By: Liang Cheng Hong 1001540005
From these few days walking along the petaling street, I was thinking about the petaling street still a petaling street? Or we think as an ‘’Old” petaling street. It was totally different from the past few years ago. That was something changing the petaling street. People, buildings, culture and the things that actually in petaling street were all gone. Each of the links with its connection were not longer existing. But it all just still remain in people memories. It was not totally a bad thing to change but it also not a good thing to disappear.
One of the biggest issue was the infrastructure. The infrastructure was played an important role in the petaling street. It made the place unique what petaling street was. Their architectural style was basically brought in by British to Malaysia. The infrastructure had deeply influenced of the combination of Malaya and Britsh. Bright colour tone, geometric design and ornamentation which was influenced by western country with the style combining traditional craft. This all of the combination of design building, we would as Baba Nyonya Style. It basically used in many building of the state in Malaysia. These kind of building or shophouses will be easily get found in Penang, Ipoh, Malacca and Kuala Lumpur. It was a part of character in Malaysia. The building came with normally two- storey high with a significant 5-foot-walkway. The façade of the building basically had three to four panel of windows decorated and the bottom would have a middle front door. Usually, there had a traditional Chinese signboard on the above.
Besides, time keep goes on. The “Old” should be replaced by the “NEW”. The concept had slowly taken by the mind of the people. It would be an evolve of the development. An old building kept its stories behind even though was partly demolished. Its personality created a creative interpretation and facts. A fully experiences of the building triggered the sensory of the people that came with a couple of complexity of sensation. Therefore, for the older generation in petaling street, they usually not able to keep making business for the shop and some are moving to somewhere else with their own family. For the younger generation, mostly of them were working oversea and some were like to keep the old building then begin their own new style of “petaling street”. I would be called as “Café-liness”. They would renovate the old building without changing its structure and raw walls but enhanced with particular material to keep remain of the sign of the years.