Learning from Kisho Kurokawa: Asian public space is the street!

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We proposed a study on whether Malaysian architects, urban designers and planners refer to precedents of urban shophouses in the inner city streets of Malacca and George Town when coming up with concept and ideas in their work. Based on Michael Gibert's doctoral thesis, Kisho Kurokawa said that: "the difference between Western and Japanese concepts of space is the difference between spatial confrontation and spatial continuity", so do we Malaysian architectural designers think about these theories and put into practice and further that "the Japanese concept of space, on the contrary, reaches out to embrace nature, and to achieve unity and harmony with it, with always a conscious effort made to allow inner and outer space to inter-penetrate", so is that similar to our streets? I believe that the Malaysian precedents mentioned provided this sense of scale, intimacy, sense of proportion and materiality when I walked on those five-foot way and entering in and out those shophouses. Kurokawa also said: Asian public space is the street (no spatial or functional clear demarcations), and I felt that too when walking around in, it's close up and personal, but does that inspire Malaysian designers at all?
© 2021 Talk Architecture, Author: Naziaty Mohd Yaacob

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