not be taken for granted. Ironically, the Vertical Prison liberated my own design prison of a safe and calculated approach towards design and planning. While I still believe that there is nothing wrong of designing to the conventional method, my interest soon diversified into other methods of designing and thinking about a city.

Fast forward four years from my first encounter with the Vertical Prison, my interest in urban planning and design led to my enrolment in UDES0004 – History and Theory of Urban Development and Design. I am hoping to enrich my knowledge on existing cities and how it was formed as well as the concepts behind successful urban planning and design. I believe that it is important to understand the fundamental theories and histories in urban development in order to analyze and project the ideas for a new blueprint in designing cities. This blog is created to document my thoughts and progressive learnings of urban development and design as well as to generate an outlet to write about my other interests.