paragraph 7::Eco-City Concept and Its Implementation

Hey peeps!

How is it going? I apologized for the inconsistency in deliberating my idea with you guys. Hope that you understand that I've been all day busy with my final year project while doing some freelance jobs. Then once I've finished my final year project I am undergoing my last internship in Singapore. 

I straightly being offered a position as a landscape architect there once i've finished my internship with the company... Anyway, I would have to give you something after all this while right? 

Okay! Let us warm up a bit! This is the 7th paragraph of Sustainable Seni People.. which gonna be discussing a tiny movement in urban design and planning which regard to the Eco-city concept and Its implementation.

Let's give a hit to this video before we run the discussion!

So.. What would be the words and paraphrases that come in your mind when we talk about Eco-City?

Let me tell you something peeps!

Richard Register was the first coined the term "ecocity" in his 1987 book, Ecocity Berkeley: Building Cities for a Healthy Future. Other leading figures whom had envisioned the sustainable city concept are architect Paul F Downton, who later founded the company Ecopolis Pty Ltd, and authors Timothy Beatley and Steffen Lehmann, who have written extensively on the subject.

Eco-city or Sustainable City is a movement of concerns among urban design professionals including urban planner, landscape architect, architect and so forth. It is a concern of stabilizing the urban ecology with its overpopulated in-habitants in achieving an optimum run of economic activities. If you browse through most of recent development of city of world, we are all running through it.

As far as my concern as a landscape architect, it is a vital movement that should be considered as part of every development of world in reducing carbon footprint issues and so on. In promoting a low carbon footprint community, an integrated smart pedestrianize system should be created. It also should be inculcated with an efficient and holistic public transportation system. Despite of our cravings in industrializing the urban area, we somehow should recycle all the wastage so that it could be purified before being returned back to the mother nature. 

How could it be achievable?  

Yeah, again that's the question. I throw you some examples of successful eco-city patch-up works on existing urban areas;

1. Bilbao, Spain The country faced economic turmoil following the decline of the steel and port industries but through communication between stakeholders and authorities to create inner-city transformation, the local government benefited from the increase in land value in old port areas. The Strategic Plan for the Revitalisation of Metropolitan Bibao was launched in 1922 and have flourished regenerating old steel and port industries. The conversion from depleted steel and port industries to one of Europe’s most flourishing markets is a prime example of a sustainable project in action.

2. Belo Horizonte, Brazil The city was created in 1897 and is the third largest metropolitan in Brazil with 2.4 million inhabitants. The Strategic Plan for Belo Horizonte (2010–2030) is being prepared by external consultants based on similar cities infrastructure, incorporating the role of local government, state government, city leaders and encouraging citizen participation. The need for environmental sustainable development is led by the initiative of new government following planning processes from the state government. Overall, the development of the metropolis is dependent on the land regularization and infrastructure improvement that will better support the cultural technology and economic landscape.

So let us go in details of another piece of idea implementing eco-city in one of site in Malaysia. As I remembered, its quite a fruitful project for me. This project require you to understand the sustainability concept in macro before we deeply going to discover how to sustain a city. First you would have to go through the city get the smell, recognize the color and people before you are able to digest the identity of the townscape.

Located in Malacca City, this project exercise run through for several weeks. Malacca is 148 km south east of Malaysia's capital city Kuala Lumpur, 235 km north west to Johor's largest city Johor Bahru, and 95 km north west to Johor's second largest city, Batu Pahat. This historical city centre has been listed as a UNESCO World Heritage Site since 7 July 2008.

The idea of those sketches was to develop basic understanding on the issues and problems which happen on site. This is a basic practice of any urban design project. Zooming into just a small location of Malacca Historical City, this project supposed to respect all existing public realm and human  dispersal movement in town.

Respectively the design plays around with patterns and forms which allocate some interpolation of greeneries respectively to current site activities. Despite of its historical ambiance, this site was used among youth to meet before getting through the victoria square, jonker st and so forth. Located by the river of Malacca, the design also considerate the idea of inviting the natural wildlife to come into the river. I know it sounds ridiculous, but this is where it comes the role of environmental engineer to segregate the existing sewerage system a part of the river it self. It should be channeled somewhere, purified before being released back into the river. In the madness of Malacca in self-claiming as a heritage city of Malaysia, there are a lot unnecessary 'accessories' claim to be 'returned back on site' such as the water wheel! Dush I cant go further to elaborate that, but salvaging the water wheel, I somehow proposed it to be cycled based on solar panel+river flow and generate electricity that will move it respectively while increasing the oxygen capacity in the polluted water to activate the bacterias to eat all the toxic wastage (ambitious) that reduce the bad smell and so forth. 

Yes, it is achievable and possible but of course it requires you a holistic modules and design sensitivities before we start the design in detail. Okay am gonna let you guys think. I leave you with some good references. Please retrieve from those links I stated below;

http://www.academia.edu/1725089/Eco-cities_concept_and_reality

http://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1080/10630732.2012.756202#preview

http://www.ecocompactcity.org/City/Eco_Compact_City.html

http://ecotraveller.tv/green-city-guide-bilbao/

http://www.ecocitybuilders.org/the-two-big-conferences-in-brazil-continued/

This project had been used for a exemplary images for a paper presented on 24th to 25th February 2011 entitled Innovation in Teaching Urban Landscape Design Studio by respective academicians from Department of Landscape Architecture, Faculty of Built Environment, Universiti Teknologi Malaysia's Paper presented during 5th South East Asian Technical University Consortium Symposium, Hanoi.

 Take Care! Chiao!

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:

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.