CCDS Design Report

TEO KEAN HUI 0310165Master of Architecture – Semester 1

2017 August Intake

Culture & Community Design Studio (ARC 70209)Architectural Design Report

Table of content

Introduction 1.0

Theoretical & Design Statement 2.0

Environmental Analysis 3.0

Structural Analysis 4.0

Presentation & Drawings 5.0

References 6.0

Culture and Community Design Studio 2

The old Madras Theatre

Design Project’s Site (left): Petaling Street (right)

1.0 Introduction

The site situated in between Jalan Hs Lee and Jalan Petaling

(Petaling Street Flea Market) which used to be the high streets in

the past and the populated areas today. In the past, the site itself

was occupied by the famous Madras Theatre operated by Shaw

Brothers between 1939 and 1978. It was considered the main

gather point for the Chinese entertainment. However, on 1978, a

huge fire destroyed the theatre and left the land empty until today

serving as parking lot to the public.

Therefore, community & cultural design studio proposed a

performing facility as commemorative to the historical event on site

and as a give back to the local community.


View of South Entrance

Panoramic view at North of the site

View of North West Entrance View towards South


The chosen site for Community and Cultural Design Studio is located at KL

Chinatown, Petaling Street is famous for stalls selling all sort of

merchandise and of course the stalls serving the local delicacy. KL

Chinatown is very unique in terms of morphological. It changes every hour

through out the day, visitor will experience different things when they’re

present in the KL Chinatown at different period of time.

In the early morning, the stalls selling merchandise are closed and the once

operating are the breakfast stalls and ground market. Vehicles are allowed

to penetrate through the Petaling Street in the morning. Followed by the

operating hours of merchandise stalls around 10am, vehicles will no longer

be allowed into Petaling Street as the temporary structures of stalls slowly

extended towards the street. In the evening, the temporary structures of the

stalls will further extend to the middle of the street which breaks the

pedestrian path into two and narrower in size.

Tadao Ando’s Toward New Horizons in Architecture (1991), he recognizes

that architecture produces new landscape and this has the responsibility to

draw out the particular characteristic of a given place, basically the

construction of place that blend into the context. With that statement, site

visit has been conducted numerous times to be able to capture any

interesting element as engine of exploration for designing a building where

can be representative of KL Chinatown. Then decided to find out on how the

temporary and permanent architecture work in Petaling Street which can’t

be found anywhere in any other places, where there’s this very unique way

of them co-exist under the same roof.

In Genius Loci by Christian Norberg-Schulz (1979), the phenomenon of place

can be in the form of tangible and non-tangible. Concrete term of environment

is place, which are the act and occurrences take place or evidently an integral

part of existence. Heidegger view towards phenomenology emphasizes on

comparison between the outside and inside; nature versus man-made; earth

and sky and etc. The comparison and versus method used by Heidegger has

led to the research question study on relationship between permanent and

temporary in KL Chinatown.

To be able to understand more about the relationship between the temporary

and permanent in Chinatown, 3 components of time, structural and program

has been structured for further investigation.

In journal on ‘Permanent versus Temporary’, the author written on how the

temporary architecture evolves through out the time trace up to Hellenic times

on its purpose and form. Today the industrial era is giving way to a

technologically inspired and knowledge-based society in which definitions of

concepts like ‘temporality’ and ‘permanence’ are again being redefined

(Edginton & Chen, 2008, 1-6). Architects are again fascinated by the idea of

temporality, to a degree not seen since the nineteen- sixties and -seventies,

when experimental design teams explored what Peter Cook, a member of

London’s Archigram, called “expendability” and “throwaway architecture”

(Hawthorne, 2008)

In the 1950s, the site was Chinese theatre called Madras Theatre.

Unfortunately, it was burnt down due to electrical short circuit which causing the

Madras Theatre to close down forever. It was a famous gathering spot for the

Chinese community to have fun and enjoy the show.

2.0 Theoretical Position & Design Statement


2.1 Design statement

Until today, most visitors perceive KL Chinatown as a pirated goods

shopping and food heaven, tend to forget about all the history and culture of

KL Chinatown. When it comes to business, almost all the happening once

are taking place in stalls and in temporary form instead of the permanent

shops behind them which causes the temporary structure and program to

slowly taking over the whole KL Chinatown. Exploration and analysis on the

relationship found between the permanent architecture and temporary

architecture that shape the cultural identity in KL Chinatown. By collecting

and analysing the characteristic found then translate into architecture design

by extracting the architectural quality points as reference. Performing centre

KL Chinatown architectural design proposes a building that, in its graphical

representation, a dialogue with the building that democratizes the views

towards the Jalan Sultan and is presented as a new architectural icon of KL

Chinatown. The idea is that the new performing facility will become a

meeting place for locals and tourists. The program includes short and long-

term exhibition areas, with a black box theatre that can host from 300 seats

up to 600 seats, commemorative museum, food and beverages serving the

local delicacy, studio spaces for practices, administrative rooms, library,

souvenirs shop, cafeteria, panoramic public space, balconies. The building

will have 4 floors, plus the 2 basements, ground floor and terrace.

The three-main aspect that I’ve explored from studying the relationship

between the permanent and temporary in KL Chinatown are:

The idea of expansion and borrowing happened throughout the KL

Chinatown, the expansion of the program and structure directly impact on

the morphology of the streetscape throughout the whole KL Chinatown. Due

to the idea expansion, the KL Chinatown always look different each hour

throughout the day

From a very empty street in the early morning, as the time passes, more and

more temporary structure pooping out from the permanent up to the street.

In designing of theatre, to be able to achieve flexibility to host different events

and more audience. The theatre design adapting the idea of expansion where

the theatre seats has been separated into 2 parts using movable acoustic

partition where the front parts able to host up to 330 audience and the

remaining part would be able to host another extra 300 audience which is with

the total of 600+ seats up to maximum extend. This is to adapt to different

needs and volume of different performances as some might come with super

large crowd of audience. Besides, the theatre is designed in such gigantic

volume as rumoured one of the biggest performing art centre in KL area “KL

PAC” to be closing down due to insufficient fund. So, the Madras 2.0 Performing

Theatre will play a big role in continuing to serve the theatre lovers around

Kuala Lumpur.

My research also centred around case study and work done by architects about

the idea of expansion, borrowed space and boundaries in both temporary

architecture and permanent architecture.

Studies on various writings and work done by architects:

1. Case study 1, Le Corbusier’s free plan (furniture boundary)

2. Case study 2 Ludwig Mies Van Der Rohe’s open plan (structure as

boundary)

3. Case study 2, SANAA (boundary)

4. Case study 3, Pompidou Centre by Richard Rogers & Renzo Piano

(temporary& permanent, borrowed space)

5. Case study 4, London Olympic Stadium by Populous (expendable

architecture)

6. Plugin Tower / People's Architecture Office (expendable architecture)


2.1 Design statement

The objectives are as follows:

1. To identify the characteristic found between permanent architecture and

temporary architecture in KL Chinatown by exploring and look into how both

permanent and temporary architecture work together on site in KL

Chinatown. On how their spaces work, what kind of structural used and

what kind of programs accommodate in what kind of architectural condition.

2. To understand how studying the relationship between both permanent and

temporary architecture in KL Chinatown can contribute designing

architecture by investigating the different possibilities to transform all unique

characteristics found as method in various modes then to explore how this

idea could apply to accommodate different functions, usage and needs in

contextualized form. Studying the relationship between them to find the

language of how characteristic found in KL Chinatown to form identity to

create spatial experiential spaces. Hence to explore how idea of harvesting

characteristic found can be transform and design to suit human scale and

interest.

3. To examine relationship between the unique characteristic harvested by

looking into the relationship between the permanent architecture and

temporary architecture in KL Chinatown. Which is to use identities and

relationship found as element to find out the potential interactivity in order to

explore how this idea could form the multiple layers of activities, functions,

usage and needs yet contextualized. Thus, to explore possibilities of

outcome to translate into designing performing facility in Madras Square.

The research question:

How does the phenomenon of symbiosis relation between the permanent

architecture and temporary architecture in Chinatown can be used in

designing performing facility that represent the cultural identity of KL

Chinatown?


1. Building breaks into 4 blocks for better & easier maintenance

• Cafe

• Commemorative museum

• Theatre block

• Library

2. The main program block is being placed at the most shaded part of the site, utilizing tall building

surrounding as shading.

3. Design with lesser openings on the east and west side of building to reduce heat gain into the

building.

4. Ground floor elevated and free to public, with high ceiling design and natural ventilated.

5. Shed roof design to minimize heat gain through roof.

6. The biggest tree remained and garden design in front of commemorative museum to cool the

building partially

7. Integrating rain water harvesting system into the building which helps to cut down clean water

usage.

8. Usage of double glazed glass to minimize solar heat gained through windows.

3.0 Environmental Analysis

Location of theatre block at the part where mostly shaded,The same location of the old Madras Theatre



CAFE Theatre block libraryCommemorativemuseum

Public spaces


4.0 Structural Analysis


5.0 Presentation & Drawings


Permanent in are diverse form and size, govern by a fixed language of temporary, unifying them

Layout and boundary of temporary and permanent architecture, studying circulation, human flow in between

the idea and characteristic of extension from the permanent architecture towards the temporary architecture


Ground Floor PlanScale 1:500


First Floor PlanScale 1:500


Third Floor PlanScale 1:500

Second Floor PlanScale 1:500


West ElevationScale 1:500

North ElevationScale 1:500

Eest ElevationScale 1:500

South ElevationScale 1:500


6.0 References

Borden, G. P. (2010). Material precedent: The typology of modern tectonics. Hoboken, NJ: John Wiley & Sons.

University of Pretoria. (n.d.). Chapter 2: Theoretical Approach. Retrieved from https://repository.up.ac.za/bitstream/handle/2263/30282/02chapter2.pdf?sequence=3

Tayyebi, F. (2012). Learning from everyday architecture. Flexible Spaces: Permanent and or Temporary. Retrieved from http://www.oikodomos.org/workspaces/app/webroot/files/deliveries/FARHAD23109_234_FlexibleSpaces.pdf

Norberg-Schulz, C. (1980). Genius loci: Towards a phenomenology of architecture. London: Academy Editions.

Vitruvius, P., Rowland, I. D., Howe, T. N., & Dewar, M. (1999). Vitruvius: Ten books on architecture. Pit, M., Steller, K., & Streng, G. (n.d.). Parasitic Architecture. Retrieved from http://www.gerjanstreng.eu/files/T02%20essay%20parasitic%20architecture.pdf

AD Classics: AD Classics: Centre Georges Pompidou / Renzo Piano Building Workshop + Richard Rogers. (2010, June 11). Retrieved from https://www.archdaily.com/64028/ad-classics-centre-georges-pompidou-renzo-piano-richard-rogers

AD Classics: Barcelona Pavilion / Mies van der Rohe. (2011, February 8). Retrieved from https://www.archdaily.com/109135/ad-classics-barcelona-pavilion-mies-van-der-rohe

Le, C., & Etchells, F. (2014). Towards a new architecture. Connecticut: Martino Publishing.

London Olympic Stadium / Populous. (2012, June 27). Retrieved from https://www.archdaily.com/247935/london-olympic-stadium-populous

Plugin Tower / People's Architecture Office. (2016, December 3). Retrieved from https://www.archdaily.com/800511/plugin-tower-peoples-architecture-office

Transformation of the former London 2012 Olympic Stadium [Video file]. (2015, September 22). Retrieved from https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1iYpODEoLd4
