paragraph 8::Sustainable Intervention of Maritime Urban Village

Hello there .sustainablesenipeople.readers!

I was in the mrt way to the office when writing this issue! Anyway how was the previous issue; paragraph7th? Hoped that you enjoy reading it as I enjoyed writing! Haha.

This picture was taken during our Brainstorming trip to Penang. 

I am basically retrieving back all memories while doing my final year project. I started my final year with a semester exercising on a thesis writing named as topical study studio. We were split into 2 studio bases which regard to different studio's master. 

My work base at one Siamese Temple in Kedah. This was during our Brainstorming Trip.

Initially, I was being conducted by a lecturer from Thailand, named as Dr Sirima Nasongkhla. She was formerly a lecturer in Melbourne University. Concise on the way of teaching and learning would not happen with singular spoon-feeding way of teaching, she taught us in a series of overwhelming discussions which lead us to present our ideas and formulas in out-sourcing a win-win decision. She was very good in doing it. 

Topical study was actually a studio base semester particularly helps student to develop and generate scope of studies base on one fundamental issue. My topic was regard to demolishing issuance of the authentic and pristine fishing village located within a town of Malaysia.

Considering the pattern of evolvement most of towns (urban morphology0 in world, it normally starts either in remote forested areas which were rich in various types of staple plants and edible natural sources or along a riverine even a shoreline. If we are about to refer back to the conventional definition of cultural landscape, it is an interaction between human and nature whereby if we cross-referenced these two elaborative definitions, actually those small fishing villages scattered along the shore and riverine of world should be define as a cultural heritage where it lasts for decades without valuable significance by the government of most countries including Malaysia! Dushh am not gonna elaborate further on that.. hahaha

Anyway as I deliberate the site issues with the governance policies there were some diplomatic rationalization depicting the Malaysia as a developing country where the development scenarios today also need to consider the heritage value of this particular type of site. There are a lot of traditional maritime village and maritime township with distinctive architectural model and potential economic value that need to be revitalized in terms of the development direction and sustainable intervention. 

There are several ways to collect the data in heritage site. First is the archival document study, there are a lot of information can be obtained from this archival document study such as the governance acts that manage to sustain the maritime village up until today. Secondly the master plans studies. The objective is to identify the development movement and urban morphology of the town including the heritage site. From this we will manage to know the human concentration and how the urban sprawl does begin. Thirdly, it is to do field observation on human dispersal and concentration that will shows the dynamism of the particular maritime village. There will be few interviews which will be conducted with native and outsiders as to identify people awareness of the development and disturbance for certain activities and how do they react to the disturbance. GIS application is the last method to be used as to collect data and analyze data base on landscape architecture concern.

Key Plan

Location Plan

Pontian Besar Maritime Village was chosen because of its significance as the old town part of Pontian District Township as for the whole. The place was previously known as the piracy port of Bugis, Siak, Sulu and Siantan sea pirate (Rozita M.L,1998), where the indigenous Duano Tribe Settlement found today was a proof that they have been working for Johor Sultanate Empire to secure the particular port from the sea pirate. The uniqueness of Duano Indigenous Tribe is the informal and organic composition of traditional stilt house along the river mouth of Pontian Besar River. The usages of natural surrounding resources in daily life also portray their dependence on the water bodies till today. This study perhaps would reveal the reasons and rationales of physical design that will suits the community demand as well as evoking the community life style by providing enough economic and ecological substances at the same time sustaining the unique of culture and genus loci of the place through sustainable intervention.

Problems Statement

1. Why most of traditional maritime villages being left and abandoned as an isolation area within a townscape development?

Planning of Pontian district as for the whole only concentrated on economic growth of new reclaimed land town and noticeable landmark such as Tanjung Piai and Kukup. The authenticity of maritime villages ambiance along the coastal never be revealed and some might say that these traditional maritime villages as a threat of developing the region with coastal corridor. The essence of these kind of areas should be promoted with sufficient facilities and accommodations through sustainable interventions which will help to evoke economic opportunities and ecological senses that will improvise the community lifestyle (M Yusri O., 2002).

2. Why the policies of governance in a certain developing town did not considered the traditional maritime village as a part of potential development to evoke economic activities?

Although local planning authority has identify the potential area that need to be preserved and conserved but some development direction previously have destroy the identity and images of the townscape as a maritime base townscape. The disturbances on unplanned development have fading the authenticity and heritage interpretation on site. This have been supported by a research by Kadaruddin Ayub (Akademika-Jan 1997), the uncontrolled development were cause the changing of the lifestyles, landuses and the decrease of the natural resources and also pollution along the coast around the fishermen village in West Coast Peninsular Malaysia.

3. How the government reacts through the development of a certain area, which some did not consider the interpretation of the site as a heritage site and genus loci?

Local planning authority only noticed the gazette of Pontian as a southernmost tip of Asian continent through the attraction of mangrove area named Tanjung Piai, but still there is certain development which failed to respect and evoke the context of site as a heritage site during the late Johor Sultanate. The development should consider the community sense of belongings as well as respective site previously. The over development of a certain area will reduce the authenticity of the area as well as the sense of a place. The fishermen villages in Peninsular Malaysia were the attractive place for tourism because of natural uniqueness and high cultural value of community lifestyles, but the uncontrolled of the tourism development mostly ruin the natural image of the fishermen village settlement (Shamsul M, 2000).

4. What kind of development intervention that suits the heritage fishing village in an urban area?

The development intervention will be base on three domains which are; sociology, ecology and economic substances. We have to identify the level and distinctive intervention of a certain limitation and planning guideline. The conservation and preservation of main natural resources along the river of Pontian Besar will help to sustain the traditional maritime activities of the community such as Nypha, Nibong, Rasau, Rhizophora, and Bamboo for craft making and soon. The changing of technology affect the cultural and community lifestyles and create a gap between fishermen community and the others community with different socio economy (Raymond F., 1996). The enhancement will include facilities that promote the product of the community to generate economic and lifestyle standards. Perhaps there will be a certain physical development interventions that will help to enhance the economic growth of site. In this case we will be guided by sustainability concept and intervention guidelines and acts by UNESCO and local authority.

Significance of Study

Sustainable Interventions of Traditional Maritime Urban Village is a study on how the cultural landscape elements in a traditional maritime village like Kampung Nelayan, Pontian Besar, Johor would be preserved and conserved in such away to promote sustainable maritime village as a unique potential area to be valued and appreciated as a tourism spot. This study will be beneficial for us to really know about the strategies and policies on how the government could manage to sustain the buildings and landscape features as the time evolves (dynamic landscape). Furthermore the study will suggest the limitation on intervention that could be make in terms of development direction through the sustainability concern which really need to be considered as to sustain the spirit of the place for people to appreciate the city. 

This project had attained A grade for this subject. Department of Landscape Architecture, Faculty of Built Environment, Universiti Teknologi Malaysia had awarded me overall 4th year best student and designer.