The Urban Transcript: Reinterpreting Chow Kit Through Spatial Storytelling And Cultural Architecture | Bachelors Design Project

Site Context

The focus is Chow Kit, Kuala Lumpur: a district renowned for its dense market life and informal economies. Among its most iconic scenes is the display of replica gold jewellery—rows of counterfeit luxury pieces that lend the area a peculiar mix of superficial glamour and gritty authenticity. Yet it is precisely this commerce in low- to medium-income goods that defines Chow Kit’s character. The district thrives on spontaneity, social interaction, and an ever-evolving rhythm of activity. Its street life is raw, unfiltered, and alive—rooted in exchange, movement, and community.

The site’s proximity to a major transport node ensures high accessibility and connectivity, particularly with the nearby PWTC station, which provides a safe and walkable route for children commuting between home and the proposed learning centre. Despite this advantage, the site suffers from a degree of anonymity due to its enclosure by shophouses, lack of heritage conservation, and the dilapidated state of surrounding buildings. However, these conditions also present opportunities for revitalization. 

The proposal aims to utilize the underused urban spaces along the river beneath the LRT, activating these residual areas as part of the community network. While the adjacent high-rise structures obstruct portions of the skyline and reduce daylight penetration, the massing strategy responds by preserving a strong diagonal axis that gradually opens up to enhance daylighting and views. The design celebrates the exposure of existing party walls, retaining the heritage character and introducing a subtle “old-school” aesthetic within the new intervention. Additionally, a semi-circular amphitheatre opening towards the west riverside creates a direct spatial and visual connection with both the river and the LRT, fostering engagement and community presence along the waterfront.

Design Process

At this stage, the design has been developed through a series of drawings and physical models. The plaza design takes inspiration from the Charbagh garden, celebrating a strong central spine that emphasizes the promenade leading towards the building.

In terms of massing, the architectural form draws from WOHA’s tropical design principles, incorporating terraced platforms that respond to climate and topography while promoting visual porosity and greenery integration. Simultaneously, the design references Toyo Ito’s Sendai Mediatheque, adopting the idea of voids and airwells that penetrate the building to enhance natural ventilation, light, and spatial fluidity.

Final Outcome

The final outcome is void spaces with an open plan layout, allowing people to meander through spaces. The urban plaza takes inspiration from the Char Bagh garden to emphasize the processional route to the building.

In the final presentation, the design resolves itself around the void as both structure and experience, translating the earlier conceptual explorations into spatial reality. The Domino framework inspired by Le Corbusier is reinterpreted to support openness and flexibility, allowing the voids to act as moments of lightness, pause, and discovery within the grid. What began as a study of processional movement and spatial layering now culminates in an architecture that breathes, a composition where the axis, terrace, and void coexist to frame human experience. 

Conclusion: Ultimately, the project returns to its first intention: to craft a journey through space that reveals the poetic rhythm between solidity and emptiness, between the built and the lived.

[This Academic Project has been published with text and images submitted by the student]