Bachelor of Science (Honours) in Architecture

Theories of Architecture And Urbanism

(ARC61303/ARC2224)

Project Part 2: Comparative Analysis Essay Between South of

Market, San Francisco & Petaling Street, Chinatown

Name: Goh Yen Nee

Student ID: 0315551

Lecturer: Dr. Nor Hayati

Bachelor of Science (Honours) in Architecture

Theories of Architecture And Urbanism

(ARC61303/ARC2224)

Project Part 2: Comparative Analysis Essay Between Charles

Street, Boston & Petaling Street, Chinatown

Name: Siew John Loong

Student ID: 0315871

Lecturer: Mr. Nazmi Anuar

First of all, Chinatown (Site A), the centred of Kuala Lumpur is the selected site

area to assign in the Project Design Studio which involved the street of H.S Lee and

Petaling Street that known as the famous shopping district transforming the whole area

into a lively market during night and day time with hundreds of stalls selling a lot of

variety stuff at a reasonable prices, making it the most happening area in the city. It is

surrounded with historical shop houses that remained well to be part of the attractions

which give a worth visit for visitor in understanding the story timeline of Chinatown.

Coming to the South of Market (Site B), San Francisco is the site area of California

that we have chosen to study for assignment Project 1 which the boundaries areas we

involved are the Mission Street, Howard Street, 4th Street and 3th Street. Those

boundaries are surrounded with the focal point of the area which is the Yerba Buena

Park that creates most of the contact points between people on different activities. The

terms of “South of Market" and "SoMa" are referring to a relatively large district of the

city as well as a much smaller neighbourhood with them. However, previously this area

was called as “South of the Slot" refers to the cable cars that ran up and down the

Market along the slots through which they gripped cables. Even though the cable cars

have disappeared for a long time from the Market Street, some locals especially old

generations are still refer to this area as the "South of the Slot". There have few

similarities and differences can be discovered in both of this places in term of contact

points and intensity of people appeared due to the activities.

Diagram 1 Typology in Site B

Diagram 2 the figure

ground plan which

shows the

development areas

and shop houses

One of the similarities in both of the places is the grid typology of the city. The

grid topology of the streets in San Francisco is basically made up with commercial

blocks followed by institutions and residential areas. The typology of the street is quite

similar with the typology in Petaling Street which are from high commercial blocks,

modern institutions nearby and typical shop houses that remained well. Mostly of the

people would like to visit in both of the places as they have variety of attractions that

allows people to have higher intensity in contact point. This is because both of the

places have the similar activities no matter coming from any of the attractions provided.

For example, there is also a multifunctional complex in both places which are the Kota

Raya in Site A and Metreon in Site B. Intensity of people around this contact points

are quite high due to the nearby bus station located and do a lot of variety of shops

that can be look forward into it. There is also religious buildings that act as a famous

attractions in Site A which are the historical Indian Temple and Chinese Temple while

St. Patrick's Catholic Church is located in the street nearby Jessie Square that allows

high intensity of contact points between people during praying time in Site B. All the

attractions surrounded in both site could makes the communities to be convenient and

comfortable to stay with.

Picture of Chinese and Indian temple in Site A Picture of St Patrick Church

Picture of Kota Raya, Old shopping mall in Site

A Picture of Metreon Complex in site B

Picture of flea market, Petaling Street Picture of Pasar Karat

Diagram 3 Location of Farmer market in

Site B in between with buildings of a

narrow path.

Diagram 4 Symbol 1 & 2 are the

Petaling Street flea market and

Pasar Karat

Picture of farmer market, San Francisco

Next, market or stall that is placed in the narrow pathway is also the similar

contact point for both site which encourage intensity of different people to be gather

and interact to each other. In site A, there is flea market in Petaling Street which

provide fresh goods and ingredients to the local communities in the morning. Well,

there is also a second hand item market that can be found in Pasar Karat which located

in a narrow pathway of Petaling Street area that allows people to obtain their items in

a cheaper price. Not only that, there is also some Indian vendors located nearby the

Indian temple for people to buy some flowers during worship in order to share the

Indian culture to the tourists that visit the temple. Social activities have achieved when

they start to bargain with the locals about the item they interested to get. In site B,

there is a farmer market which is located in a pathway in between two buildings too

that offers a lot of variety goods for the people especially those people passed by to

go to work while in the need of buying some stuff. This creates high level of contact

point due to attractions of people to see the stuff provided. This kind of contact point

is needed especially for an urban area to obtain a garden-fresh ingredients and would

be easier to get for those people who work in the commercial area.

Sectional diagram 5 shows the vendors stall that located in the roadside

between buildings

Picture of Indian vendors stall selling worship stuff

Diagram 6 Public Transportation Area in Site A

In addition, another similarities that can be found in both of the places is the

public transportation station. Bus stop are located in both areas that allows the

community for convenient in reaching their respective place such as the working area,

market, and attractions. Especially in site A, it provides a specialized travelling bus

that is free of charge for tourists to travel the whole area of Kuala Lumpur which known

as the KL Hop On Hop Off bus to reach some respectively stations. And, there is a lot

of locals use the public transportation such as LRT station in Pasar Seni. That makes

the area become crowded and intensity level of people is highest during the morning

time where they go to work or study. So, most of the activities are appeared in the

Diagram 7 Location of bus station in

Site B that near the attraction area

Picture of bus station nearby the Jessie

Square

area like necessary when they have to go work and study, optional in order of passing

through the attractions and social activity during bargain time with locals. While in the

site B, the bus stop is located at the intersection junction of 3rd Street and Mission

Street that provide an easy access to the users in order to reach the specific

destination which is utilised by the neighbouring commercial, institutional and

residential blocks communities. From the diagrams, we could observed that both

places have occupied the sufficient transportation services in a right location in order

helping the commercial buildings to be attracted and increase number of people to

have any activities in there. This allows the area to stay alive with higher intensity level

of people to visit.

Even though there are similarities, there will also have differences between the

both areas. One of the differences between them are the greenery public gathering

park. South of Market, San Francisco have a famous public park which known as the

Yerba Buena Garden. It cultivates the appreciation of art and acts as a connector to

its nearby museum that brings the people to be interact each other for some activities.

Frequent number of events and activities occurs in the Yerba Buena garden and

Jessie square that allows the park to become a focal point of the community area.

There is water feature which can be found in the Yerba Buena Park activates the users

sensory to experience and encourage the users to enter the space more. The park

has been slightly elevated to create a more intimate sense of space and disconnect

the park from the main road. Strategic location and permeability of park allows the

user to access from multiple directions so the user could spend shorter duration time

to get to the place. Intensity level of contact points from the people that coming through

from different directions are high when they passed through the park as it is main point

of surrounding buildings. On the other hand, Petaling Street is lack of this kind of

specific public garden or greenery areas which let people to have some public

Diagram 8 Location of Yerba Buena

Park and Jessie Park in Site B and the

Pattern movement of user passing

through the park.

Picture of Yerba Buena Park with the

water fountain

activities in a safety way without worrying about the vehicle passing through. Due to

the crowded and high buildings placed surrounding makes the areas does not have a

wide and free space to build a public park for the communities.

Next, museum or cultural centre is also their differences between both places.

In site B, there is many different kind of museum which are the Museum of Modern Art

(SFMOMA) that holds an internationally well-known collection of modern and

contemporary art, Yerba Buena Centre for the Arts (YBCA) and Museum of African

Diaspora which located at the 3rd Street. The people in different ages could spend time

together in the museum while understanding the art during the visit. However, site A

should provide this kind of contact point such as a historical museum that promote the

background histories of Petaling Street in order to encourage the youth generation to

appreciate the area. The increasing of youth generation come to the area would

activate and make the areas to alive thus a closer relationship between different

generations would be achieved. But, there is also some mural art placed in site A area

which give the beauty of wall as shown in the picture above. It is part of the art culture

that can be observed in Chinatown.

Diagram 9 Location of cultural museum

in Site B

Picture of Museum of Modern Art in

front of the Yerba Buena Park

Picture of Mural Art wall in Jalan HS Lee

Moreover, another dissimilarities that can be found on both of the places are

the street condition which could affect the amount of people to visit in those areas.

From the site visit that we have done in site A, we noticed that some of the pedestrian

road have broken or even act as the motorcycle parking lot that allow the street to

become more narrow for the community to access. There is also hygiene problem

along the street which trash are throw anywhere without concerning on the cleanliness

of the area. This would makes people to be disappointed through the issues happened

in site A. However, comparing to site B, the street condition is excellent with good

hygiene that can observed through the research pictures which lets a lot of activities

to take place well thus increase the population of people appeared especially in

Farmer Market that keep the environment to stay clean.

Picture of street condition in Site A

Picture of motorcycles affect the accessibility of pedestrian road

To be concluded that both Petaling Street, Chinatown and South of Market, San

Francisco have similarities and dissimilarities that can be observed through the

analysis study. Site A is recommended to provide a free space in building such a good

place like the public park and it is needed for an urban city that gives the locals to do

their activities freely in the public areas that encourage more interactions between

people. A historical museum or cultural centre should be built in the Site A to

encourage the appreciation of history and Chinese art which could attract more

foreigner tourists to come and understand the community life better. This could be also

a focal point for the community as there is a lot of history and culture that could be

observed in Site A. Last but not least, the hygiene and condition of a pedestrian road

should be improved compared to the street condition in site B and specific parking lot

should be provided in Site A so there would not be crowded with motorcycles that

makes the pedestrian road to be more inconvenient for user to walk around.