Kuala Lumpur Chinatown Pre-War Shophouses (Adaptive Re-Use) and City Image: Fid-Bau Portal

Kuala Lumpur Chinatown Pre-War Shophouses (Adaptive Re-Use) and City Image

Toong, Yong Seng / Utaberta, Nangkula

The terminology and concept of city image is very much related to good city planning and reflects strong image which, defined by Kelvin Andrew Lynch, a town-planner. He elaborates such terminology with regarding to people perception on urban space in term of city legibility and image-ability. Elizur who has classified city image as “rich” and “poor” in his study reminds of prototype and stereotype city place respectively. City image generally refers to the characteristic of a true urban image such as skylines, landmarks and panoramas. Architects, urban designers and town-planners play a crucial role in carrying out the task of shaping the city image. However, when discussion on city image which regards to economics point of view, city image could be interpreted as active use and passive use in accordance to a paper presented by some scholars. Active use means usage of the old buildings restoration and preservation which generates incomes to cover their building’s maintenance and expenses. Examples such as cafés, boutique hotels, art galleries. Conversely, passive use does not generate substantial income but contribute to and beneficial of the community. Examples such as community library, museums and other social activity buildings. Both active and passive use are portraying adaptive re-use of the old buildings. This paper unfolds the common ground which integrates adaptive re-use of pre-war shophouse buildings as architecture concept in Kuala Lumpur Chinatown (KLC) and contributing the city image under the term of conservation. The study is conducted with photographic records, on site study, observation (visual survey technique) and analysis.