Norwina Mohd Nawawi

Allusions to Mughal urban forms in the monumentality of Chandigarh’s capitol complex

AbstractThe formative influence of the Mughal gardens on the urban spaces of the Capitol Complex, Chandigarh is discussed as part of Le Corbusier’s vision in realising new urban symbols to represent an independent India. Corbusier had not only “regionalised” Modernist elements of architectural design but had “modernised” past urban forms by artfully rejecting the traditional gridded patterns and urban traditions such as the Mughal gardens, and transforming them into a dynamic restructuring and interplay of urban forms and spaces. To disassociate the new capital from its Colonial past and to create a new sense of spatial drama symbolising the nation’s hopes for the future, Fatehpur Sikri’s renowned orthogonal and gridded urban plazas with its interconnected courtyards and cloisters, became part of Corbusier’s arsenal of precedents, and these were abstracted and reworked into a new orchestration of urban spaces; and integrated with Modernised concrete architectural forms. The garden archetype and recurring ...

Criticality, Symbolic Capital and the High-Rise Form

This chapter uses the framework of the commercial office high-rise building to chart the evolution of regionalist and national ideas in forming an identity of the tropical through strategies ranging from an essentially climatic position to an essentially pastiche approach, and swinging towards an iconic approach in formal identity. Straddling these positions is the critical regionalist approach which is argued as a more layered, deeply thought-out approach. The chapter attempts to link the theoretical framework of critical regionalisms, their expressive outcomes and their link to built forms and physical expression in high-rise development.

The Regional and National Agenda in Urban-Architectural Identity through Conflicts and Conflations

This chapter reviews past themes and definitions and creates a framework around which the discussion and structure of the book is based. Several operational definitions are presented along with key issues that face architecture and urban form during a period of modernity. The conflicts and confluences between issues and discourses that swirl around regionalism and nationalist identity as a foundation for urban identity are presented. It sets out several themes in terms of theory and practice and the past debates that dichotomies have found their way into discussions on identity in the built environment in a post-colonial context of emerging nations. Modernity, regionalist identity, criticality and ‘modern’ architectural language are defined within an era of modernisation which throws such concepts and intentions into sharper relief.

The Transport Terminal: Marking National Landmarks

This chapter focuses on the role of transport hubs, namely central train stations and international airport terminals, in terms of form to create landmarks, and to fuse into the public’s memory the identity of a certain time and a certain place. They are able to converge key regional essences into structures that are remembered for, and evoke, national identity.

Regionalism in University Buildings: Tectonics, Form and Criticality

This chapter charts significant episodes of the evolution of critical regionalism in the form of university buildings, low rise and fragmented forms that the tectonics, details and constructional expression, rather than the iconic. The selected case studies based on the typology of university buildings are used as a framework on which to discuss and demonstrate the role and agility of the ‘tectonic’ approach as the medium to express a critical, yet more rooted approach to regional identity. Although often credited for their physical masterplan layout designs and initiatives, university buildings are often looked upon as regional and national archetypes which contain nuances of regional and global imagery in order to achieve national and universal scholastic identity. From the Brutalist language of the 1960s, through the tectonic richness of the Malay archetypes in the 1980s, and into the era of tropicalising an industrial aesthetic of the 1990s, these cases highlights the transformation made through an architectonic approach that grounds modern forms into variants of regional and national complexes.

The Mosque in a Multicultural Context: Modernity, Hybridity and Eclecticism

This chapter begins by reviewing the evolution of the mosque vocabulary by focusing on state and nationally-sponsored mosques. The trajectory of the discussion begins with the late colonial period in Malaysian history in order to trace key changes in the mosque vocabulary and link these with significant thresholds in the nation’s history. Mosque architectural language evolved as almost a mirror reflection of the history of modern Malaysia. This also sheds light on the meaning and persistence of the eclectic language in state-sponsored mosques and mosque form, language and style as reflections of the idea of modernisation and Modernism in the evolution of mosque styles. It is argued that these forms are sides of the same coin of modernity which encapsulated the nation at different thresholds of modernisation. Amongst others, it reviews eclecticism in mosques as expressions of a kind of modernity rather than tradition, and attempts to differentiate the expressive position of ‘modernising tradition’ or ‘regionalising the modern.’

The Tropical Metropolis: A Review of History, Identity and Climatic Idealisations in City Form

The chapter presents a series of thoughts and idealisations of a climatic approach to the urban form and layout of a dense metropolis in the tropics. Yet this must initially review the evolution of Kuala Lumpur as the capital city which is the confluence of a range of influences to urban form since it evolved from a conglomeration of modest rows of two- to three-storey shophouses to a large, dense cosmopolitan city with high-rises. The chapter discusses past theories of urban form, and how Modernist theories and ideas affect tropical preconceptions and conceptualisations of urban layout and massing in cities, and highlights a return to climatic principles that could fuse a concern for eroding cultural identity in cities yet involving climatic considerations in the making of urban spaces. These give indications of how past history can fuse with modernity and how it can integrate climatic elements and spatial forms using the principles and core consideration of climate.

Public Buildings of Early Independence: Conflations of Regionalism and National Identity

The chapter discusses key buildings of the early years of Independence, which had embraced the language of the International style, but embodied variants of tropical differentiations and indigenised departures of the style. These localised interpretations of the International style were seen as symbolic of a newly independent nation, which was the result of an earnest search to erase a colonial past and assert the optimism and progressiveness of a new world. Although such expressions of International style have gone out of fashion, these buildings are still representative and reminiscent of a national euphoria that is accepted and identified with a multicultural population.

Tracing the Influence of Stakeholders of the Nusantara Masjid Architecture

Masjids or mosques were built across the Malay Archipelago or the Nusantara, as a statement on the rise and strengths of the Islamic community since the arrival of Islam in the 1300s. As the latest religion to the South-East Asia after Hindu- Buddhist, the mass often discusses the form and make of the masjid but seldom question who’s who constitutes the design and the rigmarole of masjids. This paper aim at identifying the stakeholders of masjid architecture of Nusantara through analysing the involvement of stakeholders from historical and primary data, covering the process of initiation, through masjid construction including the conceptions and perceptions on the factors influencing the architecture of the masjid. The paper intents to demystify the sole responsibility of the architect in designing masjid of Nusantara region and places the will of Islam as the religion of initiation and stakeholders, whom are the rulers, scholars and common Muslims, as the Ummah, the reason of its make and form it is today.

An Analysis of Privacy in the Space Organisation of Traditional Malay Houses in Peninsular Malaysia

This study contested that privacy was important in the traditional Malay culture and was translated into the traditional Malay houses despite suggestions that privacy was not given emphasis in the traditional Malay society. The study employs analysis of plans of traditional Malay houses from different states in Malaysia to evaluate consideration for privacy in the traditional Malay houses in relation to the conception of privacy and privacy regulation in traditional Malay culture. The results show that privacy was provided in the traditional Malay houses consistent with the conception of privacy which emphasis on community intimacy, the role of women in the house, respect for elders and modesty. Privacy of individual privacy was not emphasised as in the Western cultures. Findings also indicated that different level of privacy was provided at both public and private level in the house through the space organisation, design of openings within each of the traditional Malay houses and regulated by traditional Malay culture which is coterminous with Islam as a way of life as important privacy regulating mechanisms. Differences in terms of level of privacy required influenced the traditional houses in different states.