Project 1: Reading the Contexts of Traditional Street

Place identity is constructed on meanings that were shaped through socio-cultural, economics and political factors throughout a particular period of time. Such meanings are often embodied in the physical and non-physical aspects. In the context of traditional streets in a rapidly globalized city like Kuala Lumpur, changes in physical settings through urban developments may pose significant impacts on their established meanings. This project introduces ways of reading the important “lexicons” of traditional streets through the tangible qualities of architecture and space, and the intangible socio-cultural attributes. It enables students to understand the specific contexts that construct the distinctive place identity and socio-cultural meanings of the traditional streets.