paragraph 6:: Urban Design and Landscape Architecture, a complement of issues and design solution

Hey buddies, today is my last paper for the examination and you know what, i've just finished it! Yeah! After this i'm gonna havea my internship in a landscape architecture firm named Provinca Landscape Design. I am about to wait few more days before i get back to my hometown. Haha, actually this evening i am about to write an entry about my Urban Design Project during my Bachelor in Landscape Architecture in Universiti Teknologi Malaysia. Have you ever heard of the terminologies so called Urban Design? Actually Urban Design is a study which concern about the arrangement, appearance and functionality of towns and cities, and in particular the shaping and uses of urban public space. It has traditionally been regarded as a disciplinary subset of urban planning, landscape architecture, or architecture and in more recent times has been linked to emergent disciplines such as landscape urbanism. 

Public space includes the totality of spaces used freely on a day-to-day basis by the general public, such as streets, plazas, parks and public infrastructure. Some aspects of privately owned spaces, such as building facades or domestic gardens, also contribute to public space and are therefore also considered by urban design theory. Important writers on, and advocates for, urban design theory include Kevin Lynch, Gordon Cullen, Christopher Alexander, Michael E. Arth, Edmund Bacon, Ian Bentley, Peter Calthorpe, Alex Krieger, Andres Duany *those books that i've read* and a lot more.

There are varies understanding of two fields that are closely related, 'urban design' differs from 'urban planning'. Urban Design its focus on physical improvement of the public environment, whereas the Urban Planning is more about in practice of urban design, which focus on the management of private development through established planning methods and programs, and other statutory development controls. *That's my shallow understanding base on my shallow readings*

Urban Design emphasis on more than one aspect which normally being discuss which the pedestrian linkage(pathway) like what have been said in The Image of the City by Kevin Lynch. It diverse to the landuse patterns(district or presint), urban pattern, urban morphology, public realm, human concentration in a place (nodes), place attachment (sequential study by Gordon Cullen in Concise of Townscape) and lots more. Yeah its a wide discovery of knowledge that study on human movement and dispersal from a place to another within a city.

As i said earlier, i am about to explain my study during Urban Design Studio in my school. My design proposal have been used as one of research paper of my lecturers that study about the methodology of teaching in Urban Design and i've been selected to present my design proposal as well as the group design proposal to student from Muhammadiyah University of Surakarta Indonesia in one of International Bilateral Program between Muhammadiyah University of Surakarta Indonesia and Universiti Teknologi Malaysia. Our site is located one district in Johore region which named Segamat. Here i show you some of the boards of the design proposal:

paragraph 5:: the hope and frail of Kanaq Indigenous People

Hello there, i've just finished my professional practice paper. Today i would like to share in detail design proposal of landscape resource planning studio. My detail area is located in one of indigenous village in Kota Tinggi Distrct in the region of Johore, Malaysia. I was one of students among my peers who visited the site since we all have big scale to be covered in the Kota Tinggi District.

Let me brief you a bit of this indigenous people tribe, the tribe name is Orang Asli Kanaq. Kanaq Tribe are one of the Proto-Malays tribes. They are coming from the Riau Archipelagos and sub divided under Proto-Malay The Proto-Malays live among the Strait of Malacca and in Southern Johore. Some have been absorbed into the Malay community. Recently there are only 90 of population of Kanaq people in this whole world..hmm can u imagine how degrade the population now? Up until today, there are only 60 left and this tribes now facing extinction due to the reliant to governmental subsidy. The Orang Kanaq are one of the nineteen Orang Asli people groups living in Peninsular Malaysia. They come under the Aboriginal Malay (known officially as Proto-Malay) subgroup. Originally from Pulau Sekanak in the Riau Islands of Indonesia, they were forcefully removed from their homeland when the Johor Sultanate needed to supplement its forest-collection labor force during mid-19th century. They are the smallest ethnic group among the entire Malaysian population and also the smallest of all Orang Asli tribes. They are considered one of the country earliest inhabitants though they have been living on the Peninsula for only about 200 years. A small settlement is located in a village called Selangi in the state of Johor.

What are their lives like?

In the past, they were slave-workers tapping trees in the rubber plantations. Today, they lag behind in modern technology and education. They are still working as hard labourers in shrub and rubber plantations. In addition, the Orang Kanaq gather forest produce (such as rattan and fruits). They also fish in the rivers and hunt small animals in the forest with arrows and blowpipes.

The Orang Kanaq in Selangi live in standard Orang Asli (JHEOA) wooden stilt houses”a small version of a rural Malay house developed by the Department of Aboriginal Affairs for all the Orang Asli. Prefabricated from wooden timbers and planks, the house is a rectangular structure on short posts with a veranda at the front, one or two living or sleeping rooms, and a kitchen in the back. It is difficult for the close-knitted Orang Kanaq community to be separated because they avoid marrying outsiders. They believe that such unions will bring curses upon their tribe. Low birthrates have caused their numbers to dwindle over the years.

So based on my concern in the field of Landscape Architecture with the sense of cultural landscape, this Kanaq people live in very poor condition and they failed to survive the tribes due to the Johore Governmental Policies whom sent them in the middle of Oil Palm Plantation which located far away from the river (their origin). I was told during the interview with the tok batin that they used to settle along the river and bear on fruit and marine life previously. They were tremendously poor and suffered to survive because they have lost their sense of place (spirit of the tribes) as well as losing their practice of culture due to the place they settle nowadays. Here are some of the images that i want to share during the interview that i've done with my peeps which is Emmily Dessy Roipin and Nursyafikah Salehan.

 

The entrance to Kanaq Indigenous Village at Kampung Sungai Selangi

The Recent House Condition

Kanaq Indigenous Child

Emmily and Syafikah meeting the Kanaq Indigenous Girl

Kanaq Kids playing in the plantation

We are about to do the interview with the Tok Batin (Head of Tribe) we identified few major problems that cause the degradation of population among Kanaq Tribe, in the rapidly developing Malaysian society, the Orang Kanaq face the impending threat of relocation and loss of income due to compulsory mainstreaming. More worrisome is that they are very few in number and are fast disappearing as a people group of the Orang Asli. One difficulty is that they are interested in neither education nor technology. They do not have interest in economic growth and the survival on nearby forest have been decrease because there are lot of plantation been stressed in this area.

Poor and poverty of life because they failed to sustain the life as they rely on governmental subsidy

Poorly maintain of house because the house is not support the lifestyle of Kanaq Tribe.

Interview with representative of Kanaq People. The old ladies is the oldest in Kanaq People today.

So as what i've study with the concern of humanity and sustainable culture, i think it is my responsibility to give a hand helping the Kanaq People by proposing a self-sustaining community village. Here i show you my design proposal particularly for this indigenous village.

Theme: Self-sustaining community. Concept: Green Reliant Remote Village.

The management and phasing plan which include the recommendation of design proposal and intervention from local authority.

Detail Area Plan

Supporting Detail which include sections and sketches.

Design program of proposal.

I think that's all for now. The design proposal have been presented and evaluated with my lecturers and Majlis Daerah Kota Tinggi (local authority). I've try my best to increase the awareness and problems arose in this proposal, and I do really hope that the design project could be implemented as to ensure the Kanaq Tribe would survive by their own and sustain their culture.

I am having another paper to be answered tomorrow, hope this writing would be a warm up for my english exam tomorrow.

Examination has comes around

Gosh, i got few papers of examination this week. OMG and i just like fooling around and write on this Sustainable Seni People without any guilt. Hmm i've got an interesting topic today.. have you ever wonder to see the river in front of ur house which have been dirt and polluted..hence it brings smells and invites all kind of guest including FLIES! Okay, i would like to share a topic during my diploma study, the study have the relation with river revitalization and how the river becoming the major link in the city. My reference study was located in Cheonggye Cheon River in Korea. Have you ever heard of that name?? I guess if u are person that comes from sustainable science or urban design fields, u might be familiar with this river... have u ever seen the video of this river restoration? Here i gave u the link :

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dH9ygL1AAII

Okay back to my design study, the site is located in the heart of Seremban, Malaysia. The town was named after the traditional games named after batu seremban.. okay in the river there is a river that located in the middle of the town which named Temiang River. This river in the old days was been used as one of major transportation ways like the norm of any civilization in world.

from the theme given, THE MURAL CITY; i revealed the concept statement; THE ANIMATED REVEALATION OF DYNAMIC URBAN SPACE. The feeling of a man who walk throughly the city with the injection of excitement and liveliness by physical design revealing the hidden identity of SEREMBAN AS THE TRANSIT CITY FOR THE WHOLE. Such an animated design by sequence that directing people from one transit point to another just for the city to become more pleasant THE BETTER PLACE.

First i'll be stating the issues, followed by the design that tackle the issues and how the design relates to the concept.

1st issue is ISOLATION OF SPACES from the KTMB to TERMINAL ONE TRANSIT HUB, 

i. the strength is the direction of people movement from this 2 major nodes

ii. the opportunity is the pedestrian walkway that could be benefit to acknowledge people about how Seremban got its name: since the KTMB site is self as the previously was the Chinese commercial area where Chinese old folks play the batu seremban

iii. the weakness is the lack of public surveillance and potential of becoming crime prone space.

iv. potential of good view

+ so i animating the area as a plaza which revealing;

i. the new scheme of  KTMB quarters, to raise the public surveillance which the houses is dual frontage.

ii taking the advantage of site, i proposed few designated sculpture that acknowledge people about seremban

      a. information board that graphically acknowledge people about how seremban got its name

      b. a series of sculpture that acknowledge people about the mining activities that sprawling the seremban city along temiang river

iii. proposing a small cafe with a plaza and parking for user as im evoking the space to be the viscosity where people can waited for relatives to fetch them which will be reducing the traffic conflict in front of KTMB as well as raising the public surveillance.

iv. the sheltered walkway will be redesign just to create sense of excitement where at the end of the shelter before going into the tunnel there will be a 24 hour kiosk which is 7 eleven and a small police cottage if there is anything happen to the site.

as passing the tunnel, we will be arriving at TERMINAL ONE TRANSIT HUB where the day of seremban city started. the issues revealed here is the negligence of public realm, i shifted the taxi hub near the TERMINAL ONE HUB, i'm proposing new taxi hub at the way side( once get worked will be havoc and create natural traffic calming by minor nodes)  with the extension of curb that narrowing the street where the distance to crossed the road will get reduce because of the designated hump. the other alinated island is dataran seremban which apprear to be odd and lack of uses. i proposed a city liner bus hub which servicing the citizen within seremban city center. From terminal one, people will be directed to dataran seremban by a swale from sungai temiang that created in between the hump to dataran seremban. its creating new minor nodes that will be provided with cafe and koisk where the night can be used as a gathering area for youth in seremban which respecting the liveliness of nightlife at dataran seremban.

between km plaza and terminal one plaza, i created a sitting area with designated bridge

that allows people to sit around and creating street activities since the fast food restaurant such as

KFC, PIZZA HUT and Mc D is there. this particular area is forcing people to walk on the bridge since

there is an island that creating sense of pause.3 designated water feature pillar is proposed along

the bridge will help to increase the visual linkage as well as capturing the eyes using its vivid color.

It enhancing the outdoor activities that generate indoor outdoor connection.

the 3rd issues is the unutilized riverside, this is best can be refereed along

the chinese district where there are few minor nodes such as the schools,

food bazar and hawkers plaza. as i'm respecting the site context i'm just injecting

small designated feature that help to enhance the chinese district. SERIAL VISION.

As for overall, i'm creating few changes in seremban city, the minor one. one

fully pedestrianise walkway in front of methodist school to generate smooth

vehicular movement along the area, the open food court as for the student

and workers nearby can enjoy food within walking distance and pleasant

environment.the separation of sewage system and the aeration system using

water cascade and water feature as the temiang river water purification solution as i'm

referring to Cheonggye River Seoul, korea. hump and textured road surface as the

general traffic calming.

As for the conclusion, i'm believing that this proposal design is applicable to be implemented on the site, the moderate injection of design elements that generating significance human sense. the respect and concern

of the real situation on the site. few spaces that being redesign is enhancing and generating the human movement in the respect of public realm.

paragraph 4::Urban Design Studio

I guest now i have more time to write on this Sustainable Seni People as all of the work loads has already finished for this semester. As my concern is more on how to sustain the world environment, so i will show any articles or journals that might be related to the endanger environment and nature. There is always a comparison of historical quotes and symbolism made by ancient people which referred to the mother nature.

Question: Why do this ancient people pay their worth says to be compared to the environment?

For years whether in Koran, Bible, Veda and so on, there tonnes of versus and paraphrase that shows and says on the reliant of human being on nature and environment. Yes its kind of respect and respond of people who really think and appreciate the significance of nature.

So another question; What have we done to the world?

paragraph 3::Landscape Campus Design

Its kind of irritating reading few posts of my close friends in Facebook.. so i decide to move all the drawings and my artwoks in this blog..The Sustainable Seni People.. Hmm this semester, I've studied another interesting subject named Planting Technology II. 

It's a subject that oriented with planting design base studio, there are no papers for final exam and the replacement is a final project.. Hmm I dunno how to say this but i started loving the computerize work rather than manual boards... hmm back to the final project, so there are 4+ of us doing a study on landscape campus and here are my boards for the final project.

I'm pleased if u guys could left me comments as i want to improve my woks and design wise. Thank you.

paragraph 2::Resource and Landscape Planning Studio

As what have been promised, i would like to share few presentation board during my lattest project of landscape architecture studies; the resource and landscape planning studio. This subject is kind of essence of landscape architecture students of Malaysia Technological University or Universiti Teknologi Malaysia where the study will be done based on 3 main phases.

Phase1::Literature Review; where each students were given few topics in a domain of 5-8 persons and they will be producing an inception report. The production of this report is very important as to guide the whole progress of the studio.

Phase 2::Inventory, analysis and synthesis,

2.1. Desk Study; this study comprises of few domain in concentration of topics from inception report which will produce a detail draft inventory on site before we go to the site.

2.2. Field trip; Our site are located at Kota Tinggi,a district of Johore Region we as the whole class which consist of 43students visited the site as to do the inventory and early analysis accordingly to our domain concern.

2.3.Gis data analysis and synthesis; we are required to transferred all the data that we derived to the GIS format. GIS is a software of Geographical Information System where it helps to do the analysis and synthesis based on our concern to the place. There were about 9domains doing different topics such as geological and topography; heritage,myth and legend; natural and conservation; facilities and utilities; regional background and soon. We are about to built a database of GIS and during the final stage, there are few result that we produce using the software of Multi Criteria Analysis and so on. The result of the synthesis are the landscape sensitive area as well as heritage sensitive area.

Example of Heritage Sensitive Area Boards:

Phase 3::Masterplan and detail area plan

As the previous phase done, then we are about to be divided into few groups which contain different students in terms of the study and understanding of site to develop an action area plan (master plan) and few supporting detail area plan.

and last but not least my detail action area plan; Kanaq Indigenous Self-Sustaining Village, Kampung Sungai Selangi

paragraph 1:: INTRODUCTION

Hello there, for the welcoming says, I would like to introduce about the meaning of the blog name;The Sustainable Seni People. Its kind of a combination between my interest, culture as well as the sensitivity towards the human being.. I am not that good in writing in English even i can converse well.. So, as i am now in the field of Landscape Architecture..my interest and senses are more guided to the human sensitivity towards the sustainable future...so, Sustainable Seni People is actually a virtual essence of perception towards looking to the environment and world sustainability with the approach of art and science as to emerge with human sensitivity and awareness. In this blog i'll try to share ways and methods of making the world as a place to live from my perspective of view. It's kind of boring, but i'll try to make it more vibrant and pleasant in terms of the presentational as to evoke the awareness of people who deliberately got no sense in environmental and greenery.

Later on:

I would like to share one of my project during resource analysis and landscape planning studio.

What if world failed to circulate rounding the sun?

I recently read an article which mentioning that world isn't be that globe in form... hmmm what do you wonder it will be??? It formed most likely a potato.. Yes a potato guys... interesting isn't it??