Kuala Lumpur, the capital city of Malaysia, is a former colony of the British Empire which today prides itself in being a multicultural society par excellence. However, the Islamisation of the urban landscape, which is at the core of Malaysia’s decolonisation projects, has marginalised the Chinese urban spaces which were once at the heart of Kuala Lumpur. Engaging with complex colonial and postcolonial aspects of the city, from the British colonial era in the 1880s to the modernisation period in the 1990s, this book demonstrates how Kuala Lumpur’s urban landscape is overwritten by a racial agenda through the promotion of Malaysian Architecture, including the world-famous mega-projects of the Petronas Twin Towers and the new administrative capital of Putrajaya. Drawing on a wide range of Chinese community archives, interviews and resources, the book illustrates how Kuala Lumpur’s Chinese spaces have been subjugated. This includes original case studies showing how the Chinese re-appropriated the Kuala Lumpur old city centre of Chinatown and Chinese cemeteries as a way of contesting state’s hegemonic national identity and ideology. This book is arguably the first academic book to examine the relationship of Malaysia’s large Chinese minority with the politics of architecture and urbanism in Kuala Lumpur. It is also one of the few academic books to situate the Chinese diaspora spaces at the centre of the construction of city and nation. By including the spatial contestation of those from the margins and their resistance against the state ideology, this book proposes a recuperative urban and architectural history, seeking to revalidate the marginalised spaces of minority community and re-script them into the narrative of the postcolonial nation-state.

This book explores how Malaysia, as a multicultural modern nation, has approached issues of nationalism and regionalism in terms of physical expression of the built environment. Ever since the nation’s post-Colonial era, architects and policy makers have grappled with the theoretical and practical outcomes of creating public architecture that effectively responds to traditions, nationhood and modernity. The authors compile and analyse prevailing ideas and strategies, present case studies in architectural language and form, and introduce the reader to tensions arising between a nationalist agenda and local ‘regionalist’ architectural language. These dichotomies represent the very nature of multicultural societies and issues with identity; a challenge that various nations across the globe face in a changing environment. This topical and pertinent volume will appeal to students and scholars of urban planning, architecture and the modern city.

Arguably Southeast Asias most spectacular city, Kuala Lumpur widely known as KL has just celebrated 50 years as the national capital of Malaysia. But KL now has a very different twin in Putrajaya, the countrys new administrative capital. Where KL is a diverse, cosmopolitan, multi-racial metropolis, Putrajaya fulfils an elitist vision of a Malay-Muslim utopia. The purity of Putrajaya throws the cosmopolitan diversity of Kuala Lumpur into sharp relief, and the tension between the two places reflects the rifts that run through Malaysian society.

This book provides a bidirectional investigation of Asia’s spatiotemporality by asking how Asia is located and how localities are Asianized. The author examines “display-ness” as a theoretical common divisor and argues that Asia’s architectural and urban spectacle is as meaningful and significant as an indicator of Asia’s postcolonial condition.

Applied Urban Design combines 'why' we design and 'who' we design for, with 'how' we design, by providing the reader with a comprehensive and accessible bespoke framework for both understanding and practicing urban design in a contextually responsive manner from appraisal to design delivery. The framework is presented across four distinct steps, covering analysis at strategic and local scales; the urban design program; design development; and technical design. The authors unpack the functional blueprints, liveable qualities, contextual dynamics, and technical components of quality urban design, identifying the role of urban designers in shaping spaces and places across differing local contexts through a responsive and multiscalar approach. International best practice examples and two original ‘live’ case studies in Aalborg, Denmark and Manchester, UK demonstrate the application of the framework across differing scales and contexts – each supported by authors own images and graphics that illustrate the broad range of urban design visualisation techniques and methods. Visually compelling and insightful, Applied Urban Design is for all who seek to understand, demand, and create people-centred, high-quality, contextually responsive places and spaces.