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A LOOK INTO THE GREENEST CITY IN EAST ASIA, KUALA LUMPUR, AND ITS COMPARISON TO MANILA

Kuala Lumpur (fig. 1) is the Capital of Malaysia. It started as a small trading area from the confluence of two
river banks. The early Kuala Lumpur was a substandard town wherein houses were made from wood and a thatching
called atap, causing poor sanitary conditions. The engagement of the city in the Selangor Civil War resulted to a drop in
the economy. This made people to flee from the city. The early residents of Kuala Lumpur were of Chinese and Indian
descents. They segregated themselves along the east bank of Klang River in the city. After the war, implementations
were made to improve the city. This prompted to the "five-foot ways," which means the sidewalks are covered, are 5-
foot wide, and its pavements are made from brickworks (fig. 2). This later led to the establishment of shop houses.
These were comparable to what we call now mixed-use buildings. Commercial spaces ran along the sidewalks (Gullick,
1994). The town began to prosper more in business and later on, the population increased drastically over the years. It
started globalizing around 1980s with the “city within a city” movement (Bunnell & Morshidi, 2002). Today, Kuala
Lumpur is an established Global City and is the greenest city in east Asia.
Through its growth as a city, I think I can somehow apply the central place theory in its early years. The city only
had a population of 4,500 in 1884 and it grew up to 20,000 in just six years (Swee-Hock, 2015) during that boom in the
industry brought by Chinese businessmen. People flocked to the city even more as it gradually became the central
business district of Malaysia. As of now, the city has over 1 million residents (Department of Statistics Malaysia, 2017)
and it is perpetually striving as a global city. On the other hand, at present day, I think the city is of the multiple nuclei
model. From the early shop-houses, malls (fig. 3) started to proliferate. Kuala Lumpur is located in a densely forested
region. The greeneries go up to the business district areas and as a result, a lot of business parks are present (fig. 6).
Also, most of the housings are either detached or row houses (fig. 4) that are not located at the high-rise-saturated CBD
but rather along the forested areas of the city (fig. 5). From this, we can say that it doesn't only focus its economic
development at the CBD. In fact, only 12% of its regional employment is centered at the CBD (fig. 7) (Cox, 2013).
The way I see it, the development of Kuala Lumpur is somewhat the same with Manila. Both were subjected to a
post-war depression and later progressed under a ruler. Another thing is the presence of Chinese businessmen in the
development process of both cities. Kuala Lumpur also has their own Chinatown (Bristol & Lee, 1994). Chinese
merchants ruled their business development for a time, just like here. The ‘Old Manila’ areas also have the same
sidewalk structure as that of the early Kuala Lumpur’s. Today, both cities have a mass transit train. Although the result is
kind of far from each other— the core of Manila is far from what Kuala Lumpur has progressed to today. I think Manila
focuses too much on the CDB areas that's why it has a lot of substandard and forgotten areas surrounding it. It may look
like it follows the sector model but based on my further observations, it reflects the concentric zone model more. For
example, Malate (fig. 8) is able to sustain itself in this growing economy while the likes of Quiapo (fig. 9) and Escolta are
left rotting (I can consider Quiapo as still alive in terms of its business flow, but international businessmen opt to of
course start their business in, say, BGC); and the areas surrounding the CBD contain the blue-collar residential, like
Tondo. The upper class, meanwhile, choose to live away from Manila.
The surrounding cities of Manila, like Taguig and Cubao in Quezon City, have established these "new towns”
(Lico, 2008). Just like Kuala Lumpur, these places have malls and they reflect a capitalist urbanization. The good thing,
though, about Manila is that it stays true to its character. It doesn't look ‘artificial’ like the idealized global cities. Kuala
Lumpur has a man-made tropical rainforest at the middle of an urban city, trying to achieve a green global city, but the
original forested region and residential areas within give balance to the city.
PHOTOS

Fig. 1: Kuala Lumpur cityscape Fig. 2: A five-foot way along the main Fig. 3: Pavilion Mall, Kuala Lumpur
(https://c1.staticflickr.com/5/4703/258000975 street of Selangor, Malaysia. (https://d1bvpoagx8hqbg.cloudfront.net/
17_1cf727bec6_b.jpg) (https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File originals/a-detailed-review-pavilions-
:Five_foot_way,_Ampang,_Selangor.jpg) stores-restaurants-entertainment.jpg)

Fig. 4: Row Houses in Kuala Lumpur Fig. 5: Residential Area around the Fig. 6: Central Business District of
(http://www.newgeography.com/files/cox-kl- Forested part of Kuala Lumpur Kuala Lumpur
p2.jpg) (http://www.newgeography.com/files/cox (http://www.newgeography.com/files/cox
-kl-p1.jpg) -kl-p3.jpg)

Fig. 7: Kuala Lumpur Region Fig. 8: Roxas Blvd., Malate, Manila Fig. 9: Quiapo Market. Manila
Employment (2010) (https://d2v9y0dukr6mq2.cloudfront.net/vi (https://www.skyscanner.com.ph/wp-
(http://www.newgeography.com/files/cox- deo/thumbnail/HMxLEVvginb9ooy9/roxas- content/uploads/2018/05/quiapo.jpg?fit=
kl-5.png) boulevard-and-the-high-rising-buildings-of- 800,533)
malate-manila-
philippines_rbsac4em__F0000.png)
REFERENCES

 Bunnell, T., Barter, P. A., & Morshidi, S. (2002). Kuala Lumpur metropolitan area: A globalizing city–region.
Cities, 19(5), 357-370.
 Cox, W. (2011, April 24). The Evolving Urban Form: Manila. Retrieved September 23, 2018, from
http://www.newgeography.com/content/002198-the-evolving-urban-form-manila
 Cox, W. (2013, January 12). The Evolving Urban Form: Kuala Lumpur. Retrieved September 23, 2018, from
http://www.newgeography.com/content/003395-the-evolving-urban-form-kuala-lumpur
 Department of Statistics Malaysia. Federal Territory of Kuala Lumpur at a Glance. (n.d.). Retrieved September
23, 2018, from
https://www.dosm.gov.my/v1/index.php?r=column/cone&menu_id=bjRlZXVGdnBueDJKY1BPWEFPRlhIdz09
 Gullick, J. (1994). Old Kuala Lumpur. Oxford University Press.
 Ives, C., & Lechner, A. (2018, June 16). Southeast Asia's Urban Future: A Snapshot of Kuala Lumpur – The Nature
of Cities. Retrieved September 23, 2018, from https://www.thenatureofcities.com/2017/02/19/southeast-asias-
urban-future-snapshot-kuala-lumpur/
 Kelly, P. F. (2003). Urbanization and the politics of land in the Manila region. The Annals of the American
Academy of Political and Social Science, 590(1), 170-187.
 Lico, G. (2008). Arkitekturang Filipino: A history of architecture and urbanism in the Philippines. Diliman, Quezon:
University of the Philippines Press.
 Reed, R. (1978). Colonial Manila: The context of Hispanic urbanism and process of morphogenesis. California:
University of California Press.
 Swee-Hock, S. (2015). The population of Malaysia (2nd ed.). Singapore: ISEAS Publishing.
 Yator, G. (2013, June 18). Urban Planning theories and models. Retrieved September 23, 2018, from
https://www.slideshare.net/bgeffa/urban-models-23134278

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