Le Corbusier (1935) once called cities a place
of “anxiety and depression of modern life spring up afresh” by a growing city
that keeps filling up, building itself on top of itself like a towering cliff
and wrapped up in a maze of traffic. However, unlike the bustling Los Angeles
and Kuala Lumpur, the site in Terengganu is far from an Autopia as possible.
Its wide planes with scattered houses and different sizes of roads depending on
the legality of their purpose lacks the strength movement patterns created by a
freeway. Located fourteen kilometres from Kuala Terengganu town, the pacing of
the area around Pura Tanjung Sabtu become slower. Flanked by a river, the site
does not differ in movement to the water as very few people visit the area on
any day. This however, adds to the beauty of the place as it exudes a sense of
calmness that is near impossible to find in a hurried city like Kuala Lumpur
and Los Angeles. However, cities too could achieve a better sense of traffic
calmness with more focus on the inhabitants and proper planning (Jacobs, 1961).
Furthermore, the clean air sets itself apart
from the polluted cities. Cities shut out air that cause health issues
(Vitruvius, 2017), while places like Tanjung Sabtu take full advantage of
natural ventilation. This can be related directly to the community of Tanjung
Sabtu. The friendly people place nature and harmony with it as a priority. A
small example of this can be seen in the small white rocks lanes created by motorcycles
that create gentle patterns on the planes of the land. There is no need for
forcing tar on nature for every path, but rather naturally create paths that
can be easily taken over by nature if unused. This kind of adaptive and
flexible use of circulation is unique to these parts of Malaysia. This is in contrast
to the city as Le Corbusier (1935) describes them as “noisy, dusty, dangerous;
automobiles can scarcely do more than crawl along it; the pedestrians, herded
together on the sidewalks, get in each other’s way, bump into each other”.A lack of road signs was another huge contrast to cities like Los Angeles, where every turn is marked by a hideous sign that systematically eliminates your possibility of an adventure as people are always in a hurry to arrive before they have left. Instead, the occupants around Pura Tanjung Sabtu encourage the freedom of exploration along the different paths that bring you to beautiful corners surrounded by different kinds of natural phenomena’s. Accompanying these gentle roads are not flashy American made cars but rather humble motorcycles that allow people to experience the wind in their hair as they chat with friends, without helmets, riding along to a spot where they can just hang out. A sight as rare in the city as spotting a unicorn.
Pura Tanjung Sabtu itself, stands tall and
dominant among the whole site as though to exert its claim to the land. While
it is slowly deteriorating, its significance does not diminish nor can be
overlooked. Modelled after traditional vernacular architecture, the palace
sprawls on the landscape with seven separate spaces, linked by walkways. It too
encourages its visitors to soak in different perspectives of the palace at a
slow pace and brings warmth with its dark wood. Surrounded by nature, the
palace compliments its surrounding well and has preserved itself for centuries. First floor plan, show the linked walkway.While people are busy with their hectic lives in cities be it in Kuala Lumpur, Los Angeles or Paris, the real sense of character, beauty and humble acknowledgement of nature in tucked away in a place like Tanjung Sabtu. While I would not suggest mass tourism, as it usually discards the concerns of preservation, I would suggest that a little maintenance and publicity for Pura Tanjung Sabtu may bring new patterns of movement into this area and bring life to a sleepy town. Furthermore, as we develop our design, it would be good to work with the context and work with the historical significance of the palace, in spirit of the words by Adrian Forty (2000), “consider architecture as a dialogue with its surroundings, both in the immediate physical sense, but also as a historical continuum”.
Reference
Corbusier, L. (1935). The Radiant City. Orion Press: Hachette UK.
Jacobs,
J. (1961). The Death and Life of Great American Cities. Vintage Publishing:
London, United Kingdom.
Vitruvius,
M. (2017). The Ten Books on Architecture. Cambridge University Press:
Cambridge, United Kingdom.
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